Would you buy the very contemporary Channing Tatum as a Roman soldier circa 140 A.D.? He’s certainly got the face for it, and Kevin Macdonald’s The Eagle (formerly The Eagle of the Ninth) helps him out in other ways: Most of the other actors speak with American accents, negating the need for Tatum to learn the quasi-British accent that tends to dominate most period pictures like this, and the production is smart enough to amp up the action and battle scenes in this tale of a commander’s son (Tatum) who teams with a shifty, shirtless slave (Jamie Bell) to find his missing father. Eventually, Bell wrestles with Tatum and becomes his master, and after shouted statements like “Get on your knees,” “Do as I did for you,” and “You’re still my slave,” one of the main takeaways is how easy they’re making it for the eventual gay-porn parody (which will be titled The Spread Eagle, surely).
