The Eagle (of the Ninth) Book to Movie

Hey there :)

While I still have to watch the second Labyrinth movie I thought we might want to take the time to talk about another good book to movie adaption:
The Eagle Of The Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff (or The Eagle as the movie is called) is about the young Roman Marcus who tries to restore the honor of his family. Years ago his father was the leader of the ninth Roman legion that was destroyed behind the hadrian's wall in the unknown lands of the dangerous picts. The eagle, the standard of the legion, was lost and with it the honor of said legion and it's comander.
Now Marcus sets out to find the missing eagle, accompanied by a slave called Esca, who knows the land.
I did a full review on the book. I loved it, it was amazing, and I gave it five out of five stars.

So know let's talk about the movie starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell as Marcus and Esca. Beware of spoilers ahead! (If you do not know the whole story you may not want to read on)



There were several changes between the movie and the book. Of course they were there. You always have to change things when you are adapting a book, since a movie is a different way to tell a story. I liked some of these changes and I disliked others.

But first things first: the casting. Tatum played a good and solid Marcus, but Jaime Bell as Esca was just awesome. They couldn't have casted a better actor. He portrayed the feelings of this flawed character in a great way.

I was really sad that they could out Cradoc in the movie. I mean I can understand that they had to cut "unimportant" things but this particular part showed us a lot about Marcus' character and how he things of the people in occupied Britain. His attitude towards him definitely makes him different from other romans like Placidus. The same thing goes for the cutting out of the little girl who's name I just forgot... ups :D
And what about Cup? They could at least have kept the little wolf in.
Another great thing which wasn't really portrayed in the movie was the ceremony of the painted seal people. The book version had just a way better atmosphere than the movie version.

I liked the fact that they changed Esca's attitude in the arena. It made him stand above the romans and gave his character a completely new side. He was uprising against the cruelty of the romans in some way through deciding not to take place in that cruelty.

The fact that they changed the ending was the only thing that I really disliked about the movie. It was just not a little flaw but a huge mistake. In the book Marcus does not return the eagle so the legion cannot be replaced and Esca's people can live in freedom and peace. It showed how much Marcus understood the people he met on his journey and how much he learned on it.

The movie was, just as good as the book, able to show that both sides have their right and their wrongs. They are both good and evil in the same way. You cannot just choose sides.

So all in all this is one of the good, well let's say amazing, book to movie adaptions. Which is a great thing since it is a great story and there are so many bad adaptions out there.

Have you read the book? Did you see the movie? What did you think of it? Tell me about it in the comments :)

Love and Words
KJ

Oh and I am using this as my post for the 18th day of the Book Challenge. Since I was supposed to write about my favourite book to movie adaption today. And this is (besides the Hobbit) my favourite book movie :)