Review for Robin Hood: Director's Cut (2010)

Introduction

The legend of Robin Hood is one of the most enduring in English culture, roaming Sherwood Forest and stealing from the rich to give to the oppressed poor. Only King Arthur, St George and possibly Dick Turpin are as famous Englishmen as the medieval outlaw. The more usual telling of the tale is that the outlaw was a member of the aristocracy, Robin of Loxley, made an outlaw by the wicked King John for his defence of his peasants against an oppressive tax regime imposed by the King. John is usually just minding the throne whilst his brother Richard The Lionheart is away on holiday in Jerusalem bashing muslims between pints.

The opening of the film shows King Richard and his army ransacking just about every French fort they can find in order to provide funding and provisions for the long journey back to Blighty. Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is a common man and an archer in the King's army, along with his mate Will Scarlet (Scott Grimes) and Allan A'Dayle (Alan Doyle). Longstride manages to deck the King when he goes out undercover to see what his men are talking about, and that would actually have ok but then he's given the chance to voice his opinion and this finds him and his fellow men in the stocks, including the newly acquainted Little John (Kevin Durand). Next day, during the same attack on the castle, King Richard is killed by an arrow in the neck, a flukey shot by a French chef. Robin decides that this would be a good time to escape and head home, whilst there is confusion due to the loss of the King.

A chance encounter on an ambush by the dastardly French, led by King John's treacherous number 2 Godfrey (Mark Strong), leads Robin to a dying Robin of Loxley - who was King Richard's confidant. Robin is entrusted by the dying Loxley to not only return his sword to his father but also return Richard's crown to London. The only way they can effectively do this without suspicion is for Robin to pretend he is Loxley and so the merry men disguise themselves in dead knight's clothing. Having seen John annoited to the throne, Longstride heads for Nottingham - but he has been spotted by Godfrey, who barely escaped his clutches in France after killing Loxley.

Robin is able to settle for a while in Nottingham, where he is persuaded by Loxley's father to pretend to be his son so that the fair Lady Marion doesn't lose her land, even if that means sleeping on the floor with the dogs. Unbeknownest to Robin, however, political intrigue abounds that will affect not only him but the whole of England...

Sound

Nice selection of soundtracks and subtitles as you would expect from Universal releases.

Picture

As you would expect other than the bloody great Universal banner again. Thankfully they've still got it on the intermittent setting so it ain't there all the time, still bloody distracting though.

Extras

Deleted scenes - 13 minutes worth of scenes not deemed worthy to be placed back into the director's cut. Comes with optional intorduction and commentary from editor Pietro Scalia.

Overall

I went into this film more than aware of the negative criticism aimed at this film and also at Russell Crowe's ever-changing accent. Still, on the plus side, it was the cinematic reunification of Crowe with director Ridley Scott so it couldn't all be bad, could it? Actually, no. As has happened with the last few of his historical epics, the theatrical versions were shortened versions of the original vision of the director. Kingdom of Heaven, for instance, had a shedload of footage missing that once reinstated made that film a much more satisfying viewing experience. Robin Hood is released straight to DVD as the Director's Cut with the addition of 16 minutes of footage, although having missed the theatrical release, I had no idea what had been put back in.

What I like about Robin Hood is that it focuses on the political intrigue of medieval England and how the country was forced by its King to pay for vanity wars (i.e the Crusades) through stifling taxation, with landowners and Barons (mainly from the North) plotting to overthrow the King for his unreasonable demands. The film appears to be grounded in reality as well, so despite the entertainment provided by Costner's version (which I liked quite a lot), this is more of a historical drama. The casting is strong as well, with William Hurt and Max Von Sydow playing excellent supporting roles. Mark Strong is excellent as the film's main villain, although Matthew MacFadyen is under utilised as the Sheriff of Nottingham. The acting on the whole is pretty solid with even Mark Addy's Friar Tuck not overreaching into mistimed comedy (although he bears an uncanny resemblance to Terry Scott here...). Yes, there is a problem with Crowe's accent which takes in the North of England with Ireland at different points, but that's not a show-stopper. I'd have preffered him to just play in his usual accent but truth be told, after about ten minutes I didn't even notice his accent. I like Ridley Scott's eye for detail as well, the initial battle scene and introduction to the main character is not how I would have envisaged it and its done rather well.

The latter third of the film does cause me some concern, although it doesn't ruin it completely for me. Firstly there's Robin Longstride's father, a stonemason who apparently was the world's first trade union shop steward, penning a precursor to the Magna Carta and attempting to enshrine certain rights. I would have preferred Robin to just be a common man but no, he is linked to someone who everyone remembers and respected - which leads directly to his speech that unifies everyone with King John to repel the forthcoming French invasion. It's a sequence that is reminiscent of Orlando Bloom's speech in Kingdom of Heaven, but I'm unsure as to why it should be Robin who makes it, other than I guess it makes the ending more shocking than it would have been. The French invasion, complete with landing craft, is the other slightly amiss sequence. As a battle sequence it works well but looks to be a medieval rip-off of the Normandy landings from Saving Private Ryan, even down to the underwater shots with arrows whizzing past drowning men. Despite misgivings over both of these elements, it still wasn't enough to spoil the film for me, even after the arrival of an armoured Marion and her child cavalry, which was bizarre to say the least.

It's not necessarily the best adaptation of the story of Robin Hood but its still a pretty good one. The thing to remember as well is that this is a prequel of sorts, showing the events that lead to Robin Hood and his merry men becoming outlaws, can't remember seeing a film that covered only those bits. That sets it up for a rather obvious sequel, it would be nice to see what would happen with that one.

If you can't ignore the negative hype around this film, it would be better to hire than buy I think. Give it a chance though...