"Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions."
Hello everyone!
I seem to be doing these backwards.
If you recall, some time ago, I made a post concerning the 2018 version of the Robin Hood movie, which could have very easily not been done and if you don't watch it you're not missing out on anything in terms of actual Robin Hood.
Then this weekend, one of our channels decided to do a re-run of the 2010 version, and I said to myself, you know what? For the heck of it, why not.
There's a bunch of other versions out there after all, and I should note that Prince of Thieves pretty much gets re-runs almost as frequently as a sitcom, so mostly once a week, and that movie should be the next in line if I don't find any other in-between the Robin Hoods.
The there's still at the very least the cartoon AND the parody that was made, so, you know, this is the franchise that never dies. I think only Spider-man got more re-makes!
So Robin Hood, circa 2010, here we go!
As always, pertinent links can be found down at the bottom of this page.
On with the show!
Like so many other movies detailing the life and love of notorious hero Robin of the Hood, this one begins during the Crusades, more specifically the way BACK from the Crusades as Richard Lionheart is basically plundering all the way up to England. They're currently in France, and archers Robin Longstride, Alan A'Dayle and Will Scarlet are right at the front of trying to pincushion King Philip of France's bottom.
Well, or the gates to one of his castles in any event.
They also try to go about their daily lives in some sort of routine and do as best as they can when they've become disillusioned with everything, something that Robin thinks prudent to share with the king himself one night after a brawl with none other than Little John, when King Richard and Robert Loxley make a surprise appearance.
The King requests Robin answer him honestly, and because Robin is either stupid or Little John whacked him over the head one too many times, he actually does, which sends the lot of them to be strapped down as punishment, watching the siege continue.
This is the stuff people like Ned Stark dream of!
And since this is a sort-of version of reality in which Richard actually died from complications of a shoulder wound he received from a crossbow, a French cook, randomly grabbing a crossbow after bringing up food for the defenders, manages to hit the king's throat.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
Hearing this, Robin and the others bust free - despite initial arguments they take John with them - and desert the army to head to the coast and beat the main portion of desperate Englishmen trying to cross the Channel, but of course things are going to get more complicated before they get better.
See, one Godfrey of England (Mark Strong, in his very usual role as resident bad guy) is plotting with the King of France to invade the island, and sets up an ambush to kill Richard on the return journey, but only succeeds in mortally wounding Loxley who's taking the crown back to London. Robin and his Merry Men disrupt the ambush and send the French packing before realizing just what they've stumbled across.
Loxley asks Robin to deliver his sword back to Notttingham and his father before passing on, and Robin decides they'll all impersonate the knights from the entourage to secure passage to England. The point in this is that they'll actually slip quietly away BEFORE reaching London, but of course the best laid plans and all that.
Drunk and exhausted, they don't actually wake until the Thames, and it's Robin's job to present the crown to Queen Eleanor, who masters her grief and crows her last surviving son, John, as the current king.
John immediately begins a quest to tax the already-taxed people of England, alienating his allies starting with his own mother and William Marshal who might have been the only ones able to keep him in check.
Meanwhile, Robin and his men travel to Nottingham on the promise of a dying man, and even though Robin gives the others leave to take off, they're loyal enough not to do it and stick around, getting drunk on Friar Tuck's mead (because Mark Addy needs to have more to do than just preach, okay? Okay). Robin heads up to the hall and delivers the news of death to both Lady Marian, Robert's wife, and blind father Sir Walter.
Turns out Walter doesn't need to see to know how the law works, however; he's worried the estate will be seized by the crown once he dies as Marian is a widow, so he proposes Robin sticks around to impersonate his son, something Marian is DECIDEDLY against (and Cate Blanchett performing being a good girl and nicely asking Russell Crowe to come up to bed is HILARIOUS). Still, she's outvoted, and Robin stays, which does help some matters, aka with the Sheriff, who sadly in this iteration is relegated to bumbling fool as he's not the main bad guy,
Marian explains the state of things to Robin, namely that there's a group of local boys who've run off to the forest to fend for themselves (instead of helping to fend for their families, natch) and that they right now have no grain to put in the ground because the tithe is headed to Church vaults.
Quickly assuming some form of command, Robin makes a pact with Tuck and they (along with the Merry Men who've realized life could be VERY sweet if they stay because there's a lot of single women in Nottingham) ambush the wagons at night, retaking the seeds and planting the fields, which brings Robin a step closer to Marian's good graces.
It should be noted here that his men found a much softer landing than him because while he clearly likes Marian (and wants her) he also won't do anything unless she wants him to ... and she decidedly does NOT want.
Yet.
Little by little, however, he chips away at her defenses by being a regular kind of man who works hard for what he wants, and being decent, and life returns to Nottingham (with my favourite scene ever of Robin and Marian dancing at a feast that's thrown in the village).
Sadly, life is being eked out of England otherwise, as Godfrey has taken up Marshal's position and is now raiding along the country with the Frenchmen who've crossed the Channel in secret, preparing the land for an impending invasion as a civil war would weaken England pretty catastrophically.
Marshal gets wind of this even as the northern barons gather to answer this injustice (there's one actor who portrayed a rebel during the Pilgrimage of Grace on the Tudors, too, because period actors). He informs the Queen Mother, who delivers the news to John's second wife, Isabella, actually the niece of the French King, instructing her SHE must be the one to tell John, which prompts a tantrum from the king and a meeting with Marshal because the king does still need SOME allies.
Even if he plans to crush the rebellion, not parlay with the rebels.
But anyway. At this point in time, Robin is told of his own past by Walter, who explains that Robin's father was a philosopher and visionary and drafted a charter that's almost a precursor to Magna Carta, and ended up losing his head over it, but Walter and Marshal took young Robin away from there, and both signed said charter, too. Now that Marshal calls for Walter to join him, Walter sends Robin in his stead, and Robin speaks in front of the King and other gathered barons that giving the people freedom to be able to care for themselves and their families will only make the country - and its ruler - stronger.
Backed into a corner with the invasion fleet pretty much on their doorstep, John agrees, but before they can go fight under the cliffs of Dover Robin detours back to Nottingham where Godfrey finally tracks him down and sends his wolves to plunder.
Robin and his men manage to save the town, but sadly Walter has been killed, though there isn't much time to mourn as there's another battle waiting for them all before a happy ending. Telling Marian he loves her, Robin rides off to command the archers and fight against the invading French, and it's gratifying to see the horror on the faces of the invaders when the archers show up on top of the cliffs.
English and their longbows, right?
Battle ensues, and it quickly becomes apparent that there'll be no invasion, prompting Philip to turn around and the remaining soldiers to surrender to Robin, who gets satisfactory revenge when he sends an arrow through Godfrey's throat, finally killing him.
Of course John senses a threat from the man, reneges on singing the Forest Charter, and declares Robin an outlaw, which only prompts Robin and Marian to flee to the woods with the orphans and others who just wish to live in peace - and right the wrongs in England along the way if possible. But hey, she has her man, right? So happily ever after, in a sense!
This movie was certainly more historically correct than the 2018 version though it DID take certain liberties along the way, for instance never actually mentioning Magna Carta which I believe John was practically forced to sign if he didn't want his entire country to go up in flames. But they did get some of his portrayal close enough, I think, as only a mercurial king would have been able to behave the way John did.
Richard's death was also a bit of a fabrication for dramatics, but it DID actually occur at the castle he's seen besieging even in the movie, so it's a sort of fifty-fifty on that one.
I was happy with the portrayal of archers because it's what everyone and their mother feared whenever the English showed up, though I believe liberty is taken on when, specifically, they become such a threat, though they always have been SOME. I might be wrong, but I think Agincourt is the place where everything is cemented, and that didn't happen until the 15th century, BUT don't quote me on this. Archers and England have always gone hand-in-hand, and my memory is slightly spotty on this topic.
I still believe that ending shot for Godfrey is a bit of a baloney given Robin's string was wet as a drowned rat when he shot, but hey, what do I know, right?
As far as the northern barons are concerned: it was always the northern ones that rebelled. Why? Because London was the seat of the south and the southern lords were always closer to the seat of power than the northerners, who had to content with the border of Scotland, invaders from there, and harsher climates. That they weren't understood or even often abused by whoever was on the throne is something that we got to see even in Game of Thrones, so if you think it sounds familiar, or that it's always the north that rebels ... you'd be right. Because usually they have cause.
Now the one thing that REALLY bugged me and caused me to eye-roll was the addition of Marian and the orphan boys on their ponies for the last battle against the French invasion. That one was only done so Robin has additional motive to kill Godfrey (as Godfrey wanted to kill Marian) and for dramatic effect, because there is no way, NO WAY, that children, without proper armour or weapons, would be any match against a half-decent fully equipped French soldier.
But if you recognize this as being for entertainment purposes and romantic value (kissing in the shallows and carrying the lady through cheering troops) as well as the cinematic value of Marian in her pale dress against the backdrop of everyone's dark clothing at Walter's funeral, then you're golden.
And all in all, at least this one TRIED and delivered an entertaining premise based on something out of actual history!
Recommend. Especially the Director's cut with an additional 15 minutes of footage.
xx
*images and video not mine
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