MYST Post #4: The Eagle

The Eagle follows a young centurion named Marcus Aquila (played by Channing Tatum) as he tries to restore his father's reputation. Accompanied by his British slave Esca (Jamie Bell), Marcus travels through the mountains of Scotland searching for the lost Ninth Legion and the prized golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth, which was lost twenty years earlier. The Eagle was in Marcus’ father’s possession when it was lost in a unannounced war, therefore his father was considered a disgrace to Rome. After several days of wandering through the mountains, and meeting multiple groups of warriors, Marcus and Esca finally found the Eagle and fled in a hurry to escape from the Seal People, but Marcus gets hurt. Marcus frees Esca from slavery to save himself, but Esca returned with returns with the legionnaires who deserted the army 20 years ago just as the Seal People caught up to them. The two groups fight in a large scale battle with many casualties,ending with the Eagle rightfully in the Ninth Legions possession. Marcus returns to Rome, returning the Eagle to the ruler, winning praise from his country and clearing his fathers name.

I thought Kevin MacDonald did a great job directing the movie. The movie was mainly shot outdoors in fields and mountains, so almost every scene started with a wide shot camera angle to give the viewer an idea of where they were. What I liked about the movie was the fact that the 180-degree rule was broken. I liked the idea of seeing everything that was happening in the fight scene from all angles. I also liked how they played with the violence. Instead of showing the men stab through one another and have blood flying everywhere, they were more controlled by doing wide shots during the war scenes which showed the violence but made it easier to watch.

My favorite scene from the movie was when Marcus meets Esca for the first time when Esca is being forced to fight a gladiator. Esca refuses to fight for his life and Marcus is intrigued by him. As the gladiator is about to kill Esca, from the stands Marcus shouts  to spare his life. The women and peasants follow his lead and begin to chant with him, followed by the entire crowd. I liked the use of the camera in this scene the most. When Esca was punched and thrown down, the camera fell with him. It was a cool aspect of filming that I had not seen before and enjoyed it. My least favorite part of the movie was the ending when Esca and Marcus are walking away and the say the classic Hollywood line, “What do you want to do now?” “I don’t know, what do you want to do?” The movie was believable in being in the time period but those last lines broke all credibility for me.