The Eagle (2010)

Directed by: Kevin Macdonald

Marcus Flavius Aquila (Channing Tatum) is a young Roman commander with a big chip on his shoulder: 20 years earlier, his father had been an officer in the Ninth Legion which disappeared in the north of Britain, losing the legion’s precious golden eagle standard in the process. Invalided out of the army after some heroics of his own, Marcus heads north accompanied by a British slave, Esca (Jamie Bell, of Billy Elliot fame), to learn what happened to the legion, recover the eagle and with it his family’s honour.

This may be based on Rosemary Sutcliffe’s children’s book (which I read as a ten year old) and set in ancient Britain, but its themes and references are much more recent.  The Ninth Legion’s fate is that of the seventh cavalry at the battle of the Little Big Horn:  an expeditionary force is wiped out (well, nearly) by a coalition of tribes with overwhelming numbers. The tribes people look much more native American than proto-Scottish – some even sport mohicans.

But it can also be seen as a tale of Vietnam, Iraq or even Afghanistan.  The Eagle is more than anything an exercise in revisionism – the (American) Romans get to refight old battles and this time they win them, or at least return with honour.

If it starts rather slowly, it ends as a competent enough chase, though the director has only one idea when it comes to battle-scenes: lots of close-up shaky camera angles that rob any scene of it’s heroics, but probably cover for a lack of budget – this feels like a small movie.