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Robin Hood (2010) Unrated Director's Cut

Posted By: Efgrapha

Date: 27 Oct 2014 12:23:39

Director Ridley Scott and actor Russell Crowe reunite for their fifth big-screen outing, a retelling of the Robin Hood legend featuring the Gladiator star in the titular role. A bowman in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion, virtuous rogue Robin Hood rises from an unlikely background to become a hero to the impoverished people of Nottingham and lover to the beautiful Lady Marion (Cate Blanchett). Cyrus Voris, Ethan Reiff, and Brian Helgeland collaborate on the screenplay for a costume adventure produced by Brian Grazer (Frost/Nixon, American Gangster).

Synopsis by Jason Buchanan, Allmovie.com

CANNES — Forget Sherwood Forest and green tights. Banish any thoughts of those Merry Men. And please don’t go expecting anything remotely like that lighthearted 1938 classic with Errol Flynn. If you’re able to make this leap of faith, it’s possible to have a rousing good time at Ridley Scott’s smart, revisionist and typically dark “Robin Hood,” which wisely (I think) goes out of its way to avoid comparisons to earlier films inspired by the English legend.

“Robin Hood,” which opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival Tuesday night, is effectively a prequel to Robin’s better-known adventures, featuring a splendid Russell Crowe as the most mature Robin since Sean Connery in Richard Lester’s 1976 feature “Robin and Marian.”

Like that earlier film, set 20 years after the main legend, the new film opens with King Richard the Lionheart (in this case, Danny Huston) taking a fatal arrow to the neck in France while on the way back from the Crusades in 1199.

Crowe is in fighting form as Robin Longstride, in this version a commoner obliged to take the place of fallen fellow Crusader Sir Robert Loxley and return the crown to London.

The dying man has also tasked Robin with returning his father’s sword to Nottingham — where Loxley’s aged dad (Max von Sydow) insists he continue the impersonation.

This does not initially please the late knight’s strong-willed wife, Marian, who in the splendid form of Cate Blanchett is no maiden — and knows how to handle a sword as well as a plow.

Nottingham is in a dire state, overtaxed by King John (Oscar Isaac), Richard’s ineffectual and greedy successor, who dismisses his brother’s wise chancellor (William Hurt) in favor of the sadistic Godfrey (Mark Strong), who’s secretly in league with King Philip of France.

Robin’s main mission is pulling together an England on the verge of civil war to fight a French invasion — leading to a thrilling climax, the best thing Scott has done since “Gladiator.”

The main flaw of this fast-moving, nearly 2½-hour movie is its relatively uninteresting main villain — Strong, whose glowering, one-note performance doesn’t vary all that much from the one he gave in “Sherlock Holmes.”

Crowe easily blows away Hollywood’s last major Robin Hood, the spectacularly miscast Kevin Costner. He’s entirely credible as a weary soldier returning from a decade in the Crusades who becomes a reluctant hero, delivering a well-written speech about the rights of man. Crowe also has substantial romantic chemistry with Blanchett, who even joins him in battle.

I’m not sure American audiences will sufficiently embrace this gritty version to allow for the sequel promised in the final scene. On its own terms, though, “Robin Hood” is head and shoulders above the sort of lightheaded epics Hollywood typically offers during the summer season.

Review by Lou Lumenick, New York Post

IMDB 6,7/10 from 180 229 users

Wiki

Director: Ridley Scott

Writers: Brian Helgeland, Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris

Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Matthew Macfadyen, Max von Sydow, William Hurt,
Danny Huston, Mark Strong, Kevin Durand, Oscar Isaac, Léa Seydoux, Eileen Atkins and other