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shapinglightOn with the Ninth Legion movies watch.
Today, I watched Centurion.
Spoilers behind cut.
It was quite violent, but not so bad I couldn't watch it at all. Very, very downbeat, though, compared to The Eagle (which I suppose you would expect since it dealt with the actual destruction of the Ninth Legion rather than connected events twenty years later). Once the legion has been destroyed and the commander-a muscular turn by Dominic West-is dead, the rest of the movie is basically the remaining legionnaires, led by Michael Fassbender's character, trying to get back to Roman lines, pursued by some scary Picts on horseback (the Picts in The Eagle don't have horses, they just run. In this movie, it's the Romans that run) led by Etain, a tracker, with an implacable hatred of Rome.
Her reasons for hating the Romans are perfectly good, of course, but since the character never speaks (the Romans had cut out her tongue) and spends most of her time sticking spears through people and looking angry, it's hard to root for her. In fact, your sympathies (well, mine anyway) are firmly with the group of hunted survivors - well, except for one of them, who deliberately maims another and leaves him for wolf food so that he himself can escape.
He gets his comeuppance, but it's pretty late in the day. And, of course, the politicians turn out to be a poisonous bunch (literally)- in this case in the person of Agricola, Governor of Britannia, who, rather than report that the Ninth legion has been destroyed on his watch opts to try to poison the last survivor (Fassbender) so word won't get out about what's happened.
Have to say, this seems rather unfair to Agricola, who was a soldier himself and not only defeated the Picts at the Battle of Mons Graupius (somewhere in central Scotland, no one is sure where) but established forts in the area, including the one of which Fassbender's character is the last survivor (again!) when the Picts overrun it and massacre everyone at the beginning of the film. In other words, Agricola was a very successful general and had no need to poison anyone. Why they couldn't make the villain the person who was actually governor of Britannia at the time Hadrian's Wall was built, I have no idea.
And, to make matters worse, it's Agricola who trusts Etain enough to give her to the Ninth legion as a guide, only for her to betray them, of course, as she always intended.
That gripe on the part of an historical character I don't really care about that much but who seems to me to have been unfairly maligned, apart, it was okay.
No idea which (if either) of the films has a better, or more accurate, depiction of the Picts - and of course no one can know, since we know so little about them, not even what language they spoke (it certainly wasn't Gaelic), except that they painted themselves (probably, though even that isn't certain), and both films have had them do that.
The scenery was very pretty again.
Speaking of the Picts, btw, many, many years ago, I had an argument with a Cornish nationalist about them. She insisted that they spoke a form of Celtic which they may very likely have done, but no one is absolutely certain. Their language could have been pre-Celtic. However, when I suggested this, she said again, through actual gritted teeth, "They.Spoke.Celtic."
Hmm, must be nice to be so sure about things no one else is sure about.
This same person once got very angry - I mean, shaking in fury angry - because some people were singing folk songs in a pub. She said she couldn't stand 'all these pseudo-Celts',
Because of course only the Celts are allowed to have folk songs?
Very silly anyway. I hope she's got over it.
Today, I watched Centurion.
Spoilers behind cut.
It was quite violent, but not so bad I couldn't watch it at all. Very, very downbeat, though, compared to The Eagle (which I suppose you would expect since it dealt with the actual destruction of the Ninth Legion rather than connected events twenty years later). Once the legion has been destroyed and the commander-a muscular turn by Dominic West-is dead, the rest of the movie is basically the remaining legionnaires, led by Michael Fassbender's character, trying to get back to Roman lines, pursued by some scary Picts on horseback (the Picts in The Eagle don't have horses, they just run. In this movie, it's the Romans that run) led by Etain, a tracker, with an implacable hatred of Rome.
Her reasons for hating the Romans are perfectly good, of course, but since the character never speaks (the Romans had cut out her tongue) and spends most of her time sticking spears through people and looking angry, it's hard to root for her. In fact, your sympathies (well, mine anyway) are firmly with the group of hunted survivors - well, except for one of them, who deliberately maims another and leaves him for wolf food so that he himself can escape.
He gets his comeuppance, but it's pretty late in the day. And, of course, the politicians turn out to be a poisonous bunch (literally)- in this case in the person of Agricola, Governor of Britannia, who, rather than report that the Ninth legion has been destroyed on his watch opts to try to poison the last survivor (Fassbender) so word won't get out about what's happened.
Have to say, this seems rather unfair to Agricola, who was a soldier himself and not only defeated the Picts at the Battle of Mons Graupius (somewhere in central Scotland, no one is sure where) but established forts in the area, including the one of which Fassbender's character is the last survivor (again!) when the Picts overrun it and massacre everyone at the beginning of the film. In other words, Agricola was a very successful general and had no need to poison anyone. Why they couldn't make the villain the person who was actually governor of Britannia at the time Hadrian's Wall was built, I have no idea.
And, to make matters worse, it's Agricola who trusts Etain enough to give her to the Ninth legion as a guide, only for her to betray them, of course, as she always intended.
That gripe on the part of an historical character I don't really care about that much but who seems to me to have been unfairly maligned, apart, it was okay.
No idea which (if either) of the films has a better, or more accurate, depiction of the Picts - and of course no one can know, since we know so little about them, not even what language they spoke (it certainly wasn't Gaelic), except that they painted themselves (probably, though even that isn't certain), and both films have had them do that.
The scenery was very pretty again.
Speaking of the Picts, btw, many, many years ago, I had an argument with a Cornish nationalist about them. She insisted that they spoke a form of Celtic which they may very likely have done, but no one is absolutely certain. Their language could have been pre-Celtic. However, when I suggested this, she said again, through actual gritted teeth, "They.Spoke.Celtic."
Hmm, must be nice to be so sure about things no one else is sure about.
This same person once got very angry - I mean, shaking in fury angry - because some people were singing folk songs in a pub. She said she couldn't stand 'all these pseudo-Celts',
Because of course only the Celts are allowed to have folk songs?
Very silly anyway. I hope she's got over it.
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no subject
Date: 2014-11-09 05:29 pm (UTC)Because of course only the Celts are allowed to have folk songs?
You didn't know that? *looks innocent*
I am never too certain I can trust someone who is so absolutely certain of things. Or maybe I just lack conviction.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-09 05:33 pm (UTC)No, it's the same film. She sort of stands out a bit because she's the only Pict not covered in blue paint and wearing animal skins.
You didn't know that? *looks innocent*
This same woman once said that when Cornwall won its independence it would have a national socialist government, to which the response was, it's been done before, you know.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-10 10:13 am (UTC)Cornish nationalists have a lot to struggle with - it is much harder being a Nat when you first have to explain to most people that you are a country not a county. Also they know in their hearts that even if they do gain independence their economy will still be entirely dependent on tourism.
*pets them condescendingly*
Why did she care so much about the Picts anyway? They were never significant in Cornwall, were they?
no subject
Date: 2014-11-11 10:17 am (UTC)It was some pan-Celtic us against them kind of thing, I suppose.