05-09-2020, 03:28 PM
The Eagle (2011)
![[Image: the-eagle-movie-stills-27.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/R0QgGRR6/the-eagle-movie-stills-27.jpg)
A rollicking adventure/survival/war film set in Roman and indigenous Britain, 140 CE. A young Roman soldier (Channing Tatum) and his slave (Jamie Bell) embark upon a foolhardy quest to find and retrieve a gold eagle standard from the wilds north of Hadrian's Wall. It isn't just a solid adventure/action movie, however; it's also an invitation to contemplate the origins of civilization as we know it. By any objective measure, the imperial Romans are in the wrong to dominate and tax peoples so far from their home, and yet, it's their very hierarchies, rigid military structure, and exploitative economy that laid the groundwork for pre-modern society, which later directly inspired the architects of contemporary nation-states. For all the systematic injustices of contemporary geopolitics, an ordinary citizen such as myself can make phone and video calls around the world, not to mention travel much of the world (in normal times) without risking life and limb - to say nothing of medical, civil, and artistic advances. Was the bloodshed of building modern civilization worth it? Now that the blood has been spilled, what do we owe the memory of those who died both building it and opposing it?
Grade: B+
A rollicking adventure/survival/war film set in Roman and indigenous Britain, 140 CE. A young Roman soldier (Channing Tatum) and his slave (Jamie Bell) embark upon a foolhardy quest to find and retrieve a gold eagle standard from the wilds north of Hadrian's Wall. It isn't just a solid adventure/action movie, however; it's also an invitation to contemplate the origins of civilization as we know it. By any objective measure, the imperial Romans are in the wrong to dominate and tax peoples so far from their home, and yet, it's their very hierarchies, rigid military structure, and exploitative economy that laid the groundwork for pre-modern society, which later directly inspired the architects of contemporary nation-states. For all the systematic injustices of contemporary geopolitics, an ordinary citizen such as myself can make phone and video calls around the world, not to mention travel much of the world (in normal times) without risking life and limb - to say nothing of medical, civil, and artistic advances. Was the bloodshed of building modern civilization worth it? Now that the blood has been spilled, what do we owe the memory of those who died both building it and opposing it?
Grade: B+
![[+]](https://forums.fanedit.org/images/focus/collapse_collapsed.png)