Robin, Good: Hoods in the Woods (FILM REVIEW)
As a big fan of director Ridley Scott, I have been looking forward to his summer 2010 release of “Robin Hood” with much anticipation.
What’s not to like? I thought.
All Hollywood summer action movie ingredients look to be cued up.
An epic cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, and Max Von Sudow among them.
A classic mythic character: Hollywood has done more than thirty versions of the famous English archer/outlaw, most recently a bare-bottomed Kevin Costner re-make, and, of course, Carey Elwes’ “Robin Hood: Men In Tights”.
Epic sets as backdrops.
Battle scenes galore.
And the kicker?
One of acoustic music’s favorite live musicians, Alan Doyle of Newfoundland party boy band “Great Big Sea,” playing one of Robin’s “merry men” in a key supporting role as Robin’s mando-sporting arrow-shooting bard. (Two thumbs up for Doyle, who performs admirably.)
Needless to say, I went into the theater sharpening my arrows.
Yes yes, most imperial film critics already have panned the Scott’s movie. Too long! Too convoluted! Too complicated! Too historically inaccurate! Too much a “prequel”! (Which it very much is – the film’s last scene features a text screen that reads “And so the legend begins.”)
Clearly, the critics didn’t receive the memo. Dudes, remember? Summer movie season. We want escapist entertainment. And Scott delivers, albeit unevenly.
Most critics, moreover, dismiss Scott’s film as a sort of “Gladiator in Jerkins” remake (Scott directing Crowe a few years back for Maximus Oscar glory).
I couldn’t disagree more.
In “Robin Hood,” Scott replaces the expansive desert setting of imperial Rome with the dirtier and more intimate landscape of the 12th century English medieval feudal countryside. True, we get a few gorgeous aerial shots of the forest, the coast (complete with epic French sea-borne invasion footage), and one incredible scene of Richard the Lionhearted’s naval convoy sailing up the Thames, but Scott wisely keeps us mostly in the woods, where Robin Hood belongs.
Instead of “Gladiator” or “Braveheart,” Scott’s film is more reminiscent of Shekar Kapur’s remarkable film “Elizabeth,” featuring Oscar winner Cate Blanchett as the woman who transforms herself from naïve girl to powerful queen. One of the best actresses in the business, Blanchett’s is back in “Robin Hood,” and she is mesmerizing as (Maid) Marian Loxley, the earthy yet regal wife of absentee landlord Robert Loxley, who is off fighting the Crusades with King Richard.
Like much of 12th century England, the shire of Nottingham is beset by roving bands of teen hoods and the unjust taxation policies of the newly installed King John (think Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus on extra estrogen.)
The way-too-serious Russell Crowe’s Robin Longstride, meanwhile, returns from the Crusades and delivers the dead Loxley’s sword to Marian disguised as Loxley himself. At her manor, he finds his equal in Marian, as well as uncovering information about his own past. (In a series of super-contrived flashbacks, we learn that Longstride’s father was a political radical whose dissent and subsequent execution set the stage for 1215 and the Magna Carta. No kidding.)
The smoldering sexual tension between Marian and Robin is refreshingly slow to develop, along with some good laughs with the merry men along the way. Alas, Crowe plays Robin too straight, leaving Blanchett to really carry the film, helped along by her aging father (played with aplomb by Max Von Sydow, who steals every scene he is in).
Back in London, meanwhile, political intrigue abounds. As with “Elizabeth,” a double agent wangles his way into the chancellor’s seat, even as he plots with the French to divide England and invade, helped along by callow King John’s hubristic alienation of the country’s noblemen. How Scott weaves all these elements together, I leave for you to discover.
Suffice to say, the cinematography, horseplay, and excitement made me want to smash my smart phone, take up my bow and quiver, and retire to the woods to eat, drink, dance, and make merry.
Now THAT’s pure summer entertainment.
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