a SIFF 2010 review
Rugged Centurion a Boldly Brutal Medieval Epic
Stationed at a remote outpost in furthest regions of the Roman Empire, Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) has been captured by the Picts and taken to their encampment hidden atop a desolate mountain range. But before they can hunt him for their sport he escapes, setting out on foot across the snow hoping to be reunited with his countrymen.
Michael Fassbender (right) is on the run in Centurion © Magnet Releasing
As luck would have it he ends up being rescued by the army of General Titus Virilus (Dominic West), a great soldier and tactician charged with discovering the Pict camp and wiping them out. But the group is betrayed, their mute guide Etain (Olga Kurylenko) leading them into an ambush decimating their numbers.
With Titus captured, Quintus leads the survivors on a daring rescue of their General. Things do not go as planned, the Pict commander’s young son killed during the raid. Now the small group must somehow make their way to the nearest Roman fort, Etain and a company of vicious fighters dogging their every move, bloodthirsty vengeance the only thing on any of their minds.
Set during the 2nd Century Roman conquest of Britain, Neil Marshall’s Centurion is a bold, aggressive pursuit thriller that sets the pulse racing during the first few frames and then somehow manages to keep it there for the remainder of its 97-minute running time. Not so much a story with heroes and villains but one more of survival against the most perilous of odds, this vibrant and alive action epic is a total kick in the pants that’s a heck of a lot more fun than it probably should be.
Why should be? Nothing really happens. The whole movie is essentially about Quintus running through the forest. Sometimes alone, sometimes with a ragtag group of fellow soldiers, but running through the forest all the same. In many ways it is the medieval second cousin to the Charles Bronson/Lee Marvin actioner Death Hunt from 1981. It’s a series of escapes, near-misses and close-encounters, the ultimate destination one born more from a primal necessity to stay alive than it is anything else.
Additionally, I wasn’t kidding when I said there weren’t any heroes or villains. While Etain and her fellow Picts are certainly the aggressors, they’re trying to protect their homeland from invaders many of whom have done unspeakable evils against their friends and family so it’s easy to understand their hatred. At the same time, Quintus and the other Romans are just trying to stay alive while also sticking to a code of honor that tells them to leave no good man behind. Everything here is a shade of gray, and while I found it easy to root for the prey I found the hunters to be almost as worthy of my affections as those they were methodically stalking.
I would imagine this will create an unusual dilemma for some members of the audience. We tend to like things simple, the bad guys to be all bad and the good guys to be virtuous figures of almighty justice. But that isn’t Marshall’s goal and if it turns off viewers than so be it, the director consumed with forcing his audience to relate to both sides of the equation so that when the killing begins the question of whom to root for isn’t crystal clear.
There is a caveat to all this. Whether intended or not, Fassbender is just so great as Quintus at a certain point he ends up taking the movie over, and while Etain (sinisterly, yet seductively, portrayed by Kurylenko) can’t help but fascinate my allegiance slipped the Centurion’s way all the same. There is something about his emotional journey that makes him, not so much a heroic figure, but one I just wanted to find something akin to happiness. After all he goes through, after all he puts on the line while many others (with two big exceptions) just continue to look out for themselves, after those he has sworn allegiance to threaten to betray him, Quintus retains both his dignity and his honor, and if those aren’t qualities worthy of respecting than I’m not sure what else would be.
Marshall totally redeems himself for the mediocre misfire that was Doomsday, and while Centurion does not quite rise to the beautifully realized magnificence of his underground horror masterwork The Descent that still doesn’t make this ruggedly brutal B-movie any less impressive. The violence has bite and punch, the action sequences arguably better than anything higher-priced Hollywood productions have shown us this entire Summer. For genre fans, this is the type of film worth fawning over, and while I imagine its stay in the multiplex will sadly be short-lived the potentially massive cult following it will generate on DVD and Blu-ray will be something else entirely.
- Review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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