The most confusing mystery in ancient Roman history
The film revolves around a true prehistoric story. When Rome invaded Britain in the 2nd century AD, the Empire's Ninth Legion mysteriously disappeared in the Scottish Highlands, leaving behind an eternal mystery. The Roman Emperor Hadrian erected a fortified line of defense between the British colonies he occupied and the Scottish Highlands, equipped with heavy garrisoned troops, and this "Hadrian's Wall" has since marked the end of the known world. Along with the Ninth Legion disappearing into the unknown world together with the golden eagle badge as a symbol of the Legion, the former head of the Legion Flavius was criticized for this. In order to protect his father's reputation, Flavius' son Marcus led his slave Esca into the barbarian tribes of the Scottish Highlands, unlocked the secret of the whereabouts of the Ninth Legion, and brought back the Golden Eagle.
The historical Ninth Legion (Legio IX Hispana) was established in 65 BC by Pompey, a famous military strategist during the Roman Republic, and was subsequently controlled by Caesar. In the nearly 200-year history of the Legion, they either quelled the rebellion or stationed on the frontier, and made outstanding contributions to Rome. Regarding the transfer records of the Ninth Legion, the last record is in Britain in AD 71, and in the middle of the 2nd century AD, the Ninth Legion completely disappeared from the Roman combat records. The widely prevailing explanation is that they disappeared in Scotland, north of Hadrian's Wall, which was adopted in Winston Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. Since there is not enough historical data to support any explanation, the whereabouts of the Ninth Legion has become one of the most complicated and unsolved cases in ancient Roman history.
Kevin MacDonald's epic action
film This is the second film from director MacDonald and screenwriter Jeremy Bullock, their first co-production The Last King of Scotland (2006) It helped Forest Whitaker win the Best Actor Oscar. MacDonald is a documentary film director, he was born in Scotland, his grandfather is the famous "Red Shoes" (The Red Shoes, 1948) director Emeric Pressburger (Emeric Pressburger).
"He's a very smart guy," Tatum said of MacDonald, one of the co-stars. "He sees through everything about filming. He's calm and never gets angry with the actors.
" In The Last Dictatorship, he repeatedly emphasized the special status of Scotland's independence from England through the mouth of the Scottish doctor Nicholas. In this film, he turned his attention to the vast and mysterious Scottish Highlands. Both films also combined a lot of location shooting, using a large number of local actors, the former is in Uganda, the latter is in Hungary, and his grandfather Pressberg is a Hungarian.
As an epic film, The Ninth Legion is a testament to faith and loyalty at its core. Marcus' father was blamed for the disappearance of the Legion, and Marcus worked hard to restore his family's innocence. As The Hollywood Reporter's film critic Todd McCarthy said, "This film is more emotional and less violent than most period dramas today."
However, even if there are not too many bayonet scenes, the most intuitive highlight of the film is still the real action scenes. In these scenes, the camera is placed at the right height and the actors are kept at the right distance, so that the brave Roman soldiers on the screen just completely occupy the height of the frame, not only the movement of each person is fully carried out. The display also makes the picture have a strong sense of oppression. When the audience sees the army of the civilized world facing the brutal attack of the unknown tribe, their panic and sinking will blow.
The film's cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, has already won an Oscar for "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008), and this time with MacDonald The second cooperation after "The Last Dictatorship". The films he shoots are colorful and suitable for viewing on the big screen. In "The Ninth Legion", he pays special attention to shooting the mountains of Scotland in a cold and desolate manner. The mountains in the distance are shrouded in black shadows. In the scene, the muddy grass he used on camera has a strong texture. To borrow a review from The Hollywood Reporter, Mantell's photography is "the perfect mix of sinister and gorgeous."
In addition to photography, another magic weapon that makes the film's hand-to-hand scenes particularly good is the fast editing. Roger Ebert commented that the editing of the film was so fast that "we couldn't see the tactical intentions of the swordfighters when they cut each other". The aura of the film is set to be aggressive from the first minute. Young Marcus has just arrived at Hadrian's Wall when he encounters a fierce battle, because he is eager for success, and hastily dispatched a small team to go deep alone, and was attacked by the Scottish forces. The savage caught. The second generation of the army with a strong sense of responsibility immediately personally led his fully armed subordinates out of the customs to meet them. The Romans' formation was mainly defensive. The warriors erected their shields directly in front and above their heads, and extended their swords from the gaps between the shields, allowing the barbarians to charge frantically, and their formation remained motionless. Just when the hostage rescue was about to succeed, the Scots sent a carriage, and Marcus, who had dispersed with the large army, could not dodge in time, and he was honored. The heavy sense of history accompanied by the short shots and dynamic scenes hit the audience's vision at the very beginning of the film. Every ray of light reflected on the sword is no less than the gleaming eagle of the Legion, which is a symbol of honor in Marcus' heart.
Whether the failure of mediocre scripts
is genetic or not, MacDonald seems to have some kind of talent for making dramas. In his feature film debut "The Last Dictatorship", he showed a very high level of taste for sets, costumes, makeup and soundtracks. In "The Ninth Legion", he used most of the technical team, and the film was meticulously carved. His weapons, dazzling eagle-shaped badges, barbarian hairstyles and costumes, and the humming of the male voice in the accompaniment of the band were combined efficiently by him, making the audience immersive. He even went against the shooting method of epic blockbusters and chose North American actors Tatum and Sutherland to play the Romans, so that the Roman characters abandoned the British English with a strong royal accent on the screen and switched to American pronunciation. British actor Bell was chosen for the role of British slave Esca. It was a bold and reasonable decision that highlighted the status of the Romans as aliens who invaded Britain, which was incompatible with the local culture, and the British were the masters of the land.
From the visual aspect, "The Ninth Legion" is undoubtedly very good, but many American media, led by "The New York Times", have pointed the finger at the mediocre script, and insisted on the rationality of the storyline. They bluntly said He pointed out that "this movie is not so much about the adventures of two men as it is about the ambiguous relationship between the two men." The British slave Esca in the film was originally a gladiator, and Marcus, a Roman officer, rescued him from danger, so although Esca was full of national shame and family hatred, he still decided to work for his benefactor for the rest of his life, and he happened to know the Scots. The Gaelic language spoken, so it is logical for Marcus to take Esca to explore the unknown world together.
"I think Jamie is better suited for a comedy role because he's so funny in life. But Esca is not a likable character," Tatum said of his understanding of the two roles. "Marcus And Esca didn't try to be likeable at all. They didn't think much about loyalty. They didn't care about that. They had the same beliefs, so they didn't care if they did something wrong to each other."
As a film without women The protagonist's work, this film is full of the master and the slave looking at each other for a long time. The feeling is difficult to describe in words. Is this the "eye relationship" often mentioned by young men and women nowadays? "The New York Observer" commented very bluntly, "They are sleeping intimately in the wild, and the two are stroking each other's wounds left in the battle. These scenes convey to us that the same-sex attraction between sportsmen is too strong. implying that any different reading of the subject is impossible, because those readings all seem so irrational.” At the end of the movie, the two people have an affectionate conversation, "What do we do now?" A touching scene of snuggling.
While good quality, The Ninth Legion's lack of romance or intense thriller makes it hard to catch audiences' attention. "Overall, the movie's beautiful graphics won't get it any awards, but it's not a movie that will make you doze off," a comment from an American audience may point to the film's reaction. Such a mediocre reason.
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