The Eagle Review

4/5

Varrus, give me back my…Eagle?

[WARNING]: This review contains explicit and disturbing references to the acting ability of Channing Tatum, parental caution is advised.

To my mind there have been few truly great historical action-adventures in the last couple of years and not since the days of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator over a decade ago now, have we seen anything spectacular in that mould, at least not in a Roman Context. That is not to say that the Eagle is the film to fill that void, but it certain does scratch the same itch, if not to the same extent, and it is definitely better than Centurion.

The film follows in the aftermath of the 9^th legion’s mysterious disappearance into the north of England around 117 AD, which has its basis in fact (or at least some kind of semi-fact) and its story is taken from the novel, ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’ from the 50’s, the second film to base itself upon said legion with the Centurion being released last year. The plot follows the son of the commander of that legion, Marcus Aquila, played by a scarily active (in the fact that he is actually attempting to act) Channing Tatum, who has arrived in Britain with the quest of finding out what happened to his father and reclaiming his honour by taking back the lost Eagle of the 9^th. Roman themed escapades ensue, and after some initial peril befalling our hero, he finally sets out on his quest to recover the eagle under the guide of his newly saved-from-death slave, Esca, played by Jamie Bell of Billie Eliott fame (though sadly there is little ballet involved).

It is the relationship between these two characters that provides the basis for much of the film, and the slave/master dynamic works well, especially when this is reversed at a later stage. This relationship is most interesting when the social background of the two clash, Esca being a native who has had to suffer under Roman rule, and of course Marcus himself being Roman. At first I was worried that they would depict the ‘savages’ as just that, but in Esca we get to see another side to the story and come to understand the savagery of the Roman’s themselves, which Marcus does not at first come to accept, but, not all surprisingly, seems to by the end. This interesting view of the Romans is depicted by others also, especially when they encounter the dreaded blue-faced ‘Seal’ tribe and Marcus is caught look at one of the men’s sisters, he reacts badly saying in his native tongue that the Romans are savages and he knows what they do to women and hence does not trust Marcus around the women of the tribe. Such interesting insights, though interesting, are few in number and could have possibly been extended to a greater effect.

The story remains pretty true to the stated formula of finding the lost Eagle and the moments of action are equalled by a number of slower moments involving a lot of searching round the barren wastes of the north and asking mud-covered locals of the whereabouts of the lost legion and their golden eagle. There is enough action though to keep the pace up, even if sometimes it seems to have been added just for the hell of it, because action films need action! Most of the action is quick and quite brutal (heads will indeed roll), even with the low rating, though is heavily concentrated at the beginning and the end of the film. The film certainly opens strongly, seeing Marcus and his newly acquired Fort battling against the understandably angry locals. This is definitely the best part, in terms of action, and disappointingly nothing really compares to this, even nearing the end.

That said, the action is enjoyable and also seemingly authentic, at least to my non-Roman studied mind. Despite the seemingly small budget of only 15 million the props and costumes are excellent and really add to the atmosphere of the film (Though the majority may be distracted by the Nazi style salutes; I’m assured that the Roman’s got there first!), though this diminishes in the latter part when much of the Roman armour is replaced by mud covered furs.

The extras are numerous but in truth there are relatively few characters of note, though this does not detract from the films quality. Channing seems comparable in the role and his certainly plays the brooding Roman rather well in my mind, though at points his character seems rather stupid, especially when he thinks Esca has turned against him when he quite obviously hadn’t, though this is more a fault of the story than of Channing’s performance. Jamie Bell is also good in his role as Esca, especially in portraying the conflict within himself about aiding a roman, though by the end this conflict is quickly resolved in a rather cliché honour filled speech as is common place in many of these kinds of films. Donald Sutherland is probably the only other participant of note, playing Marcus’s uncle, though he is present only for a portion of the film, and probably the slowest a least exciting portion at that. Nonetheless his portrayal of the aging Roman is done well and serves the plot, if only for a short while. Mark Strong fulfils a similar role, playing a lost roman legionary turned native, and he too is comparable in his role, though again he too serves as little more than a device to push forward the plot more than anything else.

The main threat comes in the way of numerous unidentified natives for the majority of the plot, though we do meet with a scarily blue-faced (and some what avatar reminiscent) natives known as the Seal people. They serve their role as the agitators well, though in comparison to the other natives already met, and those from the beginning of the film, they seem out of place, though this may have been an attempt to distinguish the southern English tribes and those of the far north and to give them some character, after all mud covered people like those from Braveheart aren’t the most exciting of enemies.

In the end the Eagle does what it does very well, though it does not stray too far from the accepted formula and you can pretty much guess the ending before you get there. There is nothing shockingly amazing here, but there is nothing shockingly awful either and it is certainly one of the better historically based action films in recent times. After all, Roman dudes cutting off limbs and stabbing unidentified native Briton’s in the face can never be bad…right?