DVD Reviews

The Eagle

• Rating:
• Director: Kevin MacDonald
• Starring: Channing Tatum
• Details: US/UK 114mins TBC

Maybe cruelly compared by some critics to Gladiator, The Eagle was made for a fraction of that film's mammoth budget. It terms of tone and pacing it's probably closer to Last of the Mohicans, sans the (heterosexual) love story and general brilliance. Director McDonald deserves credit for handling an ostensibly epic story in such an intimate way and having it - sporadically at least - work. Tatum has taken knocks in the American press for his Roman commander, but there's a subtlety about his work here that few leading men of his age seem able to convey.
Tatum is badass Roman, Marcus Aquila. Volunteering for a post in a "sh*thole" somewhere in Britain, he's really there because of his father's disappearance along with 5,000 men years before, where they also lost the symbolic Eagle. Upon arriving at his shoddy post in Blighty, his base is attacked and he subsequently acts all heroic (twice) and saves many of his men's lives, but injures himself to the point of discharge. Rehabilitating at his Uncles place, he saves the life of Jamie Bell's local, who subsequently becomes his slave. They then set off to find out what happened to Aquila's old man, and The Eagle.
More homoerotic than Alexander crossed with that volleyball scene in Top Gun, Bell and Tatum do make for an engaging pair. The will they/won't they aspect to their relationship maybe more about murder than love, but gigglers will have a field day with some of the scenes. A lot of the problems with The Eagle lay within the dynamic between the two, even though both actors give solid turns. There is too much that is unspoken between them, and the ambiguity of their relationship is frustrating at points. Bell's character in particular is flimsy, as is the basis for their relationship.
The action scenes are surprisingly enjoyable; going for close quarter hand-to-hand combat more so than grandiose battles - probably more from necessity than choice. McDonald captures the urgency, but the script makes too many convenient turns undermining his firm helming. There is no real villain, and no real reason for either of these men to live.
Ultimately average, it has moments of potential that it annoyingly never fulfils.

Review by Mike Sheridan