We interrupt this transmission...

[anteros_lmc]

...of Navy Boy fangirling to bring you a ranty film review.

As daughter has gone to stay with her gran, partner and I took the opportunity to go to the cinema *faints* This is probably the 5th time I have gone to the cinema since daughter was born and she is 5 now.

We went to see the The Eagle and if you plan to read this rant you should know

Comments

[eglantine_br]

Have not read Eagle book. It is one of those that I have picked up and put down, many times, but not jumped for. Maybe I will, now that I have read all the slash stuff already.

I am reading the Basil Hall you pointed me at. What a sweetie. i find him very appealing. The grown up narrator is so kind and tolerant of his remembered younger self!

[esteven]

May I ask which Basil Hall you are reading? I love his The Lieutenant and Commander :D

[eglantine_br]

I am reading his midshipman memoirs. Anteros showed them to me. I take it there is more... (squeaks with joy!!)

[esteven]

Project Gutenberg is always good for something
:D

[esteven]

Oh, The Eagle of the Ninth!
*sighs happily*
Wasn't there a BBC mini series many years ago?

I'll see when and if it comes into our cinemas.

[anteros_lmc]

I can't remember if there was a mini series but it's possible. I know several of Sutcliffe's works were filmed for tv in the seventies. I distinctly remember watching a serialisation of Sun Horse Moon Horse :)

[esteven]

I remember that when I first read the book, I thought it all happened in some dark woods in Germany because in the Teutoburger Wald (Forest), three legions lost their eagle and disappeared never to be found again...

[_likimeya]

I've already written a bit about it elsewhere, but I recently came across this article which takes the words right out of my mouth. Bird-brained hero, exactly. It didn't help that I find Channing Tatum physically repulsive, either, which is why I didn't see any chemistry between the characters at all. I couldn't see past Tatum's big fat neck and big fat thighs and big fat calves and big fat chest muscles and generally big fat un-Roman-ly huge bulk.
I'm inconsolable. I thought it could have been a really great film.

[anteros_lmc]

I think it probably helped to have no real opinion on the lead and no great expectations of the film. Roman bloke was certainly dumb but not as dumb as Gaelic speaking Picts! XD

[_likimeya]

How can you have no opinion on him, he's the (faintly beating) heart of whole film! I actually don't care much about historical accuracy in a story as long as it's a good one (and especially not in this case, in which the whole 9th legion story may be nothing more than a myth). I'd rather have a thousand innocent mistakes than one poorly written main character.

[anteros_lmc]

Tbh I was rather more concerned about Mr Bell. I am not hugely fond of other films I have seen him in and felt slightly ambiguous about him for the first quarter of the film. He did a good job though.

the whole 9th legion story may be nothing more than a myth
Lol! Yes, good point.

[essayel]

I went to see that on Saturday and am glad to have a chance to discuss it. Was going to rant review it but someone on my flist is a HUGE Channing Tatum fan and ripped me a new one a few months ago for suggesting that Hollywood might make a mess of a book I love.

*sigh* Why did they have to make Marcus so stupid? Why did they take all the cleverness and planning out of the story? Why did Guern attack them? Why did they remove that lovely moment at the end when Marcus is GIVEN his father's ring as a mark of respect between free men? Why did they make the return of the Eagle a public affair, thus making it impossible to make the sequel - oh - wait ...

The film LOOKED brilliant - apart from the Mad Max picts - and I think people who've never read the book will enjoy it but ...

[anteros_lmc]

I think I'm quite glad that it's 30 years since I've read the book and couldn't remember any of the plot details! And we were too busy giggling at the Gaelic to get too annoyed by the dumb Roman. Though partner is still muttering darkly about the uilleann pipes...

The film LOOKED brilliant
Didn't it? Isn't Scotland pretty? And wet ;)

[essayel]

All that rain!!

The misuse of Gaelic went right over my head, to be honest. Brythonic? Early Welsh? I guess they decided to use a modern obviously 'other' language with reasonable access to language coaches. Even if it was wrong it had to be better than having all the Scots/Picts/whatever grunting in broken American English like Native Americans used to in Westerns.

I liked the bits of music with the humming. That was pleasantly eerie.

[anteros_lmc]

All that rain!
They should have been thankful for the rain, otherwise they'd have had midgies! Vanquishing barbarian hordes is one thing but Highland midgies are qutie another ;)

better than having all the Scots/Picts/whatever grunting in broken American English like Native Americans used to in Westerns.
Yikes! What a thought! Welsh would have been the perfect language to use though.

[stevie_carroll]

I went to see that last night, being in a similar position to you as regards the book (it's on my shelves so I should reread it now). I also had fun spotting the errors, although different ones to you (horses are not cars or motorbikes, and British native ponies exist for a reason), but generally a good way to spend an evening.

[anteros_lmc]

Lol! For all I know about horses they may as well have been riding motorbikes! It's fascinating the details different people have noticed. _likimeya complained in her review that they'd screwed up the Roman naming conventions which is not something that I'd noticed.

[_likimeya]

Mind you, that was a general complaint. Gladiator got it wrong, too, and I love that film to pieces, and the scene in which Maximus tells Commodus his (wrong) name is my favourite one! XD

[anteros_lmc]

I am terminally confused by Roman naming conventions. Shows how much attention I was paying in Latin! There's a very good reason I became a prehistorian! ;)