It was only last year Ridley Scott continued his historical epic Gladiator with a second part and proved that, like only a few filmmakers, he understands that he was surprisingly brutal in his blockbusters. In particular, the aggressive CGI monkeys may have remembered some viewers.
Gladiator is far from marking the top when it comes to action -packed history films from Hollywood. Centurion, who came to the cinema 15 years ago and feels like a survival thriller, feels even more relentlessly. He runs on TV tonight.
Brutal Action-Inferno: In Centurion, Michael Fassbender is ambushed by the pikes
The story of Centuion takes us into 117 AD. In northern Britain, the Centurio Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) is on the road with its men and is ambushed by the pikes that almost costs him life. Caught, dragged and tortured: This is how he can escape through the forest.
Here you can watch the trailer for Centurion:
Centurion – Trailer (German) HD
There, Captain Titus Flavius Virilus (Dominic West), who leads the ninth legion of the Roman Empire and also refrained from pikes. With the help of pikin Etain (Olga Kurylenko), which was kidnapped by the Romans as a child, a slaughter plan is to be developed. But can the soldiers trust them?
Although the characters in Centurion are repeatedly captured, the film itself does not make a prisoner. After all, Neil Marshall sits on the director’s chair, which has made a name for itself with uncompromising horror and action films. He staged his toughest battle of survival to date with The Descent.
With Centurion, Neil Marshall demonstrated before Game of Thrones that he can stage slaughter
Marshall is also very familiar with armor and swords. In the 2010s he staged two of the most epic Game of Thrones episodes, especially Blackwater (season 2, episode 9) and The Watchers on the Wall (season 4, episode 9). Centurion looks like a test run for the Westeros battles, but is actually so much more.
Rarely was a historical film so rough, dirty and hopeless. The pictures of cameraman Sam McCurdy come with a cold that loses additional hardness to the raw bloodshed and ensures a uncomfortable atmosphere. Only death is waiting in these icy forests – no trace of the honor of a gladiator.
Be warned: Centurion is really not for the faint of heart. Sometimes the film could go through as a pure horror trip through rabid landscapes. For around an hour and a half we go into a frosty nightmare in which the morning dew of the forests with the freshly cast blood mixtures of countless warriors.
When is the historical action film Centurion on TV?
Centurion runs tonight on March 29, 2025 at 10:05 p.m. on Tele 5. With advertising, the broadcast goes until 00:05. The repetition follows from Monday to Tuesday at 00:00. If you prefer to stream the film, you can currently only do this with various purchase and leisure spots on Amazon and Co.