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Blu-ray Review HTF Blu-ray Review: CENTURION (1 Viewer)

Michael Reuben

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Centurion (Blu-ray)





The title of writer/director Neil Marshall’s film suggests a sword-and-sandal epic like Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, but Centurion has different aspirations. Its spirit is closer to Michael Mann’s Last of the Mohicans. Marshall wanted to create a “wilderness” movie, but he set himself the challenge of doing so in a land (Britain) that doesn’t have an established frontier lore to supply legends and archetypes. So Marshall reached all the way back to the Roman Empire to find colonizing invaders who would be strangers in a strange land. Their adversary is a now-vanished race known as the Picts, who once inhabited the land that would later become Scotland and were among the select few that the Romans failed to conquer. The result is certainly original, but its very originality becomes an obstacle. Marshall has to expend too much effort on exposition, and the film never achieves the mythic resonance for which he’s clearly striving.



What Marshall does have is a genuine wilderness. In his search for authenticity, he led his cast and crew high into the mountains of Scotland to capture both breathtaking vistas and a palpable sense of isolation and peril. That pioneering spirit and some fine performances are what make Centurion worth seeing.




Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment


Rated: R


Film Length: 98 minutes


Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1


HD Encoding: 1080p


HD Codec: AVC


Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1


Subtitles: English SDH; Spanish


MSRP: $29.98


Disc Format: 1 50GB


Package: Keepcase


Theatrical Release Date: Apr. 23, 2010 (U.K.); July 30, 2010 (U.S. on demand); Aug. 27, 2010 (U.S. theatrical)


Blu-ray Release Date: Nov. 2, 2010





The Feature:



The centurion of the title is Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender from Inglourious Basterds and Band of Brothers). A member of the Roman army serving at the empire’s outermost edges, Quintus considers himself a simple soldier, but he’s unusual in several respects. First of all, he’s the son of a gladiator whose skill and endurance were sufficient to win him his freedom in the arena. From his father, Quintus learned to respect his enemies and understand their strengths. For that reason, he’s the only man in his garrison who’s made any effort to learn the language of the Picts, whose sneak attacks and guerilla tactics continue to stymie the Roman military. (For purposes of the film, the Picts speak subtitled Scots Gaelic, though this was probably not their language.)



When the Picts attack the fort where Quintus is stationed, he curses in Pict at the brute he’s fighting, Vortix (Dave Legeno). This intrigues another member of the war party, Aeron (Axelle Carolyn), and she orders that Quintus be taken alive and brought to their leader, Gorlacon, for questioning. (Gorlacon is played by Danish actor Ulrich Thomsen, a long way from the silkily villainous financier he played in The International.) Quintus is interrogated, brutally, about the Romans’ intentions, but he refuses to speak. He escapes at the first opportunity. (Note that this is not a spoiler, because the film opens with the escaped Quintus fleeing across a frigid mountain landscape, then flashes back to the circumstances that led him there.)



Freezing and hunted, Quintus has the dubious good fortune of being rescued by the Ninth Roman Legion under the command of General Titus Flavius Virilus (The Wire’s Dominic West). The fortune is dubious, because the Ninth Legion is legendary for having marched into Scotland and disappeared. As Marshall concedes in the special features, historians have demonstrated otherwise, but like any good storyteller, he prefers the legend. In Marshall’s version, an ambitious colonial governor, Agricola (Paul Freeman, who played Indiana Jones’s nemesis Belloq), orders General Titus to take the Ninth Legion north and deal with the Pict thread once and for all. It’ll be different this time, the governor say, because they’ll be guided by a Pict scout who has declared her loyalty to Rome: a fierce but mute warrior named Etain (Olga Kurylenko from Quantum of Solace). Anyone familiar with Last of the Mohicans will be thinking of Magua.



General Titus is a historical figure, and Dominic West’s portrayal is one of the film’s high points. Titus is the kind of larger-than-life commander who can be both soldier and general. He can drink and carouse with his men and still command their respect, because he never subjects them to risks or hardship he doesn’t share himself. “He's a ruthless, reckless bastard”, says one soldier.


“And I'd die for him without hesitation.” When the time comes, many of them do.



Accompanied by Quintus and guided by Etain, the general and the Ninth march north into Pict territory, and the rest of the film is about what happens when they encounter the Picts. It doesn’t go well, and those who survive are faced with retreat and flight over rugged and hostile territory, with no assistance and aggressive pursuit. There are mishaps, lucky escapes, acts of bravery and cowardice, displays of loyalty – and betrayal. There’s also a mysterious Pict woman called Arianne, who may be a witch. She’s played by Imogen Poots, who was so remarkable opposite Michael Douglas in [COLOR= #0000ff]Solitary Man[/COLOR] and is equally intriguing here.



As a director, Marshall is famous for liking his films gory, and Centurion is no exception. This was an age of combat with swords, axes, spears and arrows, and Marshall never misses an opportunity to remind the viewer that hand-to-hand fighting is a messy affair (“a slurry of blood, puke, piss and the entrails of friends and enemies alike”, as Quintus say in voiceover). What I found more memorable, though, was the sheer scale of the wilderness in which the battles are fought, a scale that dwarfs the combatants. Rivers, forests, mountain ranges: Centurion’s locations are just as spectacular as the American wilderness that Michael Mann captured for Mohicans, and they convey the same sense of isolation and danger – and one other thing: freezing cold. You have no trouble believing that this is a land where an entire army could disappear without a trace. (These aren’t CGI landscapes, and it shows.)



Centurion would probably have made a good miniseries. With greater length, Marshall would have had time to situate his story in Roman history and to develop the characters more fully before tossing them out into the wilderness. The potential for interesting backstories is certainly suggested by the script, and the cast is good enough to convey the sense that these people have tales to tell, if only they were given the opportunity. (I was particularly intrigued by Liam Cunningham’s old soldier, Brick, and Noel Clarke’s marathon runner, Macros.) And the political concerns motivating Governor Agricola are given much shorter shrift than is needed to make the film’s conclusion effective, because there just isn’t enough time. (You’ll have to see it to understand what I’m getting at.) Still, I’d rather see a filmmaker try something ambitious and fall short than just keep turning out the same thing that worked before, and I applaud Marshall for trying to move outside his comfort zone in horror films like The Descent. I was never bored watching Centurion, and I expect to return to it.




Video:



Centurion was shot on film, but the finished product reflects the crisp style that seems to be more and more prevalent in current productions, as directors and cinematographers adapt to the realities of a distribution model that relies heavily on video. Much of the film looks like it could have been originated on hi-def. Grain is almost non-existent, and the detail and depth of field obtained by cinematographer Sam McCurdy are exemplary. If one is going to venture out into such extreme conditions for a film, then at least bring back some arresting images. McCurdy succeeded.



The film’s color temperatures are cold, and this is by design. Whites, blues and greys dominate, and even browns have a bluish cast. When a genuinely warm color intrudes (such as the orange of fireballs, in a memorable sequence), the contrast is startling. As bloody as the film is, the red rarely makes an impression. This is a landscape that shrugs off bloodshed.



Black levels are very good, and I saw no evidence of compression artifacts or inappropriate digital filtering. Like almost every Blu-ray of a contemporary production derived from a digital intermediate, there’s nothing to fault here technically. The only question is whether one likes where technology seems to be driving the aesthetics of filmmaking.




Audio:



The DTS lossless mix is active and immersive, whether it’s a scene of battle, flight across a windswept mountain peak or a struggle to keep one’s head above water in a racing river. Hoof beats, blows from weaponry and bodies hitting the ground are among the sounds delivered with visceral impact. Voices are clearly rendered, and the original score by Ilan Eshkeri (who also did Kick-Ass) plays with grandeur suitable to the subject. It’s a satisfying track – all the more so, because it’s not overstated and bombastic, as many Hollywood action films tend to be.




Special Features:



Commentary with Director/Writer Neil Marshall, Director of Photography Sam McCurdy, Production Designer Sam Bowles and Special Effect Make-up Designer Paul Hyett. Initially three collaborators, then four (McCurdy joins mid-commentary) chat continuously about the technical challenges of filming under the harsh conditions of Centurion’s locations, which Marshall identifies in detail. Many of the comments repeat material covered elsewhere in the special features, but the camaraderie is entertaining. It’s noteworthy that Marshall’s original script appears to have been much longer than the one he ultimately shot, and it might be interesting to learn whether the portions that were eliminated leaned more heavily toward action or character development.



Blood, Fire & Fury: Behind the Scenes of Centurion (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced for 16:9) (26:24). An informative “making of” documentary that focuses on the origins of the scripts, the locations, the photographic style, make-up and stunts.



Deleted Scenes (SD; 1.78, centered in 4:3) (7:58). There are six scenes, with optional commentary by Marshall. None is particularly noteworthy.



Outtakes (SD; 1.78, centered in 4:3) (6:14). Various climbing mishaps, deaths that don’t go according to plan, and laughter about . . . mushrooms?



Interviews (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced for 16:9) (25:41). Much of this interview footage is repeated elsewhere in the special features, either directly or in voiceover. Interviewees are Marshall, producer Robert Jones, Fassbender, West, Kurylenko and Clarke.



Behind the Scenes Footage (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced for 16:9) (11:14). Fly-on-the-wall (or, in this case, on-the-snowdrift) footage of the cast and crew working on various battle scenes and other scenes set in the forest and the Pict encampment.



Production Design Photo Galleries (SD; 1.78:1, enhanced for 16:9) (4:15). The first gallery contains models and drawings; the second has production stills.



HDNet: A Look at Centurion (HD) (4:49). This is the usual HDNet promo piece.



Digital Copy. No separate disc is included, but instructions and a code are provided for obtaining a digital copy from iTunes. The offer expires on Nov. 2, 2012.



Trailers. At startup, the disc plays trailers for Monsters, The Oxford Murders, Barry Munday, I’m Still Here, HDNet and HDNet Movies, and the AMC series, The Walking Dead; these can be skipped with the top menu or chapter forward buttons and are also available from the special features menu.



BD-Live. After raising my hopes with its Blu-ray of [COLOR= #0000ff]I Am Love[/COLOR], Magnolia has dashed them with Centurion. This entry for BD-Live reinstates the familiar, frustrating message to check back later.





In Conclusion:



As with most Magnolia titles, Centurion received only a limited theatrical release in the U.S., with most of the distribution aimed at video. If the title is of any interest, then try to see it on Blu-ray, because the film’s visuals are its greatest strength, and they carry the film past points where the story might otherwise lose momentum.




Equipment used for this review:



Panasonic BDP-BD50 Blu-ray player (DTS-HD MA decoded internally and output as analog)


Samsung HL-T7288W DLP display (connected via HDMI)


Lexicon MC-8 connected via 5.1 passthrough


Sunfire Cinema Grand amplifier


Monitor Audio floor-standing fronts and MA FX-2 rears


Boston Accoustics VR-MC center


SVS SB12-Plus sub
 

john a hunter

Screenwriter
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
1,462
I saw the film during its short(very short ) run here in Sydney.Great fun as a chase movie though violent as you mention.It certainly looks much better on BD than in the cinema. Most of the stunning locations were apparently shot in Finland. Historically, it was basically nonsense. Hopefully next year's " Eagle" which gives us another take on the legend will manage to be both exciting and historically more aware.
 

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