April 4, 2011
Everything about this movie is perfect and I loved every second of it. Cannot recommend it highly enough, but go see it quick before it disappears as it can't be described as mainstream. It's an old-fashioned testosterone-driven tale about honour and friendship and loyalty and courage, but beautifully and powerfully done, so much more than a sword and sandals epic.
Produced by Duncan Kenworthy (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill) it couldn't be further from his previous oeuvre, and the reason for this is that it is based on a book he has loved since childhood, Rosemary Sutcliff's stunning classic The Eagle of the Ninth, first published in 1954. Kenworthy has been after the rights to this book for the last fifteen years, and was absolutely determined to get them and make the movie, and now he has done it.
He has made a brilliant adaptation which draws delicate parallels between the might of imperial Rome and US foreign policy even as it shows a much more intimate and nuanced story, the developing respect and friendship between two natural enemies, a Roman master and a British slave. In between it asks many profound questions, such as what is the price of civilisation, should personal loyalty outweigh loyalty to kin, tribe or country, and what is the point of honour.
Channing Tatum is perfectly cast as young Roman officer Marcus Flavius Aquila - he even looks Roman, his face a superb chiselled block emanating a brooding stoicism but occasionally leaking flashes of profound emotion (yes, he can actually act). His perfect counterfoil is Jamie Bell as Esca, the British slave whom Marcus saves from death in the arena. Both have lost a great deal and are fuelled by gigantic anger; Marcus is well-nourished, well-trained, even indoctrinated, and towers over the wry, spry, irreverent and questioning Esca. Neither can be parted from their sense of honour, and they learn much about one another on their terrifying journey into the wild country beyond Hadrian's Wall in search of the missing Eagle of the Ninth Legion.
I could witter on about it all day, but I will shut up now, and simply urge you to go and see it as soon as possible!
Produced by Duncan Kenworthy (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill) it couldn't be further from his previous oeuvre, and the reason for this is that it is based on a book he has loved since childhood, Rosemary Sutcliff's stunning classic The Eagle of the Ninth, first published in 1954. Kenworthy has been after the rights to this book for the last fifteen years, and was absolutely determined to get them and make the movie, and now he has done it.
He has made a brilliant adaptation which draws delicate parallels between the might of imperial Rome and US foreign policy even as it shows a much more intimate and nuanced story, the developing respect and friendship between two natural enemies, a Roman master and a British slave. In between it asks many profound questions, such as what is the price of civilisation, should personal loyalty outweigh loyalty to kin, tribe or country, and what is the point of honour.
Channing Tatum is perfectly cast as young Roman officer Marcus Flavius Aquila - he even looks Roman, his face a superb chiselled block emanating a brooding stoicism but occasionally leaking flashes of profound emotion (yes, he can actually act). His perfect counterfoil is Jamie Bell as Esca, the British slave whom Marcus saves from death in the arena. Both have lost a great deal and are fuelled by gigantic anger; Marcus is well-nourished, well-trained, even indoctrinated, and towers over the wry, spry, irreverent and questioning Esca. Neither can be parted from their sense of honour, and they learn much about one another on their terrifying journey into the wild country beyond Hadrian's Wall in search of the missing Eagle of the Ninth Legion.
I could witter on about it all day, but I will shut up now, and simply urge you to go and see it as soon as possible!
