Los Angeles Film Festival

Centurion

(United Kingdom, 2009, 97 mins, 35mm; HDCam — Frame Rate 23.)

Executive Producers: Paul Smith, Cameron McCracken, Francois Ivernel
Producers: Christian Colson, Robert Jones
Screenwriter: Neil Marshall
Cinematographer: Sam Mccurdy
Editor: Chris Gill
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Dominic West, Olga Kurylenko

Reimagining the fate of the Roman Ninth Legion—who, legend has it, marched into northern England at the beginning of the second century and was never seen again—director Neal Marshall employs his lean and muscular style of cinema to great effect in this hard-hitting, high-octane adventure.

The year is 117 AD, and Michael Fassbender is Quintus Dias, the de facto leader of what remains of a Roman battalion lost behind enemy lines. Now, pursued by the savage Pict clan, this small band of men must make their way south, hiding when possible, fighting when necessary—and it’s often necessary. Swords will be crossed, heads will be severed, and action fans will revel in the bloody glory of it all. Sharing more in common with The Warriors than with Gladiator or 300 (although stars Fassbender and Dominic West were both in that film as well), Centurion is a brutally unadorned distillation of the signature tropes—the camaraderie among men, surprisingly strong (and deadly) women, an innate sense of action—that have cemented Marshall his place as one of Britain’s top genre filmmakers.

Doug Jones

Expected to attend: Neil Marshall.

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