In Roman-ruled Britain, a young Roman soldier endeavors to honor his father’s memory by finding his lost legion’s golden emblem.
Few films show greater promise and have less follow-through than The Eagle.
The world of potential that lives in the idea of a Roman venturing through unclaimed territory to find a legendary shrine is nothing less than intriguing. Think about it. A Roman Centurion and his slave enter the untamed world of the Britons. Their lives dependent solely on each other. Esca, the slave, a Briton. Marcus, the Roman, a Centurion. Enemies by birth.
Sadly, the execution in this film was extremely lacking and didn’t do justice to such a provokative premise. As the film began, it seemed beautifully reminiscent of the classic epics like Ben-Hur. But as it continued, The Eagle fell further and further away from the mark.
The writing was less than spectacular with a style constantly reflecting 21st century slang. Because of this the dialogue seemed very unnatural and, at times, difficult to listen to. The writing was a constant distraction from the period setting and I was highly disappointed. Not just the dialogue, but the story was also very poorly paced and defined. I felt as if the film started nowhere and went nowhere. All films, generally speaking, have a message that it is promoting. The ideology behind the makers will always influence the theme of the film. In the case of The Eagle, I felt as if the maker’s were telling the audience that Roman domination of the Britons was wrong, and that the Britons were evil heathens, and there was no real hero to the story. Everyone was made out to look bad, and there was no redeeming quality to any realm of the story. It was a pagans vs. pagans battle.
The performance from the actors was not altogether terrible, but it wasn’t altogether stunning either. Channing Tatum as Marcus seemed to be a decent fit, but his performance seemed rather shallow (which probably had a lot to do with writing as much as acting). Jamie Bell, as always, was impressive as Esca. Though he’s not really what some may deem ideal for that role, he showed his quality. His performance was probably the best out of all the characters in the film. Donald Sutherland’s role was plagued, once again, by terrible dialogue, so I can’t really put the weakness of his role completely on him, but his character was also less than believable.
The score was mediocre at best. There was no defined theme throughout the film. The whole score seemed to consist of “filler” music and was used as more of an excuse than a film score.
The cinematography was one of the only areas wherein I can say I was actually impressed. I thought for a film of this type the Director of Photography showed admirable creativity. The framing was interesting, slow motion was used to communicate effectively, and, all in all, I found it very pleasing.
The other element that was impressive was the battle action. As a viewer, I felt every heavy blow from the deadly weapons. The sound design was significant in making the audience feel as though they were part of the action. The strikes hurt. Though somewhat gruesome, there were also times when, although a brutal death was taking place, we saw it in the eyes of another character and didn’t have to see it through our own to realize the darkness that was occurring. Which leads me to my next point.
I mentioned earlier about the film being a pagans vs. pagans affair. This was displayed throughout the film in various forms of heathen ceremonies that ranged from Marcus offering ancestral prayers and burning incense, to the savage Britons performing a very disturbing demonic ritual in which their young men become official warriors.
In short, I do not recommend this film. Though the violence was hard-hitting and somewhat brutal at times, it was nothing that would discourage me from viewing the film. In fact, I was impressed with the creativity of the warfare and found it interesting. My main concern came from the pagan rituals and very disturbing ceremonial scene. There was also a handful of curse words that seemed entirely out of place in the dialogue. These being my main cautions, I would recommend, as always, one read the PluggedIn Review if considering watching the film.
Final thought: The Eagle was a film with enormous potential that failed to deliver on many levels. It contains moments of exciting action and realistic battle sequences, but was plagued by very poor writing, music, story, weak characters, morally-confused worldview, and, as mentioned above, pagan ideas depicted in an explicit form. So, although, it presented an intriguing premise, the film failed to follow through in execution.
For the Dramatics,
-Dominic
Synopsis provided by IMDb.
