Robin Hood

  • 2010-05-20
  • By Michael Litvinsky

Director: Ridley Scott

After making his triumphal movie “The Gladiator,” one of Hollywood’s most successful directors, Ridley Scott, once in a while tries to make another historical movie as powerful and memorable as his first historical drama. His latest work is the story of the internationally-known figure Robin Hood.

Unlike the majority of other “Robin Hood,” movies, this one puts, or attempts to put the famous fictional character into real historical events, which, unfortunately, is not a plus, as most of the events are chronologically misplaced, or sometimes misinterpreted and misunderstood by the director. It is, of course, possible for a director (especially one of such caliber) to make some historical inaccuracies; still, you might expect them to be less obvious.

In addition to the mixing of historical dates and facts, the story of the main character himself is nothing other than a combination of different legends, writings and other stories of the famous thief, which, unlike the mixture with the historical facts, is a good thing. Popular and widely known   

Myths about Robin Hood are quite logically complemented with lesser known legends, which help the viewer to create quite a subjective, and, nevertheless, full picture of the main character.

As many of Scott’s previous films have shown, he is the kind of director who knows how to work with actors, and loves doing this. This probably explains the choice of actors for the main part (Robin Hood and Lady Marion are played by Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett).

Scott tried to make his characters more human, less mythological, to break the superhero stereotype, as one might say. He fully achieved this goal. His Robin Hood does not fight alone against forty armed men, and is much more concerned about his own problems, rather than saving the world. Of course, he is noble and brave, a natural leader and an incredibly talented archer, but he is no superhero.

As a result, we get a classic “Ridley Scott” historical drama, maybe not as epic or massive as “Kingdom of Heaven,” maybe not as dramatic and touching as “The Gladiator,” but with a lot of positive moments in it. A decent work by a decent director. 


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