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Author Topic: "Centurion" Out Now  (Read 7686 times)

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Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: "Centurion" Out Now
« Reply #25 on: November 11, 2010, 05:54:25 pm »
Quote from: Britannicus on November 11, 2010, 04:59:03 pm
Well, I finally got to see Centurion - or at least a sanitized, airline version of it - on a long-haul flight. I loved the scenery, and I liked the costumes and uniforms. It wasn't bad as an action film, that is, something about one step up from computer games. But what irks me about films like Centurion (and the trailer for The Eagle too) is that so many film-makers seem to be stuck in a nostalgic, "noble savage" groove about the ancient world. Why can't they appreciate that, despite the cruelties, the mainstream cultures of Greece, Rome and even Byzantium were A Good Thing?

I fully agree. We will need to wait a long time for even a book, let alone a movie, to show the Roman world in a modern (for them) and efficient context, a story where the plot is about the things which happen and the backdrop is just the backdrop, one set in modest villas rather than palaces or slums. It strikes me that the Roma sub Rosa series of Gordian the Finder might fit the bill if it is filmed. Much of the settings in pre-Imperial Rome involves fairly modest villas in Rome, and Gordian comes across as a typically struggling middle-class guy, well below the Senators and such like still having a modest home and delighting in plumbing improvements and pottering around the garden.

Offline Laetitia

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Re: "Centurion" Out Now
« Reply #26 on: November 12, 2010, 08:33:19 am »
Going back to The Eagle, as mentioned in Kained but Able's post, the film is based on Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Eagle of the Ninth, written in the 50's (see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eagle-Ninth-Rosemary-Sutcliff/dp/0192753924/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289568287&sr=8-1 for the book).  It's classed as a children's book, but I read it recently and quite enjoyed it.  The book is Sutcliffe's fictional account of what happened to the Ninth legion when it disappeared north of the wall, coupled with her explanation of a wingless Roman eagle (The Silchester Eagle) in Reading museum.  Judging by the trailer, the film has changed a few things from the book though and seemingly given away the whole of the film's plot (why do trailers do that?).

 

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