I liked this movie plain and simple. I hadn't planned on seeing it but had the incorrect time for the Oscar Shorts - Animation. The Eagle is based on a novel for teens titled "Eagle of the Ninth." It is the story of a young Centurion Marcus who volunteers for duty in Britain in 140AD. Marcus wants to restore the family honor, his father was the commander of the lost Ninth Legion. While under no illusion that his father is still alive, Marcus wishes to serve Rome honorably and bring back the Eagle, the golden emblem of the Legion. Marcus, later honorably discharged due to battle injuries, heads north with his slave, Esca, a member of one of the northern Briton tribes. Esca and Marcus form an alliance and travel in search of the Eagle. As they travel, they battle rogue warriors, meet a Ninth Legionnaire who ran from the final battle and lastly, the tribe holding the Eagle.
The movie was filmed in Hungary and in the Scottish Highlands so that alone makes it worth seeing on the big screen. The native language is Gaelic and the soundtrack is that of native Irish/Scottish music. The casting was off, Donald Sutherland, Tatum Channing and others would not have been my first choice of lead actors.
But all in all, I'm glad I saw the movie and certainly would recommend it to its target audience teenage boys and young men who enjoy military dramas. I am also happy to say that it wasn't bloody and gory, the battle scenes showed closeups of soldiers running towards each other, we heard the sounds of metal clanking but the wounds resulting from the hand to hand combat was left to one's imagination.
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