Robin Hood is the latest version of a story that is well known and told a different way every time they make a movie about it. The latest version is the story of how the legend first began; and as far as I know is the most historically accurate telling thus far. Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe team up once again attempting to capture the magic they shared with Gladiator. Robin Hood, unfortunately fizzled and the bottle was shattered – the magic was gone.
Following the ill-fated Crusades led by King Richard of England, Robin Longstride, a mere archer in the King’s army is wrapped up in espionage and intrigue that catapult his life into legend. All the standard Robin Hood characters make an appearance in this film: Little John (Kevin Durand); Prince John (Oscar Isaac); Will Scarlet (Scott ‘Critters’ Grimes); Marion (Cate Blanchett); and even Fryar Tuck (Mark Addy). Each character plays a role in the grand chess board that makes up England – post Crusade.
King Richard (Danny Huston) and his valiant men return home from their 10 year tour spent fighting in the Holy Land, in which large amounts of money and lives were lost with not much of an outcome. In fact, King Richard decides on his way back to England to ransack several of France’s castles to make up some of the debt lost from the wars. It is here that we first encounter Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) again a standard archer in Richard’s army.
Prince John is running things while the king is away, and as all the versions of Robin Hood portray him, he is a lech of a man, a traitor to his noble blood and a coward – nothing new there. John takes a liking to running the show while Rick wages another adventure, this time on a former ally – France. His mother, Elinor of Aquitaine (Eileen Atkins) is determined to see her son, not Richard, the rightful heir to England. Together with her son and other nefarious types, they plot to kill Richard whilst he is pillaging France’s castles to pay for war debt incurred in the Crusades.
John’s closest consort, Godfrey (Mark Strong) betrays Richard to the King of France and political intrigue really starts to develop. Following events that are inevitable, but I won’t divulge them here – Robin and his band of loyal troops flee John’s army to wage a war with the usurping king of England.
The movie continues to gradually build as the legend of the “real” Robin Hood is laid out for the viewer to judge, but the filmmakers seemed to preach more than present – as the history of Robin Hood is told for “how it truly was”. I personally thought the movie dragged on at points and wasn’t as good as I hoped. The more “experienced” audience enjoyed the movie, while the younger audience actually became so bored a few of them left the theater. All in all the action scenes were good, but the movie was not great at all. I say if you’re like me, save your money and hour of your time and watch the Disney cartoon classic Robin Hood instead!
