Centurion the movie

**Brian93** · October 18, 2010, 10:03 PM

I dont under stand. Germanic tribes slaughtered 3 entire legions under Varus at Teutoberg, and the germans didnt decide to go on a rampage across Rome.

Why were they so worried of news of the annihilation of the 9th legion spreading?

**Derek522055** · October 18, 2010, 11:11 PM

Centurion the movie is based on the Caladonian tribes in modern Scotland. The Varus massacre at the Teutoburg Forest happened in Germania and was actually organized by a currently enlisted Roman Auxillary named Arminius. It was a well executed surprise attack that Varus did not expect. I dont know why a full scale invasion wasnt launched, but it could have something to do with Arminius' inability to maintain unity with major Germanic tribes and most importantly the failure to enlist the Marcommani tribe. Shortly after the Teutoburg Forest General Germanicus went on a brutal counter offensive, thoroughly smashing through Germania.

**Brian93** · October 19, 2010, 06:49 PM

Had unity been achieved and a full scale invasion launched, would it have been enough to check roman power for good?

**Darth_Revan** · October 22, 2010, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by Brian93

Had unity been achieved and a full scale invasion launched, would it have been enough to check roman power for good?

umm ever heard of what Caesar and 50,000 legionaires did to them few decades earlier.??? in the open field they would have been slaughtered by the Roman war machine.. which the Gauls proved perfectly.. also they did have the thick dense forrest helping them and Rome never had the proper terrain to form up their legions for battle..

**Achea** · October 19, 2010, 07:17 PM

Had unity been achieved and a full scale invasion launched, would it have been enough to check roman power for good?

No way. The success at Teutoberg by the Germanic warriors was totally due to advantages in terrain. Arminius was smart enough to realize that his tribal warriors could rout the Roman column only in the confined spaces of the forest path. Even if Arminius pulled off a PR miracle and managed to unite all of Germany's tribes, an invasion of Rome herself would entail fighting on flat plains in pitch battles, events in which Roman training and superior equipment would absolutely annihiliate any united German army.

**shikaka** · October 20, 2010, 01:55 AM

Originally Posted by Brian93

Why were they so worried of news of the annihilation of the 9th legion spreading?

Actually noone knows what happened to those guys, what you see in this film is only a theory. What is for sure only, that the legion is not appearing anywhere after a time.

It could happen that they just settled. Maybe they just took a wife from the local populace, and when they were told that they are going to for example Syria, they showed a finger and left...

**emanb56** · October 20, 2010, 07:04 PM

Derek522055 is right..the movie is based in brittania and at the end you see hadrian's wall which was to cut off the barbarians from the roman empire

**sad_times** · October 22, 2010, 09:04 AM

Originally Posted by emanb56

Derek522055 is right..the movie is based in brittania and at the end you see hadrian's wall which was to cut off the barbarians from the roman empire

I think you're missunderstanding him here. He means that 3 whole legions got slaughtered in Teutoberg Forest, soon after everyone knew it, the responsible officers got punished etc etc....
But in the movie (yes, it takes place in Britain) they're worried about news getting out of the slaughter of only one legion. I hope i interpreted OP right

**Thomius** · October 22, 2010, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by sad_times

I think you're missunderstanding him here. He means that 3 whole legions got slaughtered in Teutoberg Forest, soon after everyone knew it, the responsible officers got punished etc etc....
But in the movie (yes, it takes place in Britain) they're worried about news getting out of the slaughter of only one legion. I hope i interpreted OP right

Britain was more remote really. Easier to keep it quiet. They were mostly afraid of letting it out because the Governor had a cushy Senatorial posting coming up in Rome (as described in the film), and the idea itself was brought up by the governors wife more than anything. That and Varus at least had the good sense to die in the battle...imagine if Varus had survived...the punishments he would have suffered, that being if he hadn't tried to put some spin on the events.

I think the film has it about right. Rome would have believed whatever the Governor told them, that he sent the Legion into Pict territory and it was destroyed or deserted en masse. With no survivors no one would be able to tell Rome that the Governor had ordered them to follow some Pict woman he trusted who in turn destroyed the Legion by leading them into a trap (ie, pretty much repeated Varus' mistake). The Governor destroyed the IX as much as the Picts did, really, but that would never have to be known, as there was no one but the Governor, his wife, and a couple of his garrison commanders who would know. They would all have kept quiet because none of them would have wished their careers to be destroyed by the incident, and their careers would have been, no doubt about it.

But this is just based off the scenario presented in the film, no one actually knows what happened to the ninth. Though I prefer this potential scenario to the one presented in the Last Legion, for sure.

**Brian93** · October 23, 2010, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by sad_times

I think you're missunderstanding him here. He means that 3 whole legions got slaughtered in Teutoberg Forest, soon after everyone knew it, the responsible officers got punished etc etc....
But in the movie (yes, it takes place in Britain) they're worried about news getting out of the slaughter of only one legion. I hope i interpreted OP right

You sir, are absolutely right! haha

**Xellos_Moon** · October 23, 2010, 02:23 AM

About the teutoberg scenario:

After the disaster Arminius did spread new of his victory to germans everywhere in hopes of uniting all of germania against Rome. Varus' head was given to a german tribe called the Marcomanai(the biggest tribe in Germany) to persuade them to join. However the Marcomanic king decided to give the head back to Augustus for proper burial and maybe gain a little favor from Rome. So Arminius' plan broke down.

**Drudelo** · October 24, 2010, 05:13 PM

This is slightly off topic but to those who have seen the movie, is it any good? I was considering watching it and I figured I'd ask first.

**shikaka** · October 25, 2010, 02:28 AM

Originally Posted by Drudelo

This is slightly off topic but to those who have seen the movie, is it any good? I was considering watching it and I figured I'd ask first.

Can be watched... Once.

Actually they had the budget for:
- good looking costumes
- a director who loves blood
- a sexy barbarian girl

they didn't have the budget for:
- a good screenplay
- non-cgi blood

Also, it is quite difficult to support the romans, they are the invaders after all...

Basicly this is an action movie with a roman feeling in the background. Not a historical movie, but an action movie. Also, there is only 1 bigger battle, mostly it is a chase of a few surviving romans.

The action scenes look very good, if you can tell yourself that you are not seeing cgi blood.
Also, they are quite refreshing. I mean when did you last see that it is fully shown that a barbarian smashes the battleaxe into the face of a roman?

A popcorn movie, worth seeing once, but nothing extraordinary. You should expect a chace-in-the-wilderness movie, like for example Apocalypto was.

**|Sith| Max** · October 25, 2010, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by shikaka

Can be watched... Once.

Actually they had the budget for:
- good looking costumes
- a director who loves blood
- a sexy barbarian girl

they didn't have the budget for:
- a good screenplay
- non-cgi blood

Also, it is quite difficult to support the romans, they are the invaders after all...

Basicly this is an action movie with a roman feeling in the background. Not a historical movie, but an action movie. Also, there is only 1 bigger battle, mostly it is a chase of a few surviving romans.

The action scenes look very good, if you can tell yourself that you are not seeing cgi blood.
Also, they are quite refreshing. I mean when did you last see that it is fully shown that a barbarian smashes the battleaxe into the face of a roman?

A popcorn movie, worth seeing once, but nothing extraordinary. You should expect a chace-in-the-wilderness movie, like for example Apocalypto was.

Sounds familiar

**Thomius** · October 26, 2010, 04:50 AM

Originally Posted by shikaka

Can be watched... Once.

Actually they had the budget for:
- good looking costumes
- a director who loves blood
- a sexy barbarian girl

they didn't have the budget for:
- a good screenplay
- non-cgi blood

Also, it is quite difficult to support the romans, they are the invaders after all...

Basicly this is an action movie with a roman feeling in the background. Not a historical movie, but an action movie. Also, there is only 1 bigger battle, mostly it is a chase of a few surviving romans.

The action scenes look very good, if you can tell yourself that you are not seeing cgi blood.
Also, they are quite refreshing. I mean when did you last see that it is fully shown that a barbarian smashes the battleaxe into the face of a roman?

A popcorn movie, worth seeing once, but nothing extraordinary. You should expect a chace-in-the-wilderness movie, like for example Apocalypto was.

Agree with this. But what I will add is that the battle itself was heavily researched. I think it really shines through as well, using what we do know of the Romans as opposed to making leaps of faith on wild conjecture. Also it departs from the usual motif of "glorious battle" displayed in films where there is very little blood and instead shows the chaos of a battle in all its gory detail, showing there is nothing glorious about it.

Thats the battle scene. For all some people say in Youtube comments that the Roman lines should have broken when the balls of fire came at them, I don't see how they could have done it. As far as fillms go though, probably one of the best i've seen, even if not ideal.

**|Sith| Max** · October 24, 2010, 11:05 PM

Same for me. was it fun?

**Drudelo** · October 25, 2010, 02:51 PM

Thanks shikaka. I didn't really expect it to have a good storyline but as you have said it has some cool parts I think I will watch it.

**Northern_Warrior** · October 25, 2010, 03:21 PM

I found this movie to be more of a attempt to do a clever commentary on modern politics ("honor less" war on the edge of the world..hmm sound familiar?)

**Entropy Judge** · October 26, 2010, 10:13 AM

Thats the battle scene. For all some people say in Youtube comments that the Roman lines should have broken when the balls of fire came at them, I don't see how they could have done it.

Not too bad, although the blood made me laugh quite a bit ... it just looks goofy. RE: Line Break: The balls did their job, actually - when the Caledonians charged, they were able to get in among the Romans, whereas if the balls hadn't been there or hadn't worked, they would have run into the intact shield wall. I do think they downplayed the effects of the balls a bit - assuming they're made of stone (going by the impact), at least a few people probably should've been crushed or had broken legs, and the fire probably should have cleared a bigger area, but all in all I'd say it did pretty well.