The Eagle Official Trailer #1 - (2011) HD

When we started watching The Eagle I suspected we had seen it before, but no. Centurion was the movie I was thinking about. Centurion is about the loss of Rome's 9th Legion. This movie is about the son of the commander going north of Hadrian's Wall to retrieve their standard, a gold eagle.

Centurion

Olga Kurylenko as Etain

We watched Centurion this evening and I'm pretty sure this is the second time we've seen it. There can't be two movies with Olga playing the Pict mole who leads the 9th Roman legion to their doom, can there?

This is second century AD and I'm wondering about the technology. The Romans have swords and armor, as do the Picts, but I'm pretty sure the only way the Picts got ahold of anything made of iron was because they got it from the Romans. They even manage to acquire a set of iron manacles with a chain that they use to restrain the leader of the 9th after they have captured him.

Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall makes a brief but impressive appearance, if you happen to notice it (about 10 mintues from the end of the movie). The movie is set in 117AD, but Hadrian's Wall wasn't started until five years later, but that's Hollywood for you.

As movies go, it was pretty good. Lots of action with some fairly realistic primitive tactics. But there were a number of instances that just didn't jibe with what you might expect. You know, Hollywood adding drama when no extra drama is needed. Aiming for low-brow, gut reactions I suppose.