Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves
The story of Robin Of Locksley (aka Robin Hood) is most likely a true one, an English nobleman who returned home from The Crusades in the early 1100s to find his homeland turned inside out from greed, corruption and pure evil, only to join up with an army of peasants and help them take their country back in time for the true King, Richard The Lionhearted (a very well known historical figure) to return and resume his position on the throne. But as with many very long ago historical figures for whom there is little to no surviving documentation save for the word of mouth stories of their accomplishments, only embellishments and impossibly heroic accounts remain, thus making Robin Hood a one of a kind legend who robbed the rich and gave to the poor who were being trampled by the nobility of the time. The story proved to be so timeless in fact that when the age of motion pictures began, it became one of the most oft filmed tales featuring the involvement of everyone from Errol Flynn to Walt Disney, with later versions (including an 80s TV series) even endowing the character with a messiah like importance where one account even had him dying and then rising from the dead to continue the fight for justice. Whatever the truth really was (and many still do buy into the mystical aspects of the legend as being accurate), when it came time to do a modern, big budget, big cast version in 1991 (probably the most popular version ever but certainly not even the last), the arrows of controversy were alit at the news that Kevin Costner (coming off his Oscar win for directing and believed to be able to do no wrong at that time as the biggest movie star in the world) would be playing Hood, which would be fine for box office reasons but not so much because of the fact that he was considered to be an All American superstar playing a decidedly British character of iconic status. Costner gamefully tried to do an actual British accent (with the help of a dialect coach) and failing that, actually managed to pull the whole thing off in the end with a combination of charisma and by adding a deliberate lilt to his voice that while not distinctly British, allowed him to fit in enough with his British co stars to not stick out like a sore thumb (a similar technique was later utilized by the American actors who appeared in the Lord Of The Rings films to considerably less fanfare) although he still took a lot of heat from critics and fans who apparently wouldnāt be satisfied with anything less than a full blown recreation of British dialect from him. Not that fellow Americans Christian Slater as Will Scarlett or Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Maid Marian did any better in their attempts, as Slater appears to have hyped up his performance to a somewhat excitable state to make his accent come off as being more exaggerated (unlike Costner whose acting was relatively calm throughout) and Mastrantonio took the haughty Robin Wright approach to her vocalizations, not embarrassing herself but not really standing head and shoulders above anybody either. The movie begins with Robin being held in a Turkish prison where beatings and dismemberments are a daily part of life. He meets and eventually escapes with a Moor (Morgan Freeman in a bit of a surprise casting since this character was almost completely original and not a part of any prior adaptation) who chooses to stay by his side as his companion because he owes Robin his life. They return home to England where Robin finds his father has been murdered and everybody elseās lives in upheaval as Sir Guy Of Gisbourne (Michael Wincott) has been burning and pillaging the countryside and imposing harsh, unfair taxes on the common folk to benefit the wealthy. In fact, while Robinās late father (Brian Blessed as Lord Locksley) was falsely proclaimed to have been executed for being a devil worshipper, the other members of the upper class nobility are all almost casually portrayed as worshipping pentagrams and other satanic pagan symbols all while amazingly still ākeeping up appearancesā by continuously still appearing in church every Sunday so that they can appear to others as respectable Christians (obviously the small price that they must pay in order to maintain their money and power), a practice that no doubt still continues to this day. At the center of this cabbal is none other than George, The Sheriff Of Nottingham in what is no doubt an historic performance by Alan Rickman. Having been offered the role twice and turned it down, Rickman was finally told that if he took on the part, he would have carte blanche to play it anyway he wanted, an opportunity that Rickman would relish and embrace, even bringing his own writers (with a comedy background) to set to personally write all of his dialogue for him (along with a few adlibs here and there from himself) since he considered the original script to be terrible. The result was a truly off the wall, rollicking performance that quickly became the stuff of legend in contrast with the work of Costner, who brought a good natured sense of humor to his performance but who paled next to the brilliant madness of Rickman, who is even saddled with a cackling old witch at his side (Geraldine McEwan) who casts spells and makes prophecies as she counsels Nottingham on his next course of action and Rickman just runs with the ball completely, something that might not have sat too well with Costner, who took the post production editing duties away from director Kevin Reynolds (a guy who was said to have served as Costnerās directing puppet for years but who was still in full support of Rickmanās hysterical performance) and then trimmed out a number of key character development scenes for Rickmanās Sheriff that were meant to deemphasize his character so that the other actors would have more of a chance to shine (luckily, just about all of the extra Rickman scenes have been restored to both the DVD and Blu Ray releases). But some of the other actors donāt really do so badly, including Nick Brimble as Little John (a little known actor who acquits himself very well here but sadly has been underpraised for his efforts), Wincott as Gisbourne (a sensationally underrated actor who is fully capable of playing lead villains, something which he has done and done very well at) and Walter Sparrow as the tragically blinded servant Duncan (a character who was mercilessly lampooned in the Mel Brooks directed spoof Men In Tights starring Cary Elwes, an actor who ironically turned down the lead role here). Those falling into the not so good category include Michael McShaneās annoyingly blowhard Friar Tuck (a classic example of an actor trying way too hard to be zany and colorful and falling flat on his face as a result) and former Best Supporting Actor Oscar Nominee Jack Wild a long time removed from his Artful Dodger days blending into the woodwork here as a lame comic relief member of The Merrie Men. As for the other star names, Freeman plays the role of outsider and observer quite well, it being that his character is a Muslim who is considered a savage by the mostly uncouth peasants who flock to Robinās side, Slater plays Scarlett with the usual charisma that he exhibited in spades at that time but mostly waits until just the right moment so that he can have his big acting scene and reveal his secrets to Robin and Mastrantonio mostly serves as pretty yet dignified window dressing as Marian, obviously an object of desire to many of the characters (especially The Sheriff) because of her perceived āmaidenā status, but an early bit of her (in disguise) fighting like a man would against other men is quickly forgotten once she gets targeted by Rickman and his witch for the purposes of marriage followed by rape. Indeed, McEwan as the witch earns major points just for the serious creepiness factor in her performance which offsets Rickmanās lunacy nicely and at times even makes things feel like a horror movie, casting satanic spells in front of a giant upside down cross (which at one point Rickman wearily comments that he canāt even tell the difference anymore between an upside down one and an upright one) and using a little bit of makeup and a lot of scary acting to make her scenes quite effective in their own right. Add to that a sense of healthy pacing, some good action scenes and a wild finale as Robin and The Sheriff have their big showdown and you have an audience pleaser that takes a standard, known story and brings a whole new level of entertainment to itā¦
8/10