Gritty fantasy

Rating: 5/10 (19 January 2015)

Watchable because it is well acted (especially by Dominic West), starkly beautiful in its cinematography and grittily realistic in its depiction of warfare, this account of the disappearance of the Romans' Ninth Legion in Caledonia is also shameful in its contempt for historical truth or realism. If you prefer fantasy to historically realistic fiction, fine, but there is no need to deceive the unwary into thinking it depicts something that could have happened. That is taking advantage of and reinforcing a popular ignorance and lack of imagination miserably dominant regarding anything that happened more than a few centuries ago.
The only historical character depicted is the Roman governor of Britain, Agricola, shown here in AD 117 as an old man anxious to escape his responsibilities in favour of Roman politics. This is turning the truth on its head as far as possible, for Agricola was governor forty years earlier and in the prime of his life. He is well remembered as having achieved far more than any other Roman governor and having been reluctantly recalled by a jealous emperor because of that. Straying into deeper matters, a Roman legion consisted of about five thousand soldiers, so it is incomprehensible that the commander of the Ninth would have advanced into enemy territory with the few dozen depicted, and in winter when no one campaigned because the invaded would have held all the advantages. But these criticisms suggest taking the film as potentially serious history. I'm afraid challenging it as the latter may be a lost cause as regards anyone so deluded by modern, feminist propaganda as to manage avoiding laughter or despair when presented with the fantasy of primitive ancient viragos even aspiring to slaughter in single combat the best trained soldiers of the age, (and before someone mentions Boudicca, I had better mention that though she rode in a chariot, no ancient source suggests she fought in the battles she presided over).
Both this and The Eagle, the other film about the lost Ninth Legion, seem more sympathetic to the Romans than the Picts, the telling fact here being that the Romans speak English while the Picts speak an invented language. I found that interesting just because it was not what I would have expected from 21st century sentiment.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a love story, www.amazon.com/dp/1481222112