Kevin Macdonald's trip back to Roman Britain is an attractive and atmospheric film that, while feeling rather episodic in nature, more than makes up for it with its stunning locations and gritty action. Beefcake Channing Tatum plays Marcus Aquila, a new Roman commander who chooses to take up a post in the back end of nowhere in Britian. His reason? His dad was commander of the Ninth, a division of centurians who went missing in the North, leading to the disappearance of their gold Eagle standard. This has brought shame on the family and when Marcus hears that the location of the standard may be among a tribe of fearsome paint covered nutters in the Highlands he decides to retrieve it, leaving the relative safety of Southern Britain and crossing Hadrian's Wall into the North with only his servant, the Britan Esca (Jamie Bell) for company. But can Marcus trust his surly charge?
MacDonald's picture of Roman Britian is at once familiar and alien, totally conveying what a mysterious and dangerous place this island once was. Centurians row up overgrown rivers that evoke the Amazon and ferocious Britans attack the Roman fort in the middle of the night. This is a country where the occupiers only just manage to keep the lid on their seething subjects. The sets and costumes are suitably grimy and the sound conveys every creak of leather and sigh of a scared centurian (in one scene, a young soldier vomits in fear before the gates are opened for them to engage the hostile Brits). The battle scenes are brutal and close up with the faces of murderous natives glimpsed through chinks in the soldiers' shield wall. Marcus is injured during this battle and is honourably discharged, ending up convalesing with Donald Sutherland's uncle. It is here that Marcus intervenes, saving slave Esca from being killed in the local arena by a gladiator. Although hating all things Roman, the slave pledges to serve Marcus.
The main fault of the film is a lack of focus; is The Eagle about the plight of the Romans in Britain, the story of how two different cultures rub up against each other, a story of family redemption or a mismatched buddy film, with Marcus and Esca starting out foes but ending up allies? The makers try to have their cake and eat it so that the film feels more like a spliced together mini-series than a coherent film. However, when a film looks this good and has such an eye for detail (the battlefield of the Ninth, all skeletons and armour overgrown with moss and lichen is both horrific and strangely beautiful) you're happy to let the absence of plot progression pass. What is more difficult to accept, however, is that our two heroes on horses can be matched by the tribe simply running from the Highlands and that said tribe have the puff to put up a fight against the newly reformed remnants of the Ninth (including Mark Strong in a silly wig). These elements mean The Eagle falls short of greatness but it is still a very enjoyable and visually rich experience with good work from Tatum and Bell as the main leads.
GK Rating: **** The Blog of Delights
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