Robin Hood
Directed By: Ridley Scott
Written By: Brian Helgeland
Starring: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, Mark Strong, William Hurt, Oscar Issac, and Danny Huston
Director of Photography: John Mathieson, Editor: Pietro Scalia, Production Designer: Arthur Max, Original Music: Marc Streitenfeld
Rated: PG-13 for violence including intense sequences of warfare, and some sexual content.
Russell Crowe smiles about two times in his latest film, Robin Hood, and if anything that tells you that Ridley Scott’s latest medieval action epic is a serious film for serious people. Sure there’s plenty of explosions, and the mythology being told is best remembered by people like Errol Flynn and Bugs Bunny. But not this Robin Hood. This is a serious tale of serious people who dared monarchies and fought wars and understood the truest expression of liberty and…oh excuse me I was yawning off.
Mr. Scott, a once great director who has had a technical resurgence with films like Black Hawk Down and Gladiator over the last decade, has a knack for bringing all his marvelous craft to the look and tone of his films. Unfortunately, films like Robin Hood are hollow Hollywood affair, and along with screenwriter Brian Hegeland, has crafted a film that sucks out the “Robin Hood” from Robin Hood.
Mr. Crowe, an actor who can grit his teeth to carry a film, and does here in adequate if not spectacular affair, plays the noble knight of Nottingham, except he doesn’t. Mr. Scott, for whatever reason, has decided to tell the origin story of how Robin Hood became the legend, skipping the parts we all enjoy watching for a serious film about taxation, politics, and hating the French (that never seems to get old!). Robin Hood begins as an archer named Robin Longstride, fighting a few last battles in the Crusades, slowly returning home with the King is slain. That wouldn’t be so bad if the King’s son wasn’t a prissy young fellow who loves frolicking with a young French princess, and his right hand man (Mark Strong, in another serial bad guy role) was planning to betray the country to the French.
Mr. Crowe, taking everything very seriously (it’s justified through a few daddy issues), ends up assuming the identity of the actual Robin Hood and returns to Nottingham to pose as the knight to appease a dying father (Max Von Sydow, hammering it up) and an unamused wife (Cate Blanchett, fun to watch in an unfunny role). Mr. Scott and Mr. Hegeland also bring about ten other characters into the mix, none of whom are interesting and all that leads to a battle and a final sequence that doesn’t make very much sense.
Mr. Scott has had many fans over the last decade, many who blind sight his hollow characters for his technical marvels. That is once again on display here, with the action sequences carrying the thrills and the dialogue exchanges being placeholders. None of this would matter had Mr. Scott taken Robin Hood in the more classical tradition, and spiced it with more than a little humor (the only sequence in which Robin steals from the rich stands as one of the best in the film due to its humor). Instead, Mr. Scott seems to take everything serious in this origin story, which serves little purpose. While other recent origin stories such as Casino Royale and Batman Begins have brought darker perspectives to fit the matching tides of our own perspective of our heroes, the only message Robin Hood sends is our politicians are bad, but at least they aren’t French.
If anything, Robin Hood’s faults lie in its conception more than its execution. It’s a finely crafted film that hits everything it wants to accomplish—but who cares to see those things? And while Mr. Crowe is a strong enough presence to carry us through the film, I’d much rather see him evolve into the great supporting performances he can do such as in Mr. Scott’s Body of Lies, a film that has politics brimming at every moment, but somehow feels less political than this crusade. Maybe if Mr. Scott could break his stiff upper lip for one minute, his audiences would do the same.
