Neil Marshall didn't cast a lot of A-listers, but a bunch of solid actors who are either big in England, Ireland, or are simply forgotten about. Rene Belloq, arch nemisis to Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Agricola is played by Paul Freeman, who made his bones in the 80s as Dr. Virilus and his Ninth are called to arms when the Roman governor of southern Britannia, Julius Agricola, receives the go from Emperor Hadrian back in Rome (who we sadly never get to see). And Dominic West ( 300, The Punisher: War Zone) played the part so well that I can't imagine anyone else in the role. Plutarch said of Antony that "his swaggering air, his ribald talk, his fondness for carousing in public, sitting down by his men when they ate, or taking his food standing at the common-mess table made his own troops delight in his company and almost worship him." This passage almost totally and completely describes the character of Virilus, and being that Antony is one of if not my favorite figure of ancient Rome, Titus Flavius Virilus was a joy to watch on-screen. He wears a scraggly beard and disheveled hair, just like we hear of Antony while embarked on battle campaign.
Virilus is beloved by his men, as we see him arm wrestling and drinking with them in his opening scene. He loves a good brawl, a strong drink, and a beautiful woman, found in the mute Pict tracker and traitor to her own people, Etain. Virilus is loud, bruttish, and impulsive. I truly believe that writer/director Neil Marshall knew his Roman history and based Virilus on Mark Antony. Meanwhile, we're introduced to General Titus Flavius Virilus and his Ninth Legion in their garrison dining hall.
#PLAY VIVA CALIGULA IN HELL MOVIE#
After leading a resistance against an nightime attack on the garrison at the hands of the Picts, a brutal Scottish tribe, Quintus is taken hostage and the movie seems over before it begins. Centurion Quintus Dias (Northern Irish actor Michael Fassbender from 300 and Inglourious Basterds), son of a Roman gladiator who earned his freedom, is stationed at the frontier garrison, often enduring sleepless nights in the freezing cold winter months of Briton. I believe there were three Roman command posts, or garrisons, in Britannia at the time the movie takes place. They had already taken southern Britannia, but sought to push further into what is now Scotland and Wales. In 117 AD, the Roman Republic had long morphed into the Roman Empire, swallowing up Gaul (France) and Greece with its eyes set on Germania and Britannia. Centurion treads on the same subject matter, and though the premise of The Eagle was a good one, the one for Centurion was much better.
But a director can't carry a film all on his on, just as I mentioned in my review of The Eagle. We turn the corner of those mountains to have other names pop out at us. The film was written and directed by Neil Marshall, who, in Centurion, made the names of the actors and the movie title appear to us very Stone Henge-like upon the mountaintops. The movie begins with sweeping shots over the snow-coated mountains and ice-laden streams of Scotland, getting us off to a start that forced me to switch on the gas fireplace next to the recliner, savering the warm glass of Gabbiano vino in my hand.
The Eagle added a chase element, but it's nothing like what you get in Centurion, which makes the best possible way to describe the film a mash-up between Ridley Scott's Gladiator and Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. Centurion is a better movie, with better acting performances with better battle scenes.
Maybe another reason I liked it so much the second time was that this time, I, maybe even subconsciously, was comparing it to The Eagle, which I saw last weekend and reviewed early last week. Movies always seem to be a little better the second time around, mainly because you catch more as far as dialogue and catch more in the scenes overall. So last night I watched Centurion for the second time, and I greatly enjoyed it.
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