June 13th, 2010

Recently I went to see the new Robin Hood film, starring Russell Crowe as Robin Hood (Robin Longstride) and Cate Blanchett as the dignified Maid Marion. I had had a number of qualms about the film beforehand as I heard, while it was in production, that it was going to be making political statements, which meant to me t’would be all about ‘rob from the rich and give to the poor’.

What is wrong with this viewpoint on the Robin Hood legend, is that it was invented around the 1500’s when the Robin Hood legend was both in extreme decay and surging popularity, leading to what one might call ‘creative inventions’! I have covered the heart of the real Robin Hood legend here and here. For further information on why the socialist take is not correct, see ‘Number Three’ in this open letter to the BBC.

The fact is, such an idea likely springs from views of Robin Hood as being quite the generous, open-handed hero chief, who, as it says in the Gest of Robin Hood (one of the earliest sources) was courteous and ‘did poor men much good’. This is not, however, his original audacity and says nothing about redistribution of wealth.

Happily, despite the film’s numerous occurrences of ‘content’ I was pleasantly surprised by the depiction of Robin; not as some modern anti-hero, as I had once expected (!) but as a good, honest, hardworking and safe man. In fact he is still portrayed heroically and without the socialist trappings! Something probably no other film about Robin Hood can boast!

Although I feel the need to point out that Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950) also had the make-the-king-sign-the-Magna-Carta plot point as a feat of Robin’s, (however much Ridley Scott may think it his own invention), I like what Robin stands for in this film: ‘Every Englishman’s home is his castle’ and Empower the weak to fend for themselves. Certainly this is not socialism! Were the producers moonstruck to make such a mistake? I watched the Robin Hood ‘documentary’ on the History Channel at my grandparents’, and socialism was the theme of the day. The ‘documentary’ struggled to draw a line between socialist dogma and Ridley’s choice of the Magna Carta as Robin’s prime issue. The two together don’t make sense, Ridley!

The most amazing thing is that real, authentic Old English warbows were made for the film! I don’t think this has been done, in any Robin Hood production, since the 1908 Lewis Waller Robin Hood play in London!

My second qualm would be against those who say Russell is not handsome enough for the role. Old he may be but dull he is not. And his actions speak for him and conspire to make you feel his case. Likely my favorite part of the movie is when he sees the arch-villain Godfrey about to butcher Marian. The bull-rush Robin Hood gives onto the scene is highly realistic and compelling.

Godfrey is such a chilling villain that if there is a sequel to this movie I do not know what could ever replace him.

This is not to say I did not love the way Godfrey died; with one of Robin Hood’s lethal arrows through his neck.

The Sheriff of Nottingham—French on his mother’s side—was played by Matthew Macfadyen, the actor who played Darcy in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice. He gives Marian a little trouble occasionally but is really merely comedy.

Little John, however, I am afraid was done very poorly. No notice was taken to the northern legend which portrays him as large and fair and rather perilous while good. But how would the producers have been aware of this? However a hint of his other legend, which portrays him just as a boy—Jacky boy or Robin’s Jok or an ‘innocent fool’—was, interestingly, in the film, with Robin Hood looking out for the safety of a boy called Jamie at the beginning of the story, before he is killed. Instead of correctly putting an ‘I’ over his grave, Robin & friends put ‘J’—anachronism! UNSCHOLARLY!

The grand sweeps that the cameras took throughout the film, and overall cinematic effect, were really breathtaking. No recent Robin Hood film has been made of this scale; a good comparison would be the Douglas Fairbanks 1922 Robin Hood film, in which an entire castle was built at Fairbank’s expense! If you go and see Robin Hood, you can expect amazing visuals, fairly realistic costuming, pretend history, and a few bad things you may not want to watch.

But expect to be wowed by Marian’s long hair.