MacDonald, a Scotsman and long-time fan of the novel (The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff), does the source material proud with a visually exquisite and painstakingly detailed portrait of his homeland’s chaotic history.
Along the way, he also spins an engrossing tale of unlikely brotherhood and survival amidst a wilderness of foes, real and imagined. Not all of The Eagle’s 114 minutes work perfectly, but in an era of overproduced special effects it is refreshing to see a film where the locations actually exist, those armies are really there, and death isn’t just a clever transition to the next scene.
Month: February 2011
Is The Eagle from Silchester (inspiration for Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth) the eagle standard of the ninth legion??
A great visit to Silchester yesterday, organised for journalists covering The Eagle film … I saw for the first time the Silchester Eagle, in the museum in nearby Reading. It was smaller than I imagined. It was the artefact that, with the mystery of the disappearance of the ninth legion from military records, stimulated Rosemary Sutcliff to imagine her bestselling The Eagle of the Ninth historical novel. Read More »
Living and being creative in Rosemary Sutcliff’s house in Walberton, Sussex
Much is written about the ‘community’ and ‘interactivity’ of social networks and blogs, not all of it convincing. But my hope when I started working more vigorously last year on this blog was that, over time, there might evolve a sense of connectedness if not community around Rosemary Sutcliff‘s work and life. So thank you those of you who regularly comment here, or tweet me, or retweet something. And all manner of fascinating posts turn up on the ‘You Write’ tab. Thus today it was a delightful surprise to read a post from Stephen Walby:
We live in Rosemary’s old house in the lovely Sussex village of Walberton. Rosemary lived here until she died in 1992. She is very fondly remembered here, having been an active member of village life. Our next door neighbours daughter remembers coming to the house to help out and many other villagers have stories to tell, we have heard how Rosemary would welcome groups of children from the village school for talks. Read More »
Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth in twenty languages
This is a fully up to date listing of all nineteen languages that Rosemary Sutcliff‘s The Eagle of the Ninth has been published in, in addition to the OUP editions in English. (This listing is from OUP)
English (UK hardback special edition) – Folio Society
English (audiobook – straight reading) – Naxos Audio Books
English (audio – dramatisation) – BBC/AudioGo
English (India) – Penguin India
English (USA) – Square Fish (an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Brazilian Portuguese – Editora Record
Czech – BB Art
Danish – P. Haase & Sons (out of print)
Dutch– Leopold
German – Verlag Freies Geistesleben
Spanish – Plataforma Editorial
French – Gallimard Jeunesse
Greek – Aiora Press
Hungarian – Alexandra Konyveshaz Kft.
Italian – Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
Japanese – Iwanami (out of print)
Korean – Sigongsa
Polish – Wydawnictwo Telbit
Portuguese – Gradiva Publicacoes
Romanian – Editura Litera International
Russian – Azbooka-Atticus
Serbian – Laguna
Swedish – Forlaget Barnstenen (out of print)
Thai – NanMee Books
Turkish – Ithaki Publishing
(I am in the process of tracking down all the websites for the publishers/foreign editions: all help welcome. Post links at comments please!)
The Eagle film second only to The King’s Speech on Lawton favourability index!
Of course, I have been keen to see how The Eagle film, based upon Rosemary Sutcliff‘s book The Eagle of the Ninth, has been ‘doing’ since its release, and how it has been received. (My amalgam of particularly favourable initial reviews is here – under the title “The Eagle is a ‘rip-snortin’ ‘real winner’ with an ‘unusually strong sense of place …’ “!). Judging by the amount of money being taken at the box office in the USA in its first few days, The Eagle has certainly done less well than various competing films – competing in the sense that they too are in cinemas. But judging by the high popularity of the film once people do see it, maybe that is a result of the marketers not getting enough people to the movie in the first place? And maybe that is a result of failing to make enough people aware of the film and want to see it in advance of release? And maybe that would not have been the case if they had stuck with the more memorable The Eagle of the Ninth as a title? Read More »
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 