By: Harrison Cheung — In the last few years, thanks to GLADIATOR, 300 and Showtime’s excellent SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND, the look and feel of sand and sandal movies have become slick, saturated colorful spectacles thanks to Ridley Scott and Frank Miller keen visual tastes. Action sequences are choreographed with great exaggeration thanks to the skill of a Yuen Woo-Ping (MATRIX) and the special effects have reached intricate and vivid detail when recreating the grandeur of ancient Rome or Greece.
Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell in 'THE EAGLE' - the European movie artwork (Focus Features)
How unfortunate that a capable movie like THE EAGLE stumbles onto the big screen maybe 20 years past its prime. Based on the true story of the Lost Ninth Legion and the mission to retrieve its precious Roman Eagle standard, THE EAGLE is less 300 and more Mel Gibson’s APOCALYPTO but on a smaller scale.
Channing Tatum stars as Marcus Aquila, a young Roman centurion stationed in North England with a personal mission to restore his family’s honor. His father had commanded the Lost Ninth, and when the Ninth was annihilated somewhere in Scotland well north of Hadrian’s Wall, the legion’s Eagle standard was captured.
Jamie Bell, best known for his starring turn in BILLY ELLIOT, plays Esca, Marcus’ British slave who helps guide a mission through Scotland to find the Eagle.
Channing Tatum in "The Eagle"
Tatum, cursed with AF good looks and a resume that started with STEP UP movies, desperately needs a vehicle that will help him shed the teen idol audience and give him credibility as an actor. This is not that movie. Tatum plays stern very well, but THE EAGLE doesn’t ask him to make a dramatic journey.
Bell is more interesting as Esca, the will-he-or-won’t-he-betray-his-master slave who’s loyalties are unclear. And to give the film some luster, Donald Sutherland has a small part as Marcus’ uncle.
THE EAGLE suffers from a dry script, unimaginative cinematography, and fight scenes that feel more like a documentary. It’s clear that director Kevin McDonald (THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND) intentionally avoids Hollywood sensationalism, but this is a low budget movie that could have benefited from a love interest, gore or skin. There’s a hint of friendship between Esca and his master, but the script avoids any SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND hedonism or even the nudge-nudge-hint-hint Tony Curtis/Laurence Olivier sexual tension in the 1960’s Kubrick classic, SPARTACUS. What’s left is a mildly entertaining historical docudrama that feels more at home on The History Channel than on the big screen.
Henrick Vartanian
