War ‘Eagle’

Columbus, Magellan, De Soto—these names garner the lion’s share of attention when talk turns to history’s great explorers, but ancient Rome had it’s share of explorers, too, and this Friday critically-acclaimed director Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland, State of Play) The Eagle dramatizes one Roman soldier’s quest to find his father’s lost unit of 5,000 troops, a group that ventured far beyond the empire’s reach and into uncharted territory. Channing Tatum stars as Marcus Aquila, who sets out from Roman-ruled Britain in search of answers to his father’s disappearance and to make a name for himself as an exemplary son of Rome. Tatum chooses deadly and untrustworthy slave-turned-gladiator played by Jamie Bell for his journey, and together they encounter wild terrain, mystical druids and savage clans of the highlands as they scavenge for his father’s lost Eagle emblem. Julian Jones and Denis O’Hare co-star. Rated PG-13.