One of the advantages of ancient history is that it happened so long ago that when you make a film using it as a setting, you can tell almost any story you like.  The two 300 movies are evidence of this fact, as is today’s entry, Centurion(2010).  In the second century AD, the Roman Empire extended from the Caspian Sea all the way across Europe to the border between modern day England and Scotland.  It takes a lot of soldiers to control such a vast tract of land, ones highly skilled and trained.  Organization was important, too, and the legions that conquered this territory had all three attributes.  They were feared, too, with some of them earning fierce reputations.  Hence, when one went missing such as the Ninth Legion, it was noteworthy.  There is your history.  What you are about to see is based on legend, which is another way of saying it is all made up.

It is Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender), the title soldier, who is doing the talking at the beginning of Centurion.  He is narrating his time as the second-in-command at a post on the border mentioned in the previous paragraph.  Their main enemy are a people called the Picts, who are one of the many groups who lived in what is now Scotland.  One night, the fort in which he is stationed is attacked by the Picts and he is captured.  These sorts of raids are becoming a problem for the Roman government in Britain.  Hence, the governor of the province, Gnaeus Julius Agricola (Paul Freeman), summons General Titus Flavius Virilus (Dominic West), leader of the Ninth, to lead his men north to the land of the Picts.  While General Virilus is as brave as they come, he pushes back on Governor Agricola, saying that he is not keen on sending his troops into battle to fulfill the desires of a politician hoping to aggrandize himself for the sake of returning to Rome.  Nonetheless, he accepts his orders and his men gladly follow their beloved leader.  They are also to be accompanied by a scout given them by Governor Agricola, a turncoat Brigantes woman named Etain (Olga Kurylenko).  Though she is mute, and her status as a member of a conquered people is suspect, she is able to locate Quintus as he is fleeing from Pict captivity.  General Virilus is thankful for somebody else with familiarity with the enemy and terrain and affords Quintus a high rank.  Yet, as might be expected, Etain has led the Ninth into a trap.  As they wind their way through a wooded path, they are ambushed by the Picts, who kill a majority of the Romans and take General Virilus captive.  Quintus is among the survivors, as well as a handful of General Virilus’ men.  Because they are honorable, they decide to attempt a rescue of their leader.  While they make it to the Pict settlement where Quintus had formerly been held, they are unable to free General Virilus.  In the process, Thax (JJ Feild), one of the Ninth’s more self-serving soldiers, kills the son of the Pictish chief, Gorlacon (Ulrich Thomsen).  Gorlacon is understandably upset by this development and lets Etain kill General Virilus.  He also sends her and a number of warriors after the Romans who raided their settlement, swearing them to an oath that they will succeed in killing all the invaders or die trying.  Before departing General Virilus at his order, he gives command to Quintus and bades him to get the rest home safely.  It is a burden Quintus takes seriously.  Thus, the route he comes up with to hopefully get the Picts off their trail is to first go north, the opposite direction from the Roman frontier.  It makes no difference because of Etain’s skills as a tracker.  It is a race to try and make it to safety, and the Romans are at a disadvantage because of their lack of horses.  Though they manage to stay alive and together, they run into a dead end at a cliff overlooking a river.  It is at this point that they start losing men and Quintus orders them to jump down into the river.  Thax and one other, Marcos (Noel Clarke), are separated from the rest and are now hunted by wolves.  To get away, Thax wounds Marcos and leaves the injured soldier for the pack.  As for Quintus, he and two others regroup and eventually find a hut.  Living alone there is Arianne (Imogen Poots), a Pict outcast.  Once again, the Romans are suspicious, but her status with the Picts and her proximity to a Roman garrison means she can speak their language.  She feeds them and helps bandage the wounded.  She also hides the three when Etain inevitably catches up with them.  Quintus is touched by their hospitality, which she extends to provisioning them so they can complete their journey.  Unfortunately, the garrison has deserted the closest fort.  Tired of running, Quintus proposes that they stand and fight and the other two agree.  He and Bothos (David Morrissey) manage to survive, with Quintus killing Etain.  Before they get to Roman lines, they are met by Thax, who locates their campfire that night.  Quintus is suspicious of the explanation given as to Marcos’ fate and is open about it.  Hence, as Bothos rides ahead to the still under construction Hadrian’s Wall, Thax stays back with a sword on Quintus.  Quintus is able to overpower Thax, but he cannot save Bothos.  After all this, Quintus is brought to Governor Agricola to report on the fate of the Ninth.  On the surface, Governor Agricola gives the returning soldier a hero’s welcome.  Privately, he wants the memory of the Ninth wiped out so as to avoid political embarrassment.  This means murdering Quintus.  Though wounded, he is able to turn the table on his attackers.  We end with him riding back to Arianne apparently to live out the rest of his days as an exile of Rome.

In other words, Arianne and Quintus share the exile label by the end of Centurion.  We can broaden those commonalities with some of the film’s dialog and knowledge of history.  For instance, they both believe in a polytheistic religion.  For the Romans, their gods and goddesses dwelled in the heavens.  Based on the Greek pantheon of deities, they were also fickle and humanistic.  Pict polytheism had these latter traits, but were more connected to nature.  What strikes me about these belief systems from a Catholic perspective is the way they talk about the gods abandoning them.  It may sometimes feel that way for Christians, but the truth is that God is incapable of leaving us completely on our own.  There is plenty of Scripture to support this fact, but instead I would like to use a line from the movie.  At one point, it is said that “the gods never get their feet wet.”  It speaks to the distress the Romans are experiencing, their despair over being seemingly left on their own.  God entered into our mess by sending His only son, Jesus, to live, suffer, and die for us.  That alone should be proof enough that the Picts and Romans have the wrong religious ideas, but Catholic history also has something to say on the matter.  The lives of the saints are full of stories of God directly intervening.  I get it.  To the Romans on the run, and the Picts frustrated in their chase, it might appear that there is no such thing as divine assistance.  However, that is seeing these events as humans do.  Our gaze is always dim and narrower than God’s.  Unfortunately, our characters did not yet have the Christian perspective that might have helped them through their difficulties.

What is difficult about watching Centurion is less about the pagan religions than the amount of gore.  It is bloody and violent, and not for children or the faint of heart.  I was pleased with the relatively happy ending and some of the history.  At the same time, some of the action is over-the-top.