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.
Category: Radio, TV, Film, Video, Internet
SEE IT! says MaryAnn Johanson’s review of The Eagle
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 on local radio in Britain
Yesterday was an exhausting round of radio interviews about Rosemary Sutcliff, the book The Eagle of the Ninth, and the film The Eagle. But not an exhausting round of radio studios. Oxford University Press had organised for me to spend the time in just one studio in central London (at thebroadcasters.co.uk) being hooked up successively – sometimes live and sometimes for a ‘pre-recorded’ item – to some twelve local radio stations from Somerset to The Isle of Man, and from Guernsey to Cumbria. It was fun, but it really was exhausting. And just a little trying on occasion, biting my tongue whilst subtly trying in one live interview to correct one interviewer who rhymed ‘ninth’ with ‘plinth’ as if he thought the film was maybe The Eagle of the Ninjas, and in the next breath asked me what Rosemary Sutcliff (died 1992) thinks (in the present tense, not “might have”) of the film. Hey Ho.
The Stations were: Cheshire FM (presenter: Big Al), Radio Cardiff (Jane Morris) , Sheffield Live (Luke Crofts), BBC Radio Guernsey (Jenny Kendall-Tobias) , Manx Radio (Bob Harrison), BBC Radio Bristol (Peter Rowell), Swansea Sound (Kevin Johns), BBC Radio Cumbria (Gordon Swindlehurst), ALL FM 96.9 (Manchester; Kate Moore), BBC WM (Birmingham and The Black Country; Paul Franks), BBC Radio Solent (Katie Martin), Big City Radio (Birmingham; John Taylor). Some of the interviews went out live during the day; others were pre-recorded for later yesterday or today (Friday). (I will work on the links!)
A great film in its own right but … | BBC4’s Front Row reviews The Eagle with girlish hope
Rosemary Sutcliff’s book The Eagle of the Ninth was much loved by Rachel Cooke, writer for The Guardian and The Observer, which left her with “girlish hope in her heart” as she went to see the film, The Eagle. She spoke of the film on BBC 4 in the UK, on the review programme Front Row, with Mark Lawson.
I went to see this with so much girlish hope in my heart because it was one of my favourite books, and what I feel about it is its a great film on its own terms, but if you were a Rosemary Sutcliff fan I think you might be disappointed by it. It’s not as nuanced as the book, it’s not as tender or as lyrical as the book. It’s a very angry frenetic film, it’s very one note, there’s not much light and shade. It’s a buddy film with axes and bearskins.
Source: Listen at 1.05 minutes here
Are you a Rosemary Sutcliff fan, and what did you think of the film? Do post your reactions and reflections in the comments here; or a longer review at the You Write tab (see at the top of the page) … And if you are not someone who has up to now read Rosemary Sutcliff, I do hope the film leads you to the book, and indeed to The Silver Branch and The Lantern Bearers, two books in a trilogy of Roman novels, all published by Oxford University Press in film tie-in versions.
The Sunday Mirror newspaper (UK) loves The Eagle (of the Ninth) film
A stylishly brooding Roman adventure, The Eagle is a thrilling journey into the heart of darkness (well, Scotland). Gritty and moody, bloody and brutal, this tough and exciting Roman epic is a classic tale that is very well made … along with all the talk of ‘honour’, this Roman adventure film is driven by some beautifully staged fight scenes and succeeds in being an enjoyable Roman romp.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 