Centurion (2009 Film)

[GhostOfClayton]

There will certainly be lots of inaccuracies in the film and I think Neil Marshall is more than aware of these. BUT THIS IS A FEATURE FILM, NOT A DOCUMENTARY Its not meant to pander to pedants...

 

There should be less pedant's in the world.

[Aurelia]

I watched the DVD yesterday (it was not bad) but maybe i am getting too old and sensitive, because gheez how much blood and gore did they use on that film?

 

I have also watched Centurion recently and agree with Viggen on the blood spatter issue, which I thought was a bit excessive. Not because it hurt my sensibilities but more because I thought it made the battle scenes somewhat artificial. But all in all, I thought it was an entertaining movie.

[Northern Neil]

There should be less pedant's in the world.

Oh dear... there should, but I'm afraid I just can't keep my mouth shut on this one, and it is a history forum after all. Since I became active here once again, I have both bought the movie and noticed Barcas 'bump' on the subject on his thread 'Movie set in Roman Britain'. So here I go.

 

I'm afraid it is just plain silly. Hadrian and Agricola co-existing? The fortress at Inchtuthill the size of a boy scout camp, when in fact it was a legionary fortress the size of York? Calling it by its modern name instead of the possibly more accurate and certainly grander sounding 'PINNATA CASTRA'?

 

The bit that put the seal on its silliness for me was the bit near the end, when, marching back south, someone says 'Oh look, Hadrian has decided to build a wall' or something similar. Would they not have seen its turf-wall predecessor on the march north a few months earlier, or known about the already existing Stanegate frontier where they would almost certainly have received supplies on the way up to PINNATA CASTRA from Corbridge (sorry, CORIOSOPITVM)?

 

I note that health and safety concerns prevented the use of Pila in the movie. Was the budget so low that they couldn't have shown the re-enacters in close-up throwing a volley of these, and then having a shot where the Picts received them, using fancy computer assisted animation, of course? I dread the next British produced WW2 movie - are we so scared of health and safety officers that soldiers will be shouting 'Ratatatatat' instead of using blanks in the old Vickers water-cooled?

 

No. Silliness deserves pedantry.

[Viggen]

...here is Ursus take on it...

 

I was satisfied with Centurion. But then, I didn't have very high expectations for it. I had really wanted nothing but an action-adventure yarn with some great costumes and pretty females. That is exactly what I got, along with some surprisingly breathtaking locales. It is neither brilliant nor especially memorable, but there are certainly worse movies out there.

...read the full review of Centurion

[Melvadius]

Well I finally caught up with this on DVD last night and can find nothing to disagree with the comments by Viggen, Northern Neil and Aurelia immediately above.

 

Gee how much gore do they need to include in movies these days?

 

Unlike Ursus I do have several reservations with the liberties taken with standard Roman military practice in the period:

 

 

The armour and weapons are OK given the H&S restrictions however; apart from the 3000 man legion who seemed to happily camp in the middle of forests without clearing the trees away, naming a 50 man out post after the common 'English' name of a full sized legionary fort was patently silly as was the 'trap' the Romans found themselves in and being slaughtered to almost the last man. Don't these veteran troops know how to lock shields and fight as a unit? As an aside I do wonder if the director even considered how difficult it would be to start fires in thick mist in the period?

 

I somehow also feel that calling the governor 'Agricola' was a bit of a liberty in AD 117 since the famous one of that name was recalled to Rome in AD 85, dying in AD 93.

 

That said some bits look good, the scenary was spectacular although as filmed in Scotland heavily dependent on the introduction of sheep in the 18th century for its wide open spaces. The idea of a small band trying to avoid predatory opponents is a good model but much better done by Akira Kurosawa. I do wonder however where did they all lived - definitiely not in the single settlement show.

 

Although I have indicated several reservations I may well watch it again but probably fast forward through some of the more gratuitously violent sections. I did particularly like the circularity of ideas depicted in some of the sections.