100 days, 100 films; Day 87 - Robin Hood

#14 - Robin Hood

Considering the amount of Ridley Scott films I’ve reviewed at this point, whenever I come around to another one it seems like it’s business as usual really. But this particular film will introduce you to the genre that has really stayed off my list so far since those films in question are on the high spots on it. That’s right, I’m talking about the action-adventure epic. Okay maybe Troy was an epic as well but I don’t really think that fits in with the other epic films on my list (probably because it wasn’t directed by Ridley Scott). Nonetheless this is one of the more recent films on my list and it actually helped jump-start a fun little game I keep playing with my brother whenever we watch films with great casts.

We have an origin story in front of us – showing us exactly how Robin Hood became the famous outlaw from folklore. During the time of the Crusades, Robin Longstride is a common archer in the army of King Richard the Lionheart. While fighting in France against King Phillip II Richard is killed in battle and the soldiers taking his crown back to England are ambushed in the forest by a group of French knights, the king’s companion Robert Loxley among them. Robin and his friends fend off the French and the dying Loxley asks Robin to take his sword back to his father in Nottingham. An inscription on the sword looks familiar to Robin so he and his friends take the dead knights’ armour and possessions and travel back to England, Robin pretending to be Loxley. When he arrives in Nottingham, Loxley’s father Sir Walter claims that he knows details of Robin’s past and agrees to tell him if Robin stay in Nottingham, pretending to be his son returned from France in order to save the inheritance of Loxley’s widow Lady Marion. Meanwhile Godfrey, an English knight, is plotting with the French to arrange an invasion while the newly crowned King John is unaware.

I guess it’s no secret that Robin Hood has had plenty of films made about him, much like Dracula, Tarzan, Jane Eyre and Alice (of Wonderland) but I never really found any of them satisfying. The Disney one was completely awful with the whole concept of animals as the characters and don’t even get me started on that dreadful Kevin Costner film. I actually enjoyed Men In Tights but of course that wasn’t a proper serious adaptation was it? This film did go through many different story ideas, firstly having the Sheriff of Nottingham as a more sympathetic character and having Robin as more shady, as well as something about a love triangle between them and Marion. Then it moved onto something about Robin becoming the Sheriff and then it eventually graduated into the film we finally got which came off just fine if you ask me. It of course makes a big epic adventure out of the Robin Hood mythology and tells the story of exactly how he became an outlaw. I’m not that familiar with the exact details but I think it was a good idea and it came together really well on screen. It does make a good refreshing change to have an ending where you know not everything is going to turn out all happily ever after. Yes the heroes have accomplished something but Robin still becomes an outlaw at the end. It’s already a forgone conclusion from the start so that does put a different spin on things just a little.

I gave you a little hint that there was a good cast and of course here it is. I wouldn’t say it’s an all-star cast since a few of the actors aren’t exactly big proper Hollywood stars but they are reasonably well-known and all of them fine actors. Russell Crowe plays Robin of course and I enjoyed him much more than I did in Gladiator. You’d normally expect Robin Hood to be this young suave cool operator, pretty much like Disney’s Aladdin but Crowe’s interpretation of him as a much older and battle scarred everyman comes across really well. The accent is another matter entirely – he was clearly going for a Northern English accent but he ends up going on a trip around the north, midlands and some of Wales before stopping briefly in Ireland. I won’t say anymore about it except it’s still miles better than Kevin Costner’s. Cate Blanchett plays Marion who is another character Rated F For Feminist. Despite this heavy-handed feminism she is a likeable character and has some good chemistry with Crowe, their little bonding scenes providing some good comic relief particularly when she finds out she is to share her bedroom with him. 

We have the awesome Mark Strong as our big bad Godfrey, proudly showing off his polished bald head and shifty eyes and William Hurt donning a very good English accent to play Sir William Marshall. Party of Five and ER fans will recognise Scott Grimes playing Will Scarlett with a very good attempt at a Welsh accent. He’s very underrated as an actor in my opinion and it’s cool to see him in such a big budget film like this. Mark Addy makes another appearance as Friar Tuck though he doesn’t have much of a role. Eileen Atkins is brilliant as John’s mother, getting some of the better lines in the film (“milking a dry udder gets you nothing but kicked off the milking stool”) and shining in all her scenes.

The final climactic battle scene seems to draw some inspiration from Saving Private Ryan and indeed the boats the French are using look quite similar to World War II vessels, only with oars instead of motors. I’m sure the medieval French were very advanced but that might be blurring the lines of willing suspension of disbelief. It’s done pretty well and it looks very polished but I much preferred the other main action scene when Godfrey’s tax collectors invade Nottingham and of course the heroes ride in to save the day. Despite being typical and formula, it does the job and is one of the more entertaining action scenes in the film. I said before that I enjoyed the scenes between Robin and Marion and the two actors really do have excellent chemistry. You know these two will end up a couple but it gets developed well and realistically anyway. Marion herself manages to give nearly all her scenes some good comic undertones, particularly that one part where she gets stuck in the bog trying to rescue a ram and Robin jumps in...only to save the ram first.

The final climactic battle scene seems to draw some inspiration from Saving Private Ryan and indeed the boats the French are using look quite similar to World War II vessels, only with oars instead of motors. I’m sure the medieval French were very advanced but that might be blurring the lines of willing suspension of disbelief. It’s done pretty well and it looks very polished but I much preferred the other main action scene when Godfrey’s tax collectors invade Nottingham and of course the heroes ride in to save the day. Despite being typical and formula, it does the job and is one of the more entertaining action scenes in the film. I said before that I enjoyed the scenes between Robin and Marion and the two actors really do have excellent chemistry. You know these two will end up a couple but it gets developed well and realistically anyway. Marion herself manages to give nearly all her scenes some good comic undertones, particularly that one part where she gets stuck in the bog trying to rescue a ram and Robin jumps in...only to save the ram first.