All heroes die
Swift shot: Depressing, utterly, depressing. Watching your father’s childhood hero walk the plank of shame in his latter years was no fun. Directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, The Last of Robin Hood tells the one-sided tale of Beverly Aadland and her overly manipulative mother, Florence and their time with Errol Flynn. These two became infamous before Dina Lohan was even born. But, while the seedy press of the time focused on sensational caricatures of each of the players in the final chapter of Errol Flynn’s adventurous life, as with most things out of Hollyweird, the truth is not as exciting as you’ve been led to believe. And, I learned plenty watching this film. More than I ever wanted to know.
Kevin Kline is one of my favorite actors. My first exposure to him was in 1989’s The January Man, a fine film with a great payoff, highly recommend checking it out. He’s also starred in some wonderfully funny films, French Kiss, A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures, and In and Out to name a handful – but now, he’s decided to become Errol Flynn. To me, the resemblance is uncanny, and perhaps he’s always been destined to portray Flynn – I can imagine his casting call was just that, a call from Tracy Kilpatrick, “You are in . . . like Flynn!” And become Flynn, Kline does, but not during the fun times – more the sad, gasping and grasping on to the past . . . depressing times. I didn’t know anything about this story, to me, Flynn was just the guy my dad idolized as a kid. Knowing my dad, though, I don’t think he’d have been too happy about how Flynn ended up, in his final act on this mortal coil.
Dakota Fanning plays young, dancer, Beverly Aadland, who becomes the last “piece” of happiness that Errol can maintain in his silver years – she’s pretty young, actually. When she first meets him, Beverly is immediately star-struck. She’s been in entertainment her whole life, and the fact that Dakota Fanning actually started as a toddler in the industry makes her casting in this role perfect. Even she knows it is a big deal to be personally requested to meet with Errol Flynn. Before she can meet with Errol though, she needs to run it past her mother, Florence (Susan Sarandon) . Florence is a tragic figure, as you get to know more about her past, you really find sympathy for a woman who at the time everything was happening was labeled a pushy stage mother or a pimp!
Florence reminds me of a mother I know, a mother that lost her ability to do what she loved, and she puts all her effort into her kids pushing them to be exceptional. While it would be easy to paint Florence as a villain, I couldn’t really. Really, with The Last of Robin Hood, you see three sad souls trying to enjoy a little slice of happiness. When you consider how young Errol Flynn was when he died, it becomes hard to judge his decisions. In one telling scene, Errol explains why he lives each day like his last. Imagine if you were him, how much differently would you have behaved? I think that thought swirled in my head throughout the film. Putting myself in each of the trio’s shoes, what was their greatest sin? There was pride, and there was lust, and certainly envy, but all humans are flawed – no one is a true hero anymore. Perhaps there never have been any real heroes – if you assume a zero-defect mentality?
Errol was constantly performing, and people expected him to perform all the time! In one painful scene, he was in so much angst a doctor was called and before he got to the doctor’s house, the prick doctor had invited half the neighborhood over to meet Errol Flynn. Never mind the fact that he was in so much pain that he actually called a doctor while he was out of the country, and had to agree to meet at his home. Still, true to what people wanted, Errol entertained. In fact, he entertained up to the very last moment of his brief time with us in this life he called a stage.
This film served as a history lesson for me, about a hero that I knew very little about to begin with. He was the swashbuckler, but he had a reputation that was warranted. One wonders though, and sadly Kline failed to really capture this with the direction/editing, was this all merely a facade that became the man, or was the man a facade his entire life? Reports of his youth would suggest that he was always a hell-raiser, but there was nothing in this film that exposed that. Perhaps it didn’t fit the narrative of the author, and it would seem that he (or she) who wins the wars writes the history books. So, Florence probably came across as more sympathetic, because this was essentially her story – or at least her retelling of events as she wanted them to be remembered. The truth, I am sure, is probably somewhere in the dark.
Whether you love Errol Flynn, or loathed him, or most-likely never even heard of him (speaking to the new generation) – this film is important to watch, as depressing as it was, because it paints the true picture of an American tragedy. I don’t mean the loss of a legend, I mean the expectations that we all set for ourselves, and in the end, when we allow others to take control of who we become – especially in Hollywood. It’s sad, it’s short, and it might very well offend you, but it will hopefully serve as a lesson that we are all human, and that even heroes sometimes fall. In fact, I will do you one better, old sport, only heroes may genuinely fall, because they are on the top to begin with.
[Swift aside: I saw this film the day before Robin Williams died, another entertainer who lived for our attention – gone far too soon. The very next day we all witnessed The Last of Robin Williams]
