Writing about The Eagle film of Rosemary Sutcliff‘s historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth movie editor Barbara Vancher of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interestingly picks up on the remarkable imagination of a severely disabled author. She comments that, shot in Hungary and Scotland:

The Eagle takes flight near the end when the young men have a chance to test their skills as strategists, survivalists, leaders and friends.

With ritualistic tribal dances in what is now the Scottish Highlands and breathless chases and battles, it’s all the more remarkable considering that Ms. Sutcliff contracted a wasting disease at age two and spent most of her life in a wheelchair. But her imagination soared like an eagle.
Source: Uneven ‘Eagle’ finally takes flight in second half.

• Rosemary Sutcliff writes about being an author with physical disabilities

In the new film The Eagle, based upon Rosemary Sutcliff‘s The Eagle of the Ninth – historical novel for children,  young adults and indeed adults – Director Kevin McDonald:

… does an amazing job of recreating Roman life in lower Brittany, staging battles and creating a tribe of “Seal people” with a budget somewhere south of $25 million. According to Richard Billows, a professor of Roman history at Columbia University, who attended the film with us, about the only thing McDonald got seriously wrong was a brief moment in a battle scene where Marcus instructs his men to retreat in the face of a charging chariot…Centurions were trained to form a wall and stand their ground, thereby forcing the horse to stop in its tracks.
Source: Review: “The Eagle” Soars | NBC Connecticut.

• More on the film, movie The Eagle from The Eagle of the Ninth on this blog

The Eagle is a vivid and at times lucid action adventure, a step above Ridley Scott‘s Robin Hood, owing more to Terrence Malick with a nod to Italian neorealism than anything else. The true star of the production is Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography, capturing with a sense of spontaneity light and dark, interior and exterior and especially moonlight, beautifully.

… The film’s director, Kevin Macdonald, holds the line and never permits the film to become a “buddy road movie.” Indeed this is a rarity in a system of manufacturing film product. That said, the film edges towards poetics while holding that line between hybrid spiritual and action-adventure journey.

… As a political thriller The Eagle is not a misfit – the film is an exploration of the notion of ‘national state.’ It’s an idea that exists within the hearts and minds of those that believe to belong to such a unit, artificial or officially bordered.

… Macdonald  … (keeps)  the drama and the action where it belongs, at human scale.

… the moments edging towards the epic battles contain an atmosphere all their own, a refreshing humanistic approach to the genre.

… The Eagle is just smart enough to operate without the auto-pilot function of many action adventures where you simply don’t care what happens next.

Source: Review by John Fink of The Eagle film based on The Eagle of the Ninth novel

• More on The Eagle of the Ninth film and book on this blog
• Trailer for the film The Eagle
• Focus Features microsite on The Eagle film