The Eagle (2011) Netflix

[odanny]

I'm looking thru my options of Roman Empire programming on Netflix (next to nothing) but this movie popped up, and for a change of pace historical drama, I would recoomend it, even if the storyline is ridiculous and the acting by Channing Tatum is almost comically bad.

Let's say Magic Mike can't act, because he can't. He's bad at acting. The movie only has one notable actor in it, and that is the recently departed Donald Sutherland. Thankfully he lended some actual acting to this film, but the best part is just the depictions of the wilds of northern England and the people who live there around 120 AD. For that reason alone I enjoyed watching this film.

The premise is a Roman soldier and his slave who go alone into the hinterlands to try and find and retrieve the lost Eagle Standard of the Ninth Legion, itself rumored to have been destroyed in battle in 108 AD. (Likely not true, but some speculation that this actually happened.)

 

[martybegan]

I'm looking thru my options of Roman Empire programming on Netflix (next to nothing) but this movie popped up, and for a change of pace historical drama, I would recoomend it, even if the storyline is ridiculous and the acting by Channing Tatum is almost comically bad.

Let's say Magic Mike can't act, because he can't. He's bad at acting. The movie only has one notable actor in it, and that is the recently departed Donald Sutherland. Thankfully he lended some actual acting to this film, but the best partis just the depictions of the wilds of northern England and the people who live there around 120 AD. For that reason alone I enjoyed watching this film.

I thought the roman fort was well done and the scene where they go to recover the lost patrol was well done as well.

The rest was kinda meh.

 

[odanny]

I thought the roman fort was well done and the scene where they go to recover the lost patrol was well done as well.

The rest was kinda meh.

I loved the part where they walked up to Hadrian's Wall, they defintely got that part right.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

A fun but silly movie.

But if you dream of being a centurion at Fort Vindolanda in that day and age, this is your movie.,

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

I'm looking thru my options of Roman Empire programming on Netflix (next to nothing) but this movie popped up, and for a change of pace historical drama, I would recoomend it, even if the storyline is ridiculous and the acting by Channing Tatum is almost comically bad.

Let's say Magic Mike can't act, because he can't. He's bad at acting. The movie only has one notable actor in it, and that is the recently departed Donald Sutherland. Thankfully he lended some actual acting to this film, but the best part is just the depictions of the wilds of northern England and the people who live there around 120 AD. For that reason alone I enjoyed watching this film.

The premise is a Roman soldier and his slave who go alone into the hinterlands to try and find and retrieve the lost Eagle Standard of the Ninth Legion, itself rumored to have been destroyed in battle in 108 AD. (Likely not true, but some speculation that this actually happened.)

I Knew a Kid Named Scot Who Never Got to Play Because He Wasn't Pict

 

[iamwhatiseem]

It was okay. Worth watching, but not anything that is going to blow you away.
I would probably give it 3.5 stars out of 5

 

[Zavulon]

Yes. Nice movie. Pretty funny. Instead of actual Aquila chrysaetos vocalization they used American red-tailed hawk's screech. And instead the movie about Romans and Britons they made a movie about Americans in Afghanistan - as Americans in Afghanistan didn't knew anything about lands outside the bases, so Romans in the movie (quite contrary to the real Romans) don't know anything about lands around them and northern from the Hadrian's Wall, and some kind of fantasy Indians instead of more or less reliable scientific reconstructions of Celtic people. Instead of real Celtic chariots they show us fantasy of Thomas Thornicroft ("Boadicea and Her Daughters" sculpture group in London) and Pomponius Mela.
The love line from the original book was totally erased, may be for good. But anyway, movie is really good. Quite specific and, I hope, self-ironical piece of work (may be even a "minority report" of a sort).

 

[odanny]

Yes. Nice movie. Pretty funny. Instead of actual Aquila chrysaetos vocalization they used American red-tailed hawk's screech. And instead the movie about Romans and Britons they made a movie about Americans in Afghanistan - as Americans in Afghanistan didn't knew anything about lands outside the bases, so Romans in the movie (quite contrary to the real Romans) don't know anything about lands around them and northern from the Hadrian's Wall, and some kind of fantasy Indians instead of more or less reliable scientific reconstructions of Celtic people. Instead of real Celtic chariots they show us fantasy of Thomas Thornicroft ("Boadicea and Her Daughters" sculpture group in London) and Pomponius Mela.
The love line from the original book was totally erased, may be for good. But anyway, movie is really good. Quite specific and, I hope, self-ironical piece of work (may be even a "minority report" of a sort).

Did the IX Legio Hispana really disappear in the wilds of northern England? There is evidence it was in existence in Nijmegen later than 120 AD, but historians don't know if it was reconstituted or actually perished marching into Caledonia.

 

[Zavulon]

Did the IX Legio Hispana really disappear in the wilds of northern England? There is evidence it was in existence in Nijmegen later than 120 AD, but historians don't know if it was reconstituted or actually perished marching into Caledonia.

The evidence is vague and speculative. That's why, I think, they left the open final. If the eagle was found and if it was returned, may be, the legion was reconstituted (as it was reconstituted after almost total annihilation during Broudikka rebelion à hundred years before).

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Definition​

by Donald L. Wasson
published on 16 July 2021
Available in other languages: French


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Recreated Standard of IX Hispana
Legion IX Hispana Punta Umbría (Copyright)
Legio IX Hispana served with Julius Caesar in Gaul and against Pompey in the Civil Wars. Later, it fought alongside Augustus in his Cantabrian Wars and was one of the four legions Claudius took with him in his invasion of Britain in 43 CE. It survived mutiny and near decimation twice, only to recover. Although suffering heavy losses during the revolt of Boudicca, the legion rebounded and accompanied Agricola in his war against the Caledonians. The legion disappeared sometime after 120 CE.

Caesar's Ninth Legion​

In the time of Caesar (100-44 BCE) and Pompey (106-48 BCE), legions of the Roman army were known by a number, not a name. A Ninth Legion served under Caesar during his time as governor of Further Spain (Hispania Ulterior) and later in both his Gallic Wars and against Pompey in the Civil Wars. It was during the legion’s time under Caesar that it initiated a mutiny, and it almost cost the Ninth its existence. At Placentia in northern Italy, the army protested their meager pay and lack of spoils of war that often supplemented a Roman legionary's meager pay.
CAESAR THREATENED TO DECIMATE THE ENTIRE NINTH AS BOTH A PUNISHMENT & A WARNING.
According to Philip Freeman’s Julius Caesar, he chose to address the legions as a whole. Considered by many to be a wise but firm leader, he spoke to them as spoiled children, telling them they were proud soldiers, not a horde of ravaging barbarians. Freeman considered the incident an example of Caesar’s style of leadership. He threatened to decimate the entire Ninth as both a punishment and a warning. In a decimation, every tenth man is executed. After his speech, the legionaries made a plea to save the guilty legion, a legion that had served him proudly in the past. He agreed only if given the names of the ringleaders of the mutiny. Twelve of them were chosen by lot and then executed.
The incident forgotten, Caesar and his legions continued on against Pompey. Although some sources claim the legion was disbanded, a Ninth was raised by Octavian (the future Roman emperor Augustus, r. 27 BCE - 14 CE) from Caesar’s veterans and used in his war against Mark Antony. Later, under Augustus, the Ninth (with the title of Macedonica) participated in his Cantabrian Wars (27-19 BCE), earning the new title of Hispaniensis (stationed in Spain) which was later shortened to Hispana. After its time in Spain, it was sent to the Balkans with Aquileia as its base.

 

[odanny]

It was roughly around 43 AD, under Emporer Claudius, who succeeded Caligula, that the IX Legio Hispana was sent to Britain, but there was legions garrisoned there under Julius Caesar, and it may have been the longest garrisoned province of the Roman Empire. It had a distinguished history under Julius Caesar, as did all legions under his command.

 

[John Edgar Slow Horses]

Wasn't the Julius Caesar raid only a year or two long in length, about 50 bce?