The Eagle (2011)

[DanielJones]

This one looks interesting.

Trailer: http://screeningroom.msn.com/#/video/986bd06e-4298-40ad-bd36-056125186bac/

In Roman-ruled Britain, a young Roman soldier endeavors to honor his father's memory by finding his lost legion's golden emblem.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[ukali1066]

I have high hopes for any new historical films made, but this looks to be another one I won't see.....No offence to anyone here but I just can't take Americans in anything set before their own history....the accent just smacks of modern in a jarring way...

Also what looks like a tribe of Native Americans/Africans in the North of England.....hogwash

 

[Pompidou]

Everyone's got to do their own take on the Celts.

 

[ukali1066]

Yeah apart from the correct one...The Roman Diodorus noted that:

Their aspect is terrifying...They are very tall in stature, with rippling muscles under clear white skin. Their hair is blond, but not naturally so: they bleach it, to this day, artificially, washing it in lime and combing it back from their foreheads. They look like wood-demons, their hair thick and shaggy like a horse's mane. Some of them are clean-shaven, but others - especially those of high rank, shave their cheeks but leave a moustache that covers the whole mouth and, when they eat and drink, acts like a sieve, trapping particles of food...The way they dress is astonishing: they wear brightly coloured and embroidered shirts, with trousers called bracae and cloaks fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, heavy in winter, light in summer. These cloaks are striped or checkered in design, with the separate checks close together and in various colours.

 

[Torpedo]

The depiction of Celts in that movie is positively awful . Nothing resembling the common interpretation, not even allowing for the much abused, and much malinterpreted, concept of "artistic license".
Oh, and Roman war chariots :eusa_doh:. Romans never used war chariots.

 

[CopperNY]

wow. that hurt.

as a reenactor, i'm constantly appalled by the amount of effort put into doing Roman/Celt wrong.

accents don't usually bother me. i watch enough dubbed foreign film that i don't really notice any more.

 

[DanielJones]

I figure this one might be good for NetFlix. A one viewing and done, but still interesting on an entertainment level.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[dhermann1]

Yes, approaching this one with . . . trepidation. Regarding the accents, over the years I've been more and more irritated by Roman and Greek characters not only speaking with British accents, but affecting upper class British manners altogether. It was a different empire, the Roman. Sometimes I think that Mafia gangster manners might be more authentic for Romans!
And I believe the Picts were not necessarily the same as Celts. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
There are some fun and worthwhile bulletin board comments about this movie over at www.imdb.com .

 

[Guttersnipe]

Jeez guys, FL nitpicking at its finest . . .a modern British accent is more "correct" than a American one? LOL

1) If you note in trailer they mention, "no Roman can survive North of the wall" as is Hadrian's Wall. . . the scary looking gents covered in body paint are Picts.
2) The fellows riding in chariots are Britons -- there are no Romans aboard.
3) Strictly speaking, since the movie takes place in Britannia and Caledonia, saying the got the Celts "wrong" because they don't look like Gauls in an over simplification. The Celts lived as far North as Scotland, as far South as Spain, as far West as Ireland and as far East as Ukraine; the is no one unique Celtic "look," it was an adaptive culture that evolved fighting tactics/culture/language/modes of dress with its surroundings.
4) The Roman armor/equipment looks fine to me for a film set in Albion around 140 AD.

Sorry, but I happened to think this looks like a fun historical action flick. . .likely it'll be light on plot & rife with continuity errors (as most films are these days) but you guys seem to be ganging up on the trailer with unfounded critiques [bad]

 

[Pompidou]

Nobody can be certain what the Celts/Picts and such really fought in. The old concept would've been of naked men in blue body paint, but that translation of Julius Caesar's journal is under fire. Picts and picture share a common root because of the notion of body art. That said, people who have tried to use woad plant extract as a body paint have been left disappointed, because it just doesn't work well - flaky at best. What Wikipedia says experts are thinking now, is that they actually used a copper based paint of some sort. Corroded copper would be blue, at least. It'd also be toxic, but they wouldn't necessarily know that - especially if the paint was only worn briefly for combat. Who knows? I'll be seeing The Eagle, as it's the kind of movie I like. It doesn't seem like it'll break any new ground, and I expect mediocre reviews, but King Arthur, Robin Hood and even Kingdom of Heaven got so-so reviews and I liked them. I like mediocre movies, apparently. This one won't disappoint.