Katie A Green commented on an internet review of  The Eagle:

I’ll admit, I started loathing this film from first glance at movie-image re-printed books, as a from-early-childhood lover of the novel (and no great Tatum enthusiast). Then I saw it.

And loved it for the exact same reasons you’ve described: the rather refreshing old-fashioned approach, as well as the complete lack of overwrought CGI, and the way the muddy landscape is truly a character force of its own. It was a much more damp and rather less romantic world than Gladiator portrayed, I felt. I ended up seeing it three times– not because it was the Best Movie Ever, but because for me the “escape” into a completely raw and physical world (where relationships are defined by touch and strife and distance) was as deeply refreshing for me the Pandora of Avatar was for larger audiences …
Source: The Eagle (review) | MaryAnn Johanson’s FlickFilosopher.com.

I asked Katie if I could reproduce the comment above, and as well as saying yes – as you can see – she wrote:

I’ve been to this site a few times, in fact. Her books were not only a phenomenal introduction to literature for me (I read The Eagle of the Ninth when I was eleven), but shaped my later interests and academic paths. I read Y Goddin and studied Anglo-Saxon Literature at Oxford – because of The Shining Company. Because of Sun Horse Moon Horse, Outcast, The Lantern Bearers – the list goes on.

More than anything, I hope the motion picture brings some of her out of print books back into print. It is the rare writer, these days, who bring Sutcliff’s beautiful prose and deep comprehension of human nature to “children’s” literature.

We will be working hard to encourage some of those book back into print. I will keep you posted here!

• More on The Eagle of the Ninth film and book on this blog
• More about being inspired and influenced by Rosemary Sutcliff