Read the Book, see the Movie, and enjoy the adventure.

Rating: 8/10 (9 October 2007)

I enjoyed this film for what it is, a good historical adventure, that has been taken from a well written book. It is not meant to be a historical factual movie, but takes on-board factual elements, a bit like King Arthur and Braveheart. I first read the book The Last Legion and thought at the time it would make a good film. The film seems to have missed out some parts of the book, but if you had not read the book you wouldn't notice. This may have been to gain a lower age rating. This is not a movie like The 300, with limbs being hacked off and pools of blood, this is more restrained. There are some very good actors who do the characters of the book justice. One thing that is puzzling me, is I have seen this film before, almost the same form but it was a Technicolour film from the late 50-60s, I can't remember the Title, it's been such along time since I saw it on TV. The endings of the film are almost identical. But that would mean the book by Manfredi was a copy of this older film ?