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Hi.
Roman movies, like buses you wait for ages and then two come along at once. My local cinema was showing 'Centurion' and 'Agora' so I watched both one after the other!
Although very different subjects I enjoyed both films too. Costume wise 'Centurion' scored higher than 'Agora' which considering it was based in Egypt, which is where the best clothing evidence comes from was therefore particularly bad. The soldiers dress in the latter was obviously re-use of old gear from the 'Rome' series with a couple of leather seggis thrown in!
However it is not often you can go from one end of the empire to another in a night!
What was sad, was that neither film appears to have had any advance publicity in the UK with not even any posters or advertising in the cinema either! Together the total audience for the two films was nine! This can be compared with the forthcoming 'Robin Hood' with two walls in the theatre devoted to pictures of the movie and trailers on television and that film is not even due out for another two weeks.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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Quote:Hi.
Roman movies, like buses you wait for ages and then two come along at once. My local cinema was showing 'Centurion' and 'Agora' so I watched both one after the other!
Although very different subjects I enjoyed both films too. Costume wise 'Centurion' scored higher than 'Agora' which considering it was based in Egypt, which is where the best clothing evidence comes from was therefore particularly bad. The soldiers dress in the latter was obviously re-use of old gear from the 'Rome' series with a couple of leather seggis thrown in!
However it is not often you can go from one end of the empire to another in a night!
What was sad, was that neither film appears to have had any advance publicity in the UK with not even any posters or advertising in the cinema either! Together the total audience for the two films was nine! This can be compared with the forthcoming 'Robin Hood' with two walls in the theatre devoted to pictures of the movie and trailers on television and that film is not even due out for another two weeks.
Graham.
Graham,
i do agree there, Agora i thought was a much better film than Centurion tho, in terms of story and keeping your attention... I just found i bored watching centurion, the action scenes were good but the rest of the time are just panoramic shots of the soldiers running through the hills! while pretty just werent enough to keep my attention, the same with the lack of affection for the characters... i just couldn't get a "bond" with any of them... werent that sad when they died... ahh well... was watchable! but i found agora much more gripping... and felt involved with the characters alot more... and you can see the raw emotion in peoples faces as they're struggling with the religion and their loyalty to masters / friends... there is one scene where a slave shouts out "I AM CHRISTIAN!!!!!!" and then beats his master who is pagan, and you can see the pain in his face as he's beating his master... but yeh in terms of historically accurate costumes... Agora is the fail!
I did see alot of posters for Centurion kicking about tho?? that was reasonably busy, the screen i was in was about 70% full up, but it maybe because the film was made more locally it got more advertising, i've managed to get one of my pals who works at the cinema to nab me a poster
but nothing for Agora which is ashame!
Lucius Duccius Rufinus Aka Kevin Rhynas.
"Fortes fortuna adiuvat".
[url:10c24pem]http://www.ninthlegion.co.uk[/url]
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Hi Kevin
Quote:Agora i thought was a much better film than Centurion tho, in terms of story and keeping your attention...
I certainly agree there and with your comment about the expressions of actors faces, to the one you mentioned I could add the look on the face of Prefect Orestes as Archbishop Cyril delivers his sermon!
My main niggle with Centurion was that the main names, places and dates mentioned in the film looked like they had been the result of a Google search on Roman Scotland and were just thrown in for good measure. However with the building of Hadrian's Wall being shown it meant they were all inappropriate and something which would have taken 30 seconds to change and get right without damaging the story. Otherwise there were many effective scenes and too many throats being cut to get bored!
To an earlier comment that it did not appear right for a general to mix with his troops I would also agree. I doubt many Emperor's would like their officers to get too pally with the troops but it is the sort of thing you would expect from the likes of an Antony or a Carracalla. To this I would add that I very much doubt a Governor's wife would serve drinks!
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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I went to see Centurion on thursday and I have to say, it was pretty damn good, I recommend it. Although it's not impressivly accurate I preferred it to the likes of Gladiator (which, personlly, i disliked). The story-line is good, the acting was significantly better than I thought it would be and it was, overall, a very enjoyable film.
Lorenzo Perring-Mattiassi/Florivs Virilis
COHORS I BATAVORUM M.C.R.P.F
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I would go with Graham on the lack of advertising front. I saw it in Edinburgh, and there were barely any people in the cinema then as well.
I also felt the caracters were weak on the whole, except perhaps the 'witch' who was the only person who seemed to have a 'character storyline....despite her short time in the movie.
Unfortunately, it has done nothing to dispel the myth of the IXths fate, as people still come up to us in Archao link and
tell us all about or destruction.... :roll:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
hock: :? roll: 
