The Eagle

(2011)
Im not a big Channing Tatum fan, but Ive seen him perform well in enough movies (he sure makes a lot of them) to give a movie that has a promising premise the nod. Other than the fact that he plays a Roman in this film, I knew virtually nothing about it which, if I had, I would have seen it sooner. Its based on a novel, but the story premise is brilliant; Marcus Aquilas (Tatum) father commanded a Roman legion that was lost in battle north of Hadrians Wall in the second century A.D. The Aquila name has been tainted ever since, and Marcus has trained hard to make himself a noted warrior and commander to overcome that taint. He is assigned to a duty in England and his quick thinking helps save his entire detachment; but he is injured and relieved of command. In convalescence, he saves the life of a slave, Esca (Jamie Bell), in the arena, and decides to set out on his own with Esca as guide, of course to try to find the eagle standard of his fathers lost legion. For this kind of story, it has everything Romans vs. the indigenous population, an exotic and remote locale, honor, bravery, travel, combat every element we look for in these types of films, backed up by a superbly compelling story thread. The Eagle also takes a nice look at both sides of the coin Rome as culture and as conqueror of other cultures and sums up the tension between the two nicely in the characters of Marcus and Esca, who respect one another as men but have natural grievances against each other. Both Tatum and Bell are very good in their respective roles. I know Jamie Bell is on the cusp of becoming a big, big star, and watching this, you can see why. Both turn in solid performances and manage to have chemistry despite the fact that they spend large sections of the movie wanting to kill each other. Donald Sutherland and Mark Strong have small supporting roles and are very sharp as well. I have no idea if this movie was a big hit or not I never heard of it outside of Netflix, and Im not even sure how I stumbled upon it (likely as a recommendation spun off of something else) but between the captivating plot and a reasonably solid effort by all involved, this movie surprised me with its quality. Its not perfect we do get a few laggy parts, and the Seal people whom the two meet later in the film just look ridiculous but by and large this is a much-better-than-expected film. If you have any interest in the period or setting, this is certainly worth the investment in your time. March 27, 2012