Works both as implicit criticism of Gladiator's historical whitewashing and as a moving sword-and-sandals adventure in its own right. I still haven't seen The Last King of Scotland, but Macdonald's State of Play built a startlingly intimate atmosphere for a conspiracy thriller, beginning with personal relationships and working outward to ideas about image, idealism and preservation. The Eagle accomplishes much of the same. While, sure, it's a movie about Channing Tatum as a red-blooded imperialist Roman centurion setting out to restore his father's name and recover an important symbol of the fallen Ninth legion, it never shies away from difficult questions about the uncomfortable morality of the plot (the sort of thing that Gladiator's muddled, atrocious opening sequence cheerfully ignored). That Tatum's violent patriot is contrasted throughout the film with Jamie Bell's idealist slave is nothing groundbreaking in itself, but I can't think of a more successful example of character's clashing ideologies working themselves out through physical and emotional conflict. Macdonald never settles for pat solutions either; when one shot displays an obvious dualism (black horse/white horse, violence/innocence), the very next creates a refreshing ambiguity. It doesn't hurt, either, that said shot fails to stand out too much from the rest of the many gorgeous framings on display. Few recent films have incorporated hazy/dreamy flashback images so well, and credit goes to DP Anthony Dod Mantle, of Von Trier's Antichrist.
Macdonald's treatment of culture begins and ends with near-miraculous moments of poetry; an early, whispered prayer by Tatum in a dimly lit room sets up a wordless prologue to the final battle scene, which brings the literal symbolism of the Eagle into physical immediacy. Again, while the apparent attempt to create a rousing victory at the end of the film may seem to negate the complexity of what's gone before, the scene ends with an act of violence that simultaneously avenges a prior killing and deeply unsettles the viewer, all thanks to the filmmakers. No moment of classical Hollywood triumph is left unspoiled, and Macdonald's willingness to confront these issues head on, rather than ignore them and make the one-dimensional "epic" film he's so clearly capable of, is invigorating. The film doesn't quite resolve its two warring ideologies, but it's a movie, and any clear attempt to do so would seem over-simplistic.
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