Interesting interview on Scottish television with Scot director Kevin MacDonald of The Eagle film based on Rosemary Sutcliff‘s historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth … here.
More about the film The Eagle based on the book The Eagle of the Ninth on this blog
Ben Kane could not resist commenting on his website on Friday 25th March, with apologies to Jack Higgins, that “The Eagle had landed”.
Well, today’s the day, folks, when the film version of our dearly beloved book, recently renamed The Eagle, hits cinema screens all over the UK. Directed by Kevin McDonald of The Last King of Scotland, it was filmed in the Scottish Highlands and parts of eastern Europe. The reviews are flooding in thick and fast on Rosemary Sutcliff’s site, and they mostly seem good. One reader has posted here (on my site) that it’s really great too. I find my hopes rising… Sadly, I won’t get to see it until next week. I can’t wait!
I am intrigued to learn what Ben, as well as all who visit this site, think of the film as well as Rosemary’s many different books. Meanwhile, I note that actually The Eagle of the Ninth has not been “renamed The Eagle”; it is just that the version of the paperback designed to ‘tie-in’ with the film cleverly uses both titles!
Ben Kane’s own novel The Silver Eagle was named in homage to Rosemary, referring to both The Eagle of the Ninth and to The Silver Branch. Ben is an acclaimed author of Roman novels, who recently posted on his own website an homage to Rosemary Sutcliff which concludes:
I wasn’t made aware of quite how deep The Eagle of the Ninth had sent roots into my mind until, at the age of 31 and more than twenty years after I’d read the book, I first set my eyes on the incredible structure that is Hadrian’s Wall.
Seeing the wall silhouetted along the skyline sent an electric shock down my spine. Almost at the same time, my love of Rome was rekindled, and I decided on the spot to write a novel about Roman soldiers serving on the wall. While that novel didn’t quite make the cut, my next one did. Since then I haven’t stopped writing, or spreading the word about the wonderfully written masterpiece that is The Eagle of the Ninth.
Source: A homage to Rosemary Sutcliff – Ben Kane.
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!
Directed by Kevin Macdonald, who previously brought us The Last King Of Scotland and State Of Play, The Eagle’s opening scene is one of the best you’re likely to see all year.
As Marcus’s legion comes under attack from local warriors, swords slice through flesh, horses’ hooves thunder and limbs snap. It’s breathtaking stuff.
In fact, Marcus’s whole odyssey is highly watchable. The relationship between him and his slave is nicely fleshed out and things never getting boring thanks to a big dose of action.
The plentiful use of shaky camerawork really puts you right in the middle of every scene and gives The Eagle a thrilling immediacy.
Source: The Eagle **** (12A) – The Daily Record.
One US reviewer, MaryAnn Johanson, was “not looking forward with a great deal of anticipation to seeing lunkhead Channing Tatum as a soldier in Roman-era Britain”. However she writes at the start of her review “Color me surprised and impressed”! She writes that The Eagle film from Rosemary Sutcliff‘s novel The Eagle of the Ninth is
… a film that clearly intends to ensure Hollywood cheese is the last thing that comes to mind … and it succeeds admirably, too. Working from the young-adult novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, director Kevin Macdonald and screenwriter Jeremy Brock have crafted an earnest period action drama that stubbornly clings to old-fashioned craftsmanship in character and storytelling … a radical notion at the moment
MaryAnn Johanson thinks “Channing Tatum acquits himself admirably ” as Marcus, a “newly minted Roman soldier”, and that:
.. it’s not with any cruelty or spite that we are presented with the subtle lessons as Marcus gets in perspective: that even an enemy can be honourable, that civilisation is in the eye of the beholder. For as Marcus journeys into darkest Scotland in search of the eagle, and his family’s reputation – accompanied by Esca, a native slave who despises everything Marcus stands for – he gets a smackdown to his arrogance and his ignorance. Vital to the film’s own sense of honour, however, is that Marcus, though he gets a taste of humility and a slightly wider worldview, is never required to be a traitor to his own ideals. It’s a nicely nuanced outlook for a deceptively simple story to take.
Source: The Eagle (review) | MaryAnn Johanson’s FlickFilosopher.com.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 