The Eagle (2011)
Directed by Kevin Macdonald
In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca, Marcus sets out across Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia - to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth.
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6 films that influenced The Eagle
What critics say influenced The Eagle
Recall that in " Gladiator ," after a rip-roaring battlefield prelude, Russell Crowe 's Maximus had slowly to recover from near-death before he could take up his relentless quest for vengeance.
But while he ain’t exactly Russell Crowe in Gladiator , Tatum acquits himself admirably here, in a film that clearly intends to ensure Hollywood cheese is the last thing that comes to mind... and it succeeds admirably, too.
The Eagle sticks close to its source material, which should stand it in good stead overseas but will do little for the U.S. market, given that the American conception of those first few centuries A.D.—to the degree that there is one—is equal parts Gladiator and Camelot.
Built around puffed up, misplaced notions of honor and bravado, it plays out like a cross between "Gladiator" and "Braveheart" -- and "Where's Waldo?"
The movie owes clear debts to "Gladiator," though the producers also cite the Stanley Kramer drama "The Defiant Ones" as an inspiration.
Sword-and-sandal howlers like these often overpower the best elements of The Eagle, a bloodless version of 300 and Gladiator, both of which clearly inspired the filmmakers, with the emphasis on honour and the brotherhood of the sword.
Macdonald goes deeper into the history books for "The Eagle," a sturdily wrought adventure about the Roman occupation of Britain that is like "The First King of Scotland" meets "The Last of the Mohicans."
Much of the scenery and action in “The Eagle” recall not classic ancient Roman-set films, but “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Drums Along with Mohawk.”
We accepted Russell Crowe in Gladiator and Malcolm McDowell in Caligula; we did not accept John Wayne as the Centurion overseeing Christ’s crucifixion in The Greatest Story Ever Told (you haven’t lived until you hear The Duke drawl, “Truly, this man was the son of God”).
The cultural trappings (costumes, music, Celtic languages, pagan rituals) are nicely authentic (though the painted Picts look like refugees from Burning Man), and a terrific climactic battle scene conjures John Boorman's Excalibur.
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Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2009) If ever a film demands a second viewing, it's this one: It's savage and horrifying and wicked and funny in the same vein of humor that could also find Dead Baby Jokes funny (i.e. the subject matter isn't funny, but the mere nature of it, being so sensational and offensive, is), and on top of it all, it completely denies us of context, outside the elasticity for good and bad held by the human spirit.
Bell (Jumper) plays the local slave and friend with laudable intensity, and ends up stealing quite a few scenes.
But he lost his charisma -- he appeared shrimpy in Jumper (2008).