'The Eagle' dir. Kevin Macdonald

This film works on the long held premise that the Roman Empire was almost entirely reliant on the Master-Slave relationship. It has a clear debt to Gladiator as well as more recent written fiction about Rome that tends to concentrate on this theme.

Channing Tatum's character Marcus Aquila starts the film as a man very much in command of his own destiny. He has chosen a posting in Britain, at the very edge of the Roman world. The reason for this is that he is attempting to restore his father's honour by trying to regain a golden eagle lost by the ninth legion in Scotland many years previously.

A severe injury shortly renders him incapable of completing this task with the cohort he commands. Instead, he is left to recover from his wounds away from the front line. The battle that leads to this injury is rendered in a close-up documentary style that is typical of the director Kevin Macdonald. There is a grim, almost visceral authenticity that runs through both this scene and the film as a whole. Every shield covered in muck and gore seems as close as if you were standing in front of it. Aquila's fate after this battle is to lose his command.

After his injury, he is sent to the care of his uncle (Donald Sutherland) who informs him that he has been forced into an honourable discharge. This reversal leaves Aquila without hope that he can regain the lost eagle. However, this hopelessness is short lived after he sees a brave performance from a Gladiator named Esca. At a moment of intense pressure, Aquila finds that he has a chance to save Esca's life. He does so and as a consequence Esca (Jamie Bell) is bound to serve him.

Unsurprisingly, this leads to Aquila rekindling his interest in finding the lost eagle as the two of them build a reluctant friendship. As they head north over the Scottish border, the relationship between the two becomes more blurred as Esca begins to enjoy the obvious advantages of being able to speak the native language.

Eventually, the tension this creates between them leads to their capture at the hands of some ruthless natives. It is at this point that the two leads really come into their own. Channing Tatum is an actor who has made some pretty awful films but in this he is well cast and very believable in this role. Likewise, Jamie Bell really lends a brooding, resentful presence to Esca.

Yet, perhaps their most intriguing encounter is with Mark Strong, who plays a former comrade of Aquila's father known as Guern. He speaks in a cod-American accent and delivers a line which almost sinks the film - 'No, you weren't there'. He was referring the battle at which the legion lost their eagle but it sounded as if it could belong in any 'Nam flick.

Despite this, his role in the film is an intriguing one as a man who had almost lost himself. Indeed, he shares this in common with Aquila, whose one aim leads him to repeated acts of violence that often seem to have no function. Given this level of violence, the certificate was really something of a surprise at a 12A but it certainly provides a couple of hours of classic, boys own adventure.

The film does have weak points such as Guern's slightly unreal motivations towards the finale but it is a story that reinforces the importance of honour and friendship. Well worth a watch, but not for the squeamish.