Robin Hood

Despite a massive wave of publicity for Robin Hood with its Cannes Opening Night selection, things have not been rosy with the films path to completion. Early word of the film being a psychological take on the story focusing on the Sheriff of Nottingham was quickly done away with as instead the film was simply titled Robin Hood and with the unlikely figure of Russell Crowe in the lead role. Following this, Sienna Miller made a very high profile exit from the project, being replaced by Cate Blanchett in what must be one of the classiest trade up’s a film has ever had and rumours of troubles on set swirled around since. The trailers and general marketing for the film seem to have done little to inspire much confidence in the project though in terms of box office success the fact that this is the only major release in the UK and US this weekend should mean that it at least has a decent opening weekend. Critically though, the film has so far had a rough reception with a wealth of mixed to negative reviews and a general air of “meh” about the whole endeavour.

This take on Robin Hood takes us to before he took up in the forest with his Merry Men and instead sees him fighting in the Crusades for King Richard (Danny Huston). Richard is soon killed though and Robin along with friends Will (Scot Grimes), Allan (Alan Doyle) and Little John (Kevin Durand) gain passage back to England by disguising themselves as knights and upon doing so they raise the suscipion of corrupt knight Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong) and new monarch King John (Oscar Issac). But in a quest to deliver a fallen comrade’s sword back to his father (Max Von Sydow), Robin finds himself discovering the man he will become, and also the woman he will fall in love with, Marion (Cate Blanchett).

If that sounded like a mouthful, then you will have had a small taste of what is without a doubt the single biggest failing in Robin Hood, that the film is far too packed with a million different ideas and doesn’t find a truly satisfying way of dealing with them. I will, as I always do though, give major points here for a real attempt at trying out something new with the tale of Robin Hood. Some have complained that the film essentially acts as “Robin Begins”, and that by the time we get to what we expect, the film is over. I for one am actually pretty happy with what we have here as I can’t help but think that if we had a film of Russell Crowe outwitting Matthew MacFadyen, who gets very little to do as the actual Sheriff, then these some people would complain that its stuff we have seen before. The film may or may not be historically accurate, but as an idea that we haven’t seen before, I remained intrigued and honestly entertained throughout.

But yes, the story is VERY sloppy. You will know that you are in trouble when you have title cards come up at the beginning explaining what you are about to see, and indeed this very idea doesn’t make a hell of a lot of sense as it, in very broad strokes, tells you exactly what is about to take place 2 hours and 20 minutes, rendering the film itself slightly… irrelevant. While it may have been a good idea to inform people that this is not the story we may expect, this does take from the film’s impact and is a bizarre idea. The idea that the film had some scripting problems and may have been written on the fly is a likely one given what plays out on screen with the gears of the plot cranking in a very uncomfortable fashion as one minute we will be with Robin and the merry men, and then suddenly we are in the King’s chambers, then we may be with Mark Strong, and then Cate Blanchett etc, the whole film skips around and finds very little time to really settle, something that Robin’s story aside renders most of the threads a bit of a waste of time. Add to this some focus group feeling ideas, a surprise participant in the final battle being by far the worst offender in this area, and you have a film which will likely frustrate and bore some people.

For my money though, if you can get through what are some pretty major structual problems with the film, I think you may well find something here to really enjoy. As a summer blockbuster, I am not too sure how it will fare but it is nice to see a film released in the silly season that tries to create some more mature entertainment which isn’t full of explosions, CG and only the most basic elements required in telling a story. Despite the film’s messy feel, the world being created is certainly an interesting one, juxtaposing the decadent and hypocritical nature of the royalty with the more human, grounded and noble nature of the people who are supposed to serve these people to the death. Yes many are uncouth, as made explicit by the Merry Men, but they are decent and hardworking people who need a champion like Robin Hood to believe in and this film does a very good job at establishing that man and in Russell Crowe you get a man you can see people rallying around, creating a strong and shock of shocks, actually likeable version of Hood who you believe would fight to the death with you but also get trashed after battle. The chemistry Robin has with his Merry Men is certainly a highlight of the film, and it would have done well to have spent more time with the group together, as Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes and Allan Doyle make able support for Crowe, each getting moments to make an impression, Durand especially.

The courting of Marion is also makes for an interesting element of the film. Making her a widow creates a nice dichotomy to her character, though this element plays less and less a part as the film goes on, and her relationship with Crowe makes for a nice simmering of sexual tension through the middle third, which manages to make it remain compelling despite the copious lack of action. This section does serve to make Robin the man he will be and does well with it, with Richard Harris substitute Max Von Sydow doing a decent job with the mentor/father role for Crowe. Indeed my only real complaint with this section is that one of the plot machinations has Hood pretending to be someone else which opens up some pretty big questions about the intelligence of the people of Nottingham..

The rest of the cast all do solid work and in the bad guys, we do get two particularly memorable performances. Mark Strong, who is a little in danger of being overexposed and probably typecast now, gives some good evil speeches and looks like he can handle himself, though maybe a little more time with him would have made his arc a little clearer, but Oscar Issac outdoes him with a fantastic “snivelling little shit” (Copyright ChinStroker vs Punter) performance where you will absolutely love to hate him in what is a bit of a pantomime performance though one which is always entertaining.

This being a Ridley Scott film we do get some action going on here and when we do it is pretty damn effective. Despite an obvious lack of bloodletting, the fights retain a bone crunching sense of power with a fair few memorable kills and a grounded portrayal in showing just how much skill some of these soldiers must have and especially when they become united for a common purpose. It’s all shot in a clear and coherent fashion and has a paciness which the rest of the film may well have done better to have itself. We may have more explosive and impressive action through the rest of the summer but for solidly shot and exciting battles, Scott does a damn good job here.

Robin Hood is without a doubt a problematic film, and is yet another Ridley Scott effort which will likely have a clearer and superior Director’s Cut released somewhere down the road. A real mess of a screenplay hinders what is otherwise a perfectly decent and consistently entertaining take on a story we have seen a thousand times before but never in this way. Source – http://www.eatsleeplivefilm.com/?p=937

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Category: Opinion