Review of the films of the Ninth Army Corps

The suspense action epic film The Ninth Army directed by kevin mcdonald, winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Award, was released in the United States on February 1 1. The film is adapted from 1954 RosemarySutcliff's best-selling book TheEagleoftheNinth Army. Channing tatum, who is very popular, and Jamie Bell, a British post-80s actor who became a hit with Bullier Elliot (2000), co-starred in two leading roles, one is Marcus, a centurion from a Roman military officer's family, and the other is him. The film was shown in 2,296 cinemas, and the box office in the first week was only 8.59 million yuan, which was the loser of the films released in the same period.

The most puzzling unsolved case in ancient Roman history

The film revolves around a true prehistoric story. When Rome invaded Britain in the 2nd century A.D., the Ninth Imperial Army mysteriously disappeared in the Scottish Highlands, leaving an unsolved case. The Roman emperor Hadrian erected a strong defense line between the British colony he occupied and the Scottish Highlands, which was heavily guarded. From then on, this "Hadrian's Wall" marked the end of the known world. With the disappearance of the Ninth Legion into the unknown world and the Golden Eagle badge as the symbol of the Legion, Flaviu, the head of the Legion, was also criticized. In order to protect his father's reputation, Marcus, the son of Flaviu, led his slave Esca into the savage tribes in the Scottish Highlands, solved the secret of the whereabouts of the Ninth Army and brought it back to the Golden Eagle.

The Ninth Legion in history was founded in 65 BC by Pompeii, a famous strategist in Rome and China, and was later controlled by Caesar. In the nearly 200-year history of the Legion, they either put down the rebellion or stationed in the frontier and made outstanding contributions to Rome. As for the transfer record of the Ninth Legion, the last record is Britain in 7 1 A.D., and in the middle of the 2nd century A.D., the Ninth Legion completely disappeared from the battle record of Rome. At present, the popular explanation is that they disappeared in Scotland, north of Hadrian's Great Wall, which is adopted in WinstonChurchill's A Brief History of English-speaking Countries. Because there is not enough historical data to support any explanation, the whereabouts of the Ninth Army has become one of the most confusing unsolved cases in the history of ancient Rome.

Kevin mcdonald's epic action movie.

This film is the second film co-produced by director MacDonald and screenwriter Jeremy Brock. Their first film The Last Scottish King (2006) helped Frais Whitaker win the Oscar for Best Actor. MacDonald is a documentary director. He was born in Scotland, and his grandfather was the director of Red Shoes (1948).

"He is a very clever man," Tatum, one of the leading actors, said of McDonald. "He has seen through everything about shooting. He is calm and never gets angry with actors. "

In his previous work The Last King of Scotland, he repeatedly emphasized the special status of Scotland's independence from England through the mouth of Scottish doctor Nicholas, but in this film, he turned his attention to the vast and mysterious Scottish highlands. Both films combine a lot of location shooting and use a lot of local actors. The former is in Uganda and the latter is in Hungary. His grandfather Pressburger is Hungarian.

As an epic, the core content of the Ninth Army is the proof of faith and loyalty. Marcus' father was blamed by thousands of people for the disappearance of the legion, while Marcus tried to give his family an innocent reputation. As ToddMcCarthy, a film critic of Hollywood reports, said, "Compared with most contemporary dramas, this film contains more emotions and less violent scenes."

However, even if there are not too many bayonet scenes, the most intuitive highlight of this film is the real action scene. In these scenes, the camera is placed at an appropriate height, keeping an appropriate distance from the actors, so that the brave Roman soldiers on the picture just occupy the height of the frame, which not only fully shows everyone's movements, but 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 unknown tribes, they will panic and cross the rubicon.

AnthonyDodMantle, the photographer of this film, is experienced. He not only won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire (2008), but also collaborated with MacDonald for the second time after The Last King of Scotland. The film he shot in the mirror is colorful and suitable for watching on the big screen. In the ninth army, he paid special attention to the cold and desolate Scottish mountains, and the distant mountains were shrouded in black shadows. In the scene of Marcus riding a horse, he used the lens to show the muddy grass with strong texture. Borrowing comments from Hollywood reports, Mantel's photography can be called "the perfect combination of sinister and gorgeous".

In addition to photography, another magic weapon that makes this film's hand-to-hand combat scenes particularly excellent is quick editing. Roger Leibert commented that the film was edited too fast. "We simply can't see the tactical intention of the sword fighting with each other." The atmosphere of the film was aggressive from the first minute. As soon as young Marcus arrived at Hadrian's Great Wall, he encountered a fierce battle. Anxious for success, he hastily sent a small team to go deep alone and was caught by the barbarians in Scotland. The second generation of the army with a strong sense of responsibility immediately personally led his men to go through the customs with full armed forces. The formation of the Romans was mainly defensive. The soldiers put the shield straight ahead and overhead, stretched out their swords from the gap of the shield, and let the barbarians attack wildly, and their formation remained motionless. Just as the hostage rescue was about to succeed, the Scots sent a carriage, and Marcus, who was separated from the big army, couldn't dodge and was gloriously wounded. A heavy sense of history, coupled with short shots and dynamic scenes, shocked the audience's vision at the beginning of the film. Every ray of light reflected on the sword is no less than the glittering legion eagle emblem, which is a symbol of honor in Marcus' heart.

A failure caused by a mediocre script

I don't know if it's genetic. MacDonald seems to have a gift for making feature films. In his debut novel The Last King of Scotland, he showed great taste in scenery, costumes, makeup and music. In the Ninth Army, he used most of the technical teams. Carefully carved weapons, dazzling eagle emblem, savage hairstyle and costume, and the humming of male voices in the accompaniment of the band are all effectively combined by him, which makes the audience immersive. He even opposed the filming method of epic films, choosing North American actors Tatum and Sutherland to play the Romans, so that the Romans abandoned British English with a strong royal accent on the screen and adopted American pronunciation instead, and chose British actor Bell to play the role of English slave Esca. This is a bold and reasonable decision, which highlights the position that the Romans, as foreigners invading Britain, are incompatible with the local culture, and the British are the owners of this land.

From the visual point of view, The Ninth Army is undoubtedly excellent, but many American media, led by The New York Times, point their finger at the mediocre script and insist on the rationality of the story. They bluntly pointed out that "this film is not so much an adventure of two men as an ambiguous relationship between two men". Esca, a British slave in the film, was originally a gladiator, but Marcus, a Roman officer, saved him from danger. So although Esca was full of national humiliation and family feud, he decided to work hard for his benefactor all his life, and he happened to know Gaelic spoken by Scots, so Marcus naturally took Esca with him to explore the unknown world.

"I think Jamie is more suitable for comedy because he is so funny in life. But Esca is not a likable character, "Tatum said of his understanding of these two roles. "Marcus and Esca don't want to be likable at all. They don't think much about loyalty. They don't care about this at all. They have the same beliefs, so they don't care if they have done something wrong. "

As a work without a heroine, this film is full of long-term focused eyes of the master and slave, which is difficult to describe in words. Is this the "eye contact" that young men and women often mention nowadays? "new york Observer" commented bluntly, "They slept in the wild very intimately, and two people stroked each other's wounds left in the battle. These scenes convey a strong hint to us that men of the same sex are attracted to each other, so that it is impossible to have any different interpretations of the theme, because those interpretations seem so unreasonable. " At the end of the movie, two people talk deeply, "What shall we do now?" "You decide." Even if this is not a discussion about the dating content between lovers, it is very similar to the touching scene of the old couple snuggling up to each other in the twilight.

Although the quality is good, the ninth army lacks romantic love or strong horror, which makes it difficult to attract the attention of the audience. "Overall, the beautiful picture of this movie won't bring it any awards, but it's not a movie that will make you doze off." This comment by an American audience may point out the reason why the film's response is so mediocre.

Film evaluation

Well-made, but the story is just a simple way to get back the honor.

-"Hollywood Report"

The film has some strange hints, such as exaggerating gay masculinity.

-The New York Times