"Lost 9th Legion" in film

[Dan Diffendale]

Not one but three movies are apparently being made about this black beast:<br>
www.scotlandonsunday.com/...1319472003 <p></p><i></i>

[mcbishop]

<em>It’s not meant to be historically perfect.</em><br>
<br>
Well, that's a good start; it's looking promising. Will they all wear toy armour, too? I think I hear the distant trundle of a bandwagon...<br>
<br>
<em>The legion itself only appears in full at the beginning of the film and then a massacre takes place, and it’s basically about a handful of survivors trying to fight their way back through Scotland to the Roman front line, only to find out that the line is withdrawn, because they went off to establish Hadrian’s Wall.</em><br>
<br>
Duh... run that by me again... Sounds like the first thing being massacred will be anything vaguely resembling authenticity.<br>
<br>
<em>Dog Soldiers pitted squaddies against werewolves in the Scottish Highlands but most of it was filmed in Luxembourg.</em><br>
<br>
Sadly the last one was hunted down in the 17th century – oh no, sorry! That should be wolves, not <em>were</em>wolves... Are they common in Luxembourg, then?<br>
<br>
<em>Marshall has still to write his screenplay</em><br>
<br>
Hmmm. Perhaps he would be interested in one I'm working on, about a producer who makes a film that is <em>both</em> historically accurate <em>and</em> entertaining – working title: Fat Chance.<br>
<br>
<em>Duncan Kenworthy, London-based producer of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually, has acquired the film rights to Rosemary Sutcliff’s children’s novel The Eagle of the Ninth</em><br>
<br>
Why am I beginning to get an uneasy feeling? If you want the ultimate rendition of EotN, then you must hear David Davies' reading of it (done for Children's Hour on BBC radio many many years ago – I suggested to BBC7 that they rebroadcast it and they said they will look into the possibility).<br>
<br>
Only good aspect to such projects is that they might bring a boost to the Scottish economy, but the precedents aren't promising (Braveheart relocated to Ireland).<br>
<br>
Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

I finally watched Gladiator --for free-- last night on french TV and I was not disappointed.<br>
I knew this movie was a piece of junk and indeed it was.<br>
It's not only the lousy script and the approximative costumes it's the way it was shot. As far as photography is concerned I expected something more artful from Ridley Scott who has proven before he knows how to use a camera. I was not impressed by the battle scene. I think Braveheart was better choreographed.<br>
The "napalm" episode was appalling, the generally gloomy monochromatic atmospere got on my nerves very quickly, the computer reconstitution of Rome and the Colosseum was far below what I expected (no colors!!) and the characters are simply unbelievable. Commodus playing the troubled Californian teenager was pathetic..<br>
"Dad doesn't love me. He won't let me drive the T-bird" (or the Empire whichever comes first...)<br>
All the talent of Richard Harris and the great late Oliver Reed couldn't do much to raise the level of such a catastrophe.<br>
I suspect Oliver Reed died because he didn't want to see the end of this ordeal...<br>
And every once in a while there is a shot of a cloudy sky, filmed at different speeds --slow or fast motion-- accompanied with the now standard "WOOOOSH" electronic sound.<br>
Probably to awaken the audience..<br>
There was certainly a message in there but I didn't see any besides maybe an indication that a low pressure front was fast approaching from the west?<br>
Either that or Ridley Scott is getting senile..<br>
In any case he obviously did not understand what "Mediterranean light" means.<br>
The lady who plays Commodus' sister could only make me miss the divine Sophia Loren in the Fall of the Roman Empire.<br>
Now, that Maximus person is a slow healer isnt'he? After his escape, he leaves Vindobona, today's Vienna, Austria, for Spain with a slight cut in the shoulder, and when he gets there he's still bleeding. Actually he's still wounded when he's taken away to Africa by the slave traders. Two months --at least-- to heal a flesh wound like that?<br>
Naturally, the african epîsode is the occasion to inflict upon the audience another postcard picture of another Moroccan village.<br>
In any period, this story is simply unbelievable.<br>
Finally, as far as equipment is concerned, it was not all inaccurate... For instance I noticed a good reproduction of the 7th century AD Sutton-Hoo helmet, as well as a Vendel type from the same period, a couple of 9th/10th centuries AD "phrygian cap" spangelhelms and several indo-persian helmets of an even later date..<br>
<br>
"Father forgive them, for they know not what they're doing"..<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>

[Matthew Amt]

Antoninus, welcome to the club!<br>
<br>
Mike, yer killin' me! Looking forward to YOUR movie!<br>
<br>
Valete,<br>
<br>
Matthew/Quintus <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

You gotta realize Hollywood doesn't care about accuracy (uniforms, weapons, etc.) and if they did, it'd only add to the movie budget, and therefore get scrapped anyway. <p>In Hoc Signo Vinces</p><i></i>

[Thiudareiks Flavius]

FVC commented:<br>
<br>
Quote:</em></strong><hr>You gotta realize Hollywood doesn't care about accuracy (uniforms, weapons, etc.) ...<hr><br>
<br>
But Hollywood <strong>does</strong> care about these things with <em>some</em> historical movies. It never gets all details right, but in movies like <em>Saving Private Ryan</em> it at least makes the effort to get things more or less right. But for some reason, when the movie is set more than 150 years ago, this suddenly becomes uneccessary. No-one has ever been able to explain why earlier history is somehow less real or less important than recent history.<br>
<br>
It's not okay to depict the troops at D-Day in powdered wigs, bowler hats and space suit boots armed with scimitars and flintlocks. But apparently it is okay to do the equivalent in the depiction of the Marcomannic Wars. Why?<br>
<br>
Quote:</em></strong><hr> ... and if they did, it'd only add to the movie budget, and therefore get scrapped anyway.<hr><br>
<br>
I've been told this many times as well and still can't understand it. Why is an erroneously shaped helmet dreamed up by some art department ponytail cost more than a correctly shaped one designed with 20 minutes consultation of a couple of Osprey book?<br>
<br>
Why does the silly-looking, brownish pseudo-segmentata from <em>Gladiator</em> somehow cost less than proper-looking segmentata made from the same material (but painted to look like metal)?<br>
<br>
Why would a stupid Hollywood fantasy shield cost less than one made using exactly the same materials and labour after 15 minutes consultation of <em>Greece and Rome at War</em> by Peter Connolly?<br>
<br>
Why would the Art Director on <em>Gladiator</em>, who declared that they had to make everything up because there simply wasn't enough information about Roman arms and armour (?!!!) cost less than an Art Director with some brains who thinks to phone some museum curators or e-mail some re-enactors and ask a few simple questions?<br>
<br>
It's not cost - it's an entrenched culture of ignorance and intellectual laziness. <p>Tim O'Neill / Thiudareiks Flavius<br>
<br>
Visit 'Clades Variana' - Home of the Varus Film Project<br>
<br>
Help create the film of Publius Quinctilius Varus' lost legions.<br>
<br>
Come to my [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/member/Gunthigg/Thiudareiks" target="top]Stathigg[/url] in [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/City/23413" target="top]Germania[/url] at the [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/" target="top]Ancient Worlds[/url] community.</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showUserPublicProfile?gid=thiudareiksflavius>Thiudareiks Flavius</A> <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-6/30850/200262963928-0-avatar-gif2.gif" BORDER=0> at: 12/4/03 3:13 am<br></i>

[Anonymous]

*shrugs*<br>
<br>
I like movies, and I'm willing to look past Hollyweird crap for the sake of being entertained.<br>
<br>
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??? <p>__________________________________<br>
LEG IX HSPA COH III CEN I HIBERNICI<br>
</p><i></i>

[Thiudareiks Flavius]

Casca asked/bellowed:<br>
<br>
Quote:</em></strong><hr>ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED???<hr><br>
<br>
LOL! Actually, I was entertained by <em>Gladiator</em>. As you say, I was happy to look past the inaccuracies and enjoy the Western (which is what it was really). I was rather less entertained by <em>Braveheart</em>, partly because it laid claim to a level of historicism that <em>Gladiator</em> didn't and partly because it was overlong, ponderous, clumsy, badly written and pretentious (IMHO!).<br>
<br>
But my point was addressing this argument that (i) Hollywood doesn't care about authenticity (it actually does, with some movies) and (ii) authenticity is more expensive (it isn't).<br>
Cheers,<br>
<p>Tim O'Neill / Thiudareiks Flavius<br>
<br>
Visit 'Clades Variana' - Home of the Varus Film Project<br>
<br>
Help create the film of Publius Quinctilius Varus' lost legions.<br>
<br>
Come to my [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/member/Gunthigg/Thiudareiks" target="top]Stathigg[/url] in [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/City/23413" target="top]Germania[/url] at the [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/" target="top]Ancient Worlds[/url] community.</p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

You can always go with the Polish version of QVO VADIS. It's more accurate...not perfect (What is when we have so many conflicting histories?), but it's not <em>bad</em> from a historical/costume viewpoint. <p>__________________________________<br>
LEG IX HSPA COH III CEN I HIBERNICI<br>
</p><i></i>

[aitor iriarte]

Well, I mentioned this on another thread and I wouldn't call 'Saving Private Ryan' an accurate film. IMHO they deserved the same attention to German tanks (I shan't forget the beautiful Kettenkrad this time! ) than Ridley Scott to... everything in 'Gladiator.<br>
The only accurate prop in 'Gladiator' was the glassware by 'roman Glassmakers'!<br>
<br>
Aitor <p></p><i></i>

[Robert Vermaat]

The horses all had four legs, so they looked pretty accurate to me, as well... <p></p><i></i>

[TITVS SABATINVS AQVILIVS]

<br>
<br>
<br>
Not even "what we do in life echoes in eternity"<br>
is accurate, but we love so much to think it's so...<br>
<br>
Valete,<br>
Titus Sabatinus Aquilius <p></p><i></i>

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

Ofcourse Gladiator is an entertaining movie.<br>
<br>
But when people are saying "i know a lot of ancient Rome because i´ve seen many movies" (from another board!), things are strating to look ugly.... <p>Volo anaticulam cumminosam meam!</p><i></i>

[aitor iriarte]

Well, Russell Crowe walks on four legs too... <p></p><i></i>