The Eagle 失落的第九军团

Friends, Romans, Countrymen… bore me to tears.

Kevin Macdonald continues his creative output with this tale of a Roman soldier and his slave journeying north of Hadrian’s Wall to retrieve the standard of his father’s lost legion.

Macdonald’s experience as a documentary maker is evident, he is excellent at exploiting a location to create atmosphere and to frame an establishing shot to lead us into moments of a story. Unfortunately this film is let down by it’s savage lack of storytelling.

The movie follows Standard Quest Movie Plot Number 1, and has no genuine shocks or surprises on the way. The ‘heroes’ head north, fight some people, fight each other, find what they were looking for, run away, have another fight and return the lost item to it’s rightful home.

The pace of the movie is almost funereal, with Macdonald taking nearly an hour to set up the quest, something which becomes clearer to understand when the rest of the film follows such a formulaic narrative.

With so little to draw interest a movie like this could be saved by some solid performances, alas this is too much to hope for. Channing Tatum uses both of his expressions throughout and neither with much conviction. Jamie Bell excels at using his stock expression, the look of a man unsure whether or not he can smell a fart. The bromance between these two has a homo-erotic subtext which leaks out of every scene and is encapsulated at the end of the film by quite possibly the worst line uttered in a film this year.

Mark Strong, who normally delivers, looks lost with little to work with, the only performer who really escapes unharmed is Dougie Henshall whose performance is so short it was barely worth him getting out of bed for, the kind of appearance where by the time you have recognised who the actor is it’s too late.

The other area where this film could have redeemed itself was with the battle scenes, these however are shot in the currently fashionable style of swinging cameras and fast cut editing, making it impossible to see who is winning, who is killing who and who has the upper hand until the inevitable post battle scene where those who are still standing must have won.

The redeeming feature of this movie is the beautiful settings and despite the almost constant rain this may well find a life as a promotional video for the Scottish Tourism Board.



失落的第九军团，该片故事发生在公元140年，地点是被罗马帝国统治的不列颠，确切说是麦克唐纳的老家苏格兰。影片改编自罗斯玛丽·苏特克里夫历史小说，由杰里米·布洛克（《故园风雨后》）改编剧本。29岁的查宁·塔图姆（《特种部队》）担任主角，扮演率领百人队伍罗马将领Marcus Aquila。由于受到凯尔特人袭击，Marcus身受重伤并失去了自己的队伍和地位。无奈之下Marcus决定立功赎罪，冒险去了无人烟的苏格兰北部，寻找失落的第九军团之鹰。15年前，由他父亲（唐纳德·萨瑟兰）率领的第九军团曾在那里莫名其妙地失踪。


片 名： The Eagle of the Ninth
　　中文名： 失落的第九军团
　　又 名： 帝国战记(台) / 不败雄鹰(港) / 失踪的第九军团/ 第九只鹰
　　影片类型：剧情
　　片 长：114 min
　　导 演： 凯文·麦克唐纳德 Kevin Macdonald
　　主 演：
　　查宁·塔图姆 Channing Tatum
　　马克·斯特隆 Mark Strong
　　杰米·贝尔 Jamie Bell
　　唐纳德·萨瑟兰 Donald SutherlandDenis O'Hare
　　塔哈·拉希姆 Tahar Rahim



公元120年，强盛的罗马帝国向喀里多尼亚（今苏格兰）派出了由5000人组成的的第九军团。军团在弗拉维思将军的指挥下，携带着象征罗马帝国的鹰杖踏上了征途。然而，这支军团一去不返，再也没有人见到过他们的踪迹。整整5000人的部队连同鹰杖一起消失，罗马国王哈德利安一怒之下下令在国土北部修建长城，用绵延千里的城墙将罗马帝国与北部未知的区域隔离了起来。从此，罗马帝国北部成为了人迹罕至的禁区。
　　20年后，弗拉维思将军的儿子马克思长大成人，并且成为了一名优秀的士兵。马克思因为在一场战斗中的英勇表现而受到军队的嘉奖，然而却因为受伤过重而不得不离开军营回到叔叔家中养伤。在此期间，马克思意外地在角斗场中救下了一个名叫埃斯科的奴隶，并将其收作仆人。后来马克思听说有人在北方一个部落中见到过当年父亲弄丢的鹰杖，听到这个消息的他无比振奋，决心要去拿回鹰杖，挽回家族在帝国中的荣誉。而埃斯科恰好是英国出身，对于当地的环境比较熟悉，所以马克思就带着埃斯科一起出发了。一路上马克思和埃斯科之间的关系从主仆变成了友谊，又经历了背叛和忠诚的考验。特别是遇到部落首领后，马克思发现埃斯科的身份远比一个普通的奴隶复杂的多……
　　法国年度大热影片《预言者》的塔哈·拉希姆也加盟本片，扮演凯尔特人中最残忍的西尔族的王子。为了从西尔人那里逃脱，Marcus只有装作是Esca的罗马奴隶，受尽折磨。经历重重猜忌和阻难，两人终于齐力找到鹰图腾藏身的庙宇并揭开了第九军团的失落之谜。