I heard an interview with the filmmaker on NPR. He said he went back to the earliest Robin Hood ballads, which presented Robin as more violent and less heroic than later tales. His movie was inspired, in part, by a very early ballad with the same name as his film, which he had read when he was young.
I saw this today, obviously in the theaters. Like you, I'm not sure I'd recommend it because much more than most movies, whether you'll enjoy it, be enlightened by it, etc. depends on what you bring in to it. I found it fascinating, brutal, and unsettling in a good way, though I wish I'd been watching it alone in my own home rather than being surrounded by strangers. I also had to look away from large sections of the first act. (Auditory cues help.) But I was still glad I saw it.
If I'm being honest, I was also a little confused. Without giving away too many spoilers, I wasn't really sure how literal to take the stories about the characters, both Little Margaret and Arthur. Their survival was so implausible and there were so many similarities with the older Margaret and with Little John, it almost felt like they were phantasms conjured up by the islands power to let Robin Hood face down what he'd done.
Trying to make sense of the plot as a literal series of events was really hard; but I'm not sure that's how we're meant to approach it. It almost felt like a tonal poem. It was sublime. And it definitely made me feel like I was confronting deep concepts in a deep way. More noumena than phenomena if I can pull from Kant. I just don't think sitting packed in with other movie goers at the local AMC, with a bucket of popcorn in my lap, was the best way to see this one.
Hmm I don’t think it’s meant to be quite that metaphysical, but maybe! That’s a little closer to something like THE GREEN KNIGHT from a couple years back.
My wife and I went to see this film only because there was nothing else we hadn’t seen that interested us. We were blown away by the beauty and depth of the film—it took us by complete surprise. Sonny’s right about the brutality of the violence: we nearly walked out (and another couple did, in fact, leave). It was so beautiful visually—Sonny already mentioned the greys and the landscapes, but there are these beautiful, slightly out of focus shots of faces that add to the dreamy meditative quality of the film after the violent scenes.
It’s a movie that has something to say, and will stick with me, for sure, and I’ll be looking out for it on streaming so I can activate the subtitles.
Thanks Sonny. I was a massive fan of Pig, so I think I’ll check it out.
I think releasing this Father’s Day weekend was a smart choice. Seems like it needs to be seen on the big screen and this is probably the only summer weekend Dads can get away guilt-free to watch a movie the kids won’t be remotely interested in and probably shouldn’t be watching anyway.
It was massively violent for the first 30-40 minutes. the rest of it was beautiful and thought-provoking for me. Whether you think it's worth watching if you can fast forward past the gore is a really personal question. I was glad I saw it, but also glad I'd read a review other than this one so knew the plot points where the violence let up quite a bit.
So...I did just rewatch Robin and Marian, for the first time in decades. I loved it when was in my 20s, but boy does it hit home now that I am in my 70s.
In a way, it's depressing to hear that this movie is well done (is that what Sonny is saying?). I'm not going to watch it, and it would be easier to hear that it's worth skipping. While I have appreciated the modern turn towards stories that are more realistic and dark (thank you Batman Begins), I think it's time for the era to end. I'm ready for the happy stories from the 1930s or 50s, with simple bad guys and good guys that laugh in the sunlight.
I don't need to watch another hero be torn down, we've had enough of that. I want movies that appeal to the better angels of our nature. If we are going to have flawed heroes, how about an On The Waterfront type, one that learns the courage to become the hero he can see inside himself, instead of the one everyone else wants him to be.
It was definitely an odd one, and I wouldn't recommend or *dis*recommend - it's way too personal for blanket suggestions. But I'd say it's more accurate to say he starts broken down and manages to get, if not to the heroic, then at least to a good man. he reminded me of Boromir in Lord of the Rings: fallen but redeemed, I guess, or at least able to gain completion.
I'd say trust your instincts, though. The first 30 minutes or so was really gory, unnecessarily so IMO, and even beyond that it's a bit weird and slow. Very good, but equally not for everyone.
When I was a kid in the 50's I saw Flynn's Robin Hood - going around rigfhting wrongs, defending the needy, kissing the pretty girls and having a lot of laughs. Right then and there I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. In other words, my life was ruined.
Alas, Robin and Marion is a film whose emotional tone resonates deep within me. I sit today at 75 bewildered by the life I have led and am still leading. It seems there are always new villans on all sides. On the other hand, there are also many Marions to remind me why I took the path less traveled.
I love Robin Hood and am dismayed by the story covered in this review. In this day and time, it's hard enough to hold onto some modicum of hope for humanity's future. Please don't trash the hopeful tales from the past, no matter how much they are wrapped in myth.
"Robin and Marian" did the best version of Robin's end. Love the entire cast and story. In fact, I need to rewatch that one. (Plus Director Richard Lester...who was at his best when directing movies about merry men...or a Fab Four...or Musketeers.)
Thanks for making me think of a truly beautiful film. I'll pass on this new one.
I am not ashamed to say my favorite version is Disney's. I'm 57 years old and can sing every song and recite most of the dialog. Listen to "Not in Nottingham" and tell me Roger Miller's not amazing. RIP, Sir.
I'm in my 30s and I will never cease to be completely delighted by this movie. Roger Miller's narration, the opening robbery sequence, the chemistry between Maid Marion and Robin, the detail put into every supporting character. As an adult, there is something I find so deeply cathartic about the scene where Friar tuck finally snaps at the Sheriff of Nottingham in the church.
Thanks Sonny, I think I will skip this new version of Robin Hood. My favorite Robin Hood movie is "Robin and Marion" with Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw and Nicol Williamson. The movie portrays Robin, Marion, the Sheriff, and Little John as rich and complex characters. Robin is an honorable man - he refuses King Richard's order to attack a castle occupied by just women and children - but his fatal flaw is believing in his own myth, a myth that he had disparaged earlier in the movie. Robert Shaw is terrific as the Sheriff, who finally understands how to beat Robin, but is undone by his own need to prove himself a better man than Robin. And by the end of the movie, we also see that Marion and Little John are much more complex and tragic characters than we imagined. I think the ending of the movie hurt its popularity - it certainly shocked me when I first saw it in college - but over the years I have come to see how it fits into the story that the movie is trying to tell. Movies like this are the reason why I love movies.
It's funny, I think my favorite iteration of Robin Hood is actually Mel Brooks's MEN IN TIGHTS? But the Errol Flynn is probably the best? (I also have a soft spot for the Costner one, because I have a soft spot for Costner generally.)
"Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent." I'm laughing just thinking of it.
Men in Tights and the Disney version are easily my favorites. Odd when you consider I'm a hardcore fantasy fan with the better part of a Ph.D. in medieval philosophy, so you think I'd crave a more classic telling of Robin Hood. The heart can be an unruly thing sometimes, it seems.
Which Disney version? The live-action version starring Richard Todd, or the animated version? My ex-girlfriend, a medieval literature professor, liked the animated version, even though she's not a fan of Robin Hood in generally.
The animated one; I'd actually forgotten about the Richard Todd one. I always loved it as an animated flick. It just never felt all that medieval to me.
I love Men in Tight so much and can never forget the line from the witch: I always wanted to marry a cop, after she forced the sheriff to marry her to save his life.
I was going to leave a very similar comment. Robin and Marion is an amazing movie that deals with myth without simply trashing it. If you are going to make a movie about thugs, brigands, and cycles of violence, why use Robin Hood? Except to make the argument that all times were as violent and viscous as the one we are in, and all leaders are as selfish and sordid as the ones we’ve got.
Plus, Robin and Marion had a truly stellar cast — Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn in the title roles, Nicol Williamson as Little John, Richard Harris as a vindictive King Richard, Ian Holm as Prince John, and — most memorable of all — Robert Shaw as the Sheriff of Nottingham. It was truly an amazing movie.
Thanks! I think it is such an underrated movie, I am happy to see that there are others out there who appreciate it as much as I do. Your point about dealing with the myth without trashing it is excellent. Robin may not be the legend of the myth, but he is still a man of courage and honor (and so is the Sheriff is his own way, which just reinforces the tragedy of the story).
Thanks! I never knew that. It is amazing, as much as I always proof my comments before I post them, I always find a least one mistake after afterwards.
I heard an interview with the filmmaker on NPR. He said he went back to the earliest Robin Hood ballads, which presented Robin as more violent and less heroic than later tales. His movie was inspired, in part, by a very early ballad with the same name as his film, which he had read when he was young.
I saw this today, obviously in the theaters. Like you, I'm not sure I'd recommend it because much more than most movies, whether you'll enjoy it, be enlightened by it, etc. depends on what you bring in to it. I found it fascinating, brutal, and unsettling in a good way, though I wish I'd been watching it alone in my own home rather than being surrounded by strangers. I also had to look away from large sections of the first act. (Auditory cues help.) But I was still glad I saw it.
If I'm being honest, I was also a little confused. Without giving away too many spoilers, I wasn't really sure how literal to take the stories about the characters, both Little Margaret and Arthur. Their survival was so implausible and there were so many similarities with the older Margaret and with Little John, it almost felt like they were phantasms conjured up by the islands power to let Robin Hood face down what he'd done.
Trying to make sense of the plot as a literal series of events was really hard; but I'm not sure that's how we're meant to approach it. It almost felt like a tonal poem. It was sublime. And it definitely made me feel like I was confronting deep concepts in a deep way. More noumena than phenomena if I can pull from Kant. I just don't think sitting packed in with other movie goers at the local AMC, with a bucket of popcorn in my lap, was the best way to see this one.
Hmm I don’t think it’s meant to be quite that metaphysical, but maybe! That’s a little closer to something like THE GREEN KNIGHT from a couple years back.
Oh, I could definitely be wrong. At this point I'm still trying to make sense of it for myself.
Somehow I never saw The Green Knight but will have to check it out. It always seemed like the kind of story I'd enjoy.
My wife and I went to see this film only because there was nothing else we hadn’t seen that interested us. We were blown away by the beauty and depth of the film—it took us by complete surprise. Sonny’s right about the brutality of the violence: we nearly walked out (and another couple did, in fact, leave). It was so beautiful visually—Sonny already mentioned the greys and the landscapes, but there are these beautiful, slightly out of focus shots of faces that add to the dreamy meditative quality of the film after the violent scenes.
It’s a movie that has something to say, and will stick with me, for sure, and I’ll be looking out for it on streaming so I can activate the subtitles.
Yeah that first 40 minutes with Skarsgard is tough on the accent front.
Good stuff Sonny! Sounds like I’ll wait for it on Netflix
Thanks Sonny. I was a massive fan of Pig, so I think I’ll check it out.
I think releasing this Father’s Day weekend was a smart choice. Seems like it needs to be seen on the big screen and this is probably the only summer weekend Dads can get away guilt-free to watch a movie the kids won’t be remotely interested in and probably shouldn’t be watching anyway.
Thanks for the review. Giving this a miss ...if only because I shy away from watching violent films.
It was massively violent for the first 30-40 minutes. the rest of it was beautiful and thought-provoking for me. Whether you think it's worth watching if you can fast forward past the gore is a really personal question. I was glad I saw it, but also glad I'd read a review other than this one so knew the plot points where the violence let up quite a bit.
So...I did just rewatch Robin and Marian, for the first time in decades. I loved it when was in my 20s, but boy does it hit home now that I am in my 70s.
In a way, it's depressing to hear that this movie is well done (is that what Sonny is saying?). I'm not going to watch it, and it would be easier to hear that it's worth skipping. While I have appreciated the modern turn towards stories that are more realistic and dark (thank you Batman Begins), I think it's time for the era to end. I'm ready for the happy stories from the 1930s or 50s, with simple bad guys and good guys that laugh in the sunlight.
I don't need to watch another hero be torn down, we've had enough of that. I want movies that appeal to the better angels of our nature. If we are going to have flawed heroes, how about an On The Waterfront type, one that learns the courage to become the hero he can see inside himself, instead of the one everyone else wants him to be.
It was definitely an odd one, and I wouldn't recommend or *dis*recommend - it's way too personal for blanket suggestions. But I'd say it's more accurate to say he starts broken down and manages to get, if not to the heroic, then at least to a good man. he reminded me of Boromir in Lord of the Rings: fallen but redeemed, I guess, or at least able to gain completion.
I'd say trust your instincts, though. The first 30 minutes or so was really gory, unnecessarily so IMO, and even beyond that it's a bit weird and slow. Very good, but equally not for everyone.
When I was a kid in the 50's I saw Flynn's Robin Hood - going around rigfhting wrongs, defending the needy, kissing the pretty girls and having a lot of laughs. Right then and there I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. In other words, my life was ruined.
Alas, Robin and Marion is a film whose emotional tone resonates deep within me. I sit today at 75 bewildered by the life I have led and am still leading. It seems there are always new villans on all sides. On the other hand, there are also many Marions to remind me why I took the path less traveled.
Huzzah! At our stage in life, we need to make sure we balance hope and joy with grim reality...particularly when reality is so....orange.
I love Robin Hood and am dismayed by the story covered in this review. In this day and time, it's hard enough to hold onto some modicum of hope for humanity's future. Please don't trash the hopeful tales from the past, no matter how much they are wrapped in myth.
"Robin and Marian" did the best version of Robin's end. Love the entire cast and story. In fact, I need to rewatch that one. (Plus Director Richard Lester...who was at his best when directing movies about merry men...or a Fab Four...or Musketeers.)
Thanks for making me think of a truly beautiful film. I'll pass on this new one.
I love this movie. I think of it often.
I say this in all seriousness. As a 51yr old, Robin Hood Daffy still makes me laugh my ass off. Def my favorite telling of the story.
I am not ashamed to say my favorite version is Disney's. I'm 57 years old and can sing every song and recite most of the dialog. Listen to "Not in Nottingham" and tell me Roger Miller's not amazing. RIP, Sir.
I'm in my 30s and I will never cease to be completely delighted by this movie. Roger Miller's narration, the opening robbery sequence, the chemistry between Maid Marion and Robin, the detail put into every supporting character. As an adult, there is something I find so deeply cathartic about the scene where Friar tuck finally snaps at the Sheriff of Nottingham in the church.
Yes Maggie! The animation, the dialog- I quote Little John when discussing the Trump administration, "Who's driving this flying umbrella? "
I'm delighted to hear a fellow fan lurks at The Bulwark.
Thanks Sonny, I think I will skip this new version of Robin Hood. My favorite Robin Hood movie is "Robin and Marion" with Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw and Nicol Williamson. The movie portrays Robin, Marion, the Sheriff, and Little John as rich and complex characters. Robin is an honorable man - he refuses King Richard's order to attack a castle occupied by just women and children - but his fatal flaw is believing in his own myth, a myth that he had disparaged earlier in the movie. Robert Shaw is terrific as the Sheriff, who finally understands how to beat Robin, but is undone by his own need to prove himself a better man than Robin. And by the end of the movie, we also see that Marion and Little John are much more complex and tragic characters than we imagined. I think the ending of the movie hurt its popularity - it certainly shocked me when I first saw it in college - but over the years I have come to see how it fits into the story that the movie is trying to tell. Movies like this are the reason why I love movies.
Just a note for anyone who tries to search for this movie: It's "Marian," not "Marion."
Thanks Bruce!
It's funny, I think my favorite iteration of Robin Hood is actually Mel Brooks's MEN IN TIGHTS? But the Errol Flynn is probably the best? (I also have a soft spot for the Costner one, because I have a soft spot for Costner generally.)
"Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent." I'm laughing just thinking of it.
Men in Tights and the Disney version are easily my favorites. Odd when you consider I'm a hardcore fantasy fan with the better part of a Ph.D. in medieval philosophy, so you think I'd crave a more classic telling of Robin Hood. The heart can be an unruly thing sometimes, it seems.
Which Disney version? The live-action version starring Richard Todd, or the animated version? My ex-girlfriend, a medieval literature professor, liked the animated version, even though she's not a fan of Robin Hood in generally.
The animated one; I'd actually forgotten about the Richard Todd one. I always loved it as an animated flick. It just never felt all that medieval to me.
I love Men in Tight so much and can never forget the line from the witch: I always wanted to marry a cop, after she forced the sheriff to marry her to save his life.
I had a hard time seeing Costner as Robin, honestly, but Alan Rickman stole the movie. “And Cancel Christmas!”
I was going to leave a very similar comment. Robin and Marion is an amazing movie that deals with myth without simply trashing it. If you are going to make a movie about thugs, brigands, and cycles of violence, why use Robin Hood? Except to make the argument that all times were as violent and viscous as the one we are in, and all leaders are as selfish and sordid as the ones we’ve got.
Plus, Robin and Marion had a truly stellar cast — Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn in the title roles, Nicol Williamson as Little John, Richard Harris as a vindictive King Richard, Ian Holm as Prince John, and — most memorable of all — Robert Shaw as the Sheriff of Nottingham. It was truly an amazing movie.
Thanks! I think it is such an underrated movie, I am happy to see that there are others out there who appreciate it as much as I do. Your point about dealing with the myth without trashing it is excellent. Robin may not be the legend of the myth, but he is still a man of courage and honor (and so is the Sheriff is his own way, which just reinforces the tragedy of the story).
Sorry — “Robin,” not “Robinson.” Damnedautocorrect!
You can click the three dots above your comment and edit it.
Thanks! I never knew that. It is amazing, as much as I always proof my comments before I post them, I always find a least one mistake after afterwards.
Thank you!