LAST LEGION movie

[Goffredo]

Hi guys<br>
some time ago I mentioned a book by Italian author Valerio Manfredi that wrote THE LAST LEGION. The book has been traslated in English and maybe some of you have read it.<br>
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I don't want here to discuss the book other than to say that it takes place in the final months of the Empire following the destiny of Romulus Ausgustulus.<br>
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Well I heard a TV interview of Manfredi the other evening and he says there is a plan to make a movie!<br>
Well I also know that some of our Italian forum members know Manfredi personally and can contact him.<br>
It would be important that there be a lobby, a pressure group, that firmly suggests and help him to keep the pressure on who will actually make the movie to ensure high standards in representing in some credible way what was left of the LATE ROMAN ARMY and of the armed germanics roaming the empire in those days.<br>
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Valerio Manfredi is a talented writer and he hosts a decent TV series that discusses ancient history. So he might be open to our suggestions and HELP.<br>
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If he and thru him the producers, costumists, whatever, get properly exposed to LATE ROMAN and "BARBARIAN" reenacting groups there is a chance a decent movie could be made.<br>
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jeff<br>
<br>
by the way Manfredi wrote the script to Oliver Stones' Alexander the Great movie that they say is being made (we already saw some nice photos on this forum).<br>
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Ciao and lets keep a coordinated pressure on Manfredi.<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Goffredo,<br>
<br>
I read the book, but more out of an interest in Arthurian matters than Late Roman. His book is nice but not extremely good, and like most books about the Later Roman period (such as Hadrian's Wall and Eagle in the Snow which I'm currently reading) is it yet another script that shows nothing of the Late Roman Army but harks back to the 'good old days' of the Legions. There is some action in the first part of the book (where the main character's unit, a 're-created' legion) is wiped out by barbarians in leage with Roman traitors, but after that it's just one long escape.<br>
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So here's the dilemma - if he wants to stay close to the script that means portraying, as usual, long outdated legionairies, because that is what he writes about. No late Roman soldiers by design! What can we do?<br>
<br>
The enemy is a bloodthirsty barbarian - no chance of portraying him and his men like Late Romans.<br>
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Dilemma, like I said.<br>
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Valete,<br>
Valerius/Robert <p></p><i></i>

[Goffredo]

Ciao<br>
I too was disappoined, reading LAST LEGION, at least regards the outdated description of roman army and the "barbarians". In particular I had an unpleasant and public exchange with him in a "meet the author" evening when I pointed out his description in one passage (just one but one too many) of stirrups.<br>
No one is perfect but I do think Manfredi is open minded enough as to be willing to listen to constructive input.<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

LAST LEGION was really a disappointment - both as a book and a historical novel. I did not find the plot and characters to be of (almost) any interest, and the book failed to achieve good historical feel. As previous posters noted, the late roman army part was totally missing - the story is about the last legion trained as "the legions of the old" during the last years of Roman empire (Romulus Augustulus) and thus totally unhistorical and basically stupid (or, not interesting...). Besides that the legion gets destroyed before the story really begins...<br>
<br>
I read the book in English, so the language might have been better in Italian...<br>
<br>
btw, there was a funny mistake in the book - the characters are walking on frozen river, and discuss whether it will hold. One of them hacks a hole with a sword (?) and sees that ice is one feet thick - should be okay... 30 cm can hold a tank of 30 tons, and makes a hole in that ice with a sword would be sight to see... Italians (at least the author) are not exactly familiar with ice. <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

What we need to do is write our own movie and have it produced.<br>
<br>
Dave <p>[url=http://www.freewebs.com/davekufner" target="top]www.freewebs.com/davekufner[/url]</p><i></i>