ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES [1991]

Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991)
Directed by: Kevin Reynolds
Written by: John Waters, Pen Densham
Starring: Alan Rickman, Kevin Costner, Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio, Morgan Freeman

USA

AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY, DVD and DIGITAL

RUNNING TIME: 143 mins / 155 mins

REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera

After being captured by Turks during the Crusades, Robin of Locksley and a Moor, Azeem, escape back to England, where Azeem vows to remain until he repays Robin for saving his life. Meanwhile, Robin’s father, a nobleman loyal to King Richard the Lionheart, has been murdered by the Sheriff of Nottingham, who helped install Richard’s treacherous brother, Prince John, as King while Richard was overseas fighting the Crusades. Robin vows to avenge his father’s death and restore Richard to the throne. Even though Maid Marian, his childhood friend, cannot help him, he escapes to the Forest of Sherwood where he joins a band of exiled villagers and becomes their leader….

No, I didn’t get sent a freebie of this to review, but buying Arrow Films’ new set of Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves has led to me reviewing the film anyway. I remember well how huge it was in the summer of 1991, a time when really popular films could be in cinema screens for many months until you became sick of them; I certainly became sick of hearing that Bryan Adams song “Everything I Do, I Do It For You”, which remained number one for what was then a record 14 weeks in the USA and 16 in the UK. There are certainly some things to laugh at in this movie, particularly Kevin Costner occasionally trying an English accent but mostly not bothering, but then there are so many anachronisms [not to mention continuity errors] that after a while you just have to go with it and accept these things as part of the fun, meaning that by the time the outlaws’ hideout in Sherwood Forest is taken by surprise by large catapults despite the density of the forest, it won’t seem like a big deal. It’s clearly not intended as a serious film for much of the time, though its villains are truly nasty and it’s pretty brutal for a film aimed at family audiences and which was a ‘PG’ [though with cuts] in the UK; of course the violence was one reason why kids loved it but did we need some rape as well? The film is as all over the place as its variety of accents, yet I frequently watch it, it’s still terrific fun with something for almost anyone, and when it soars it truly soars, really capturing that rousing swashbuckling spirit of olde. Alan Rickman, who chews the scenery like a mad dog, may be as memorable as most people tend to say, but all of the cast seem to give it their all except for a tired-looking Costner; however he can’t really be blamed for that and was probably doing his best. He’d just completed Dances With Wolves and went straight onto this with no proper break.

Pen Densham wanted a Robin Hood film which had Robin being a selfish, privileged man who changes into a socially conscious fighter for justice, and a Christian being friends with a Muslim [though this was also in the Robin Of Sherwood TV series]. No studio was interested in Densham and his writing and producing partner John Watson’s treatment, but they wrote a script anyway, and appearing as it did during a writer’s strike, studios bid over it, Morgan Creek winning. Two other Robin Hood films were being planned by Warner Bros and Fox, and Costner was considered for them, but he chose the Densham/Watson script. Production was set up in England before the project was even greenlit. Robin Hood starring Patrick Bergen was hurried into cinemas in some countries. I recall walking by a cinema and seeing a sign that said “This is NOT the Kevin Costner Robin Hood film”. Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio only came on board four days before filming because Robin Wright got pregnant. Shooting took place at Shepperton Studios, Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire becoming the main location, plus Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, Hulne Priory and Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, Aysgarth Falls in North Yorkshire and the beach at Seven Sisters, Sussex. The shoot was rushed with script changes frequently being made: Rickman got Ruby Wax and Peter Barnes to punch up his dialogue and improvised some lines. However, Morgan Creek and Costner worrying that Rickman’s Sheriff was too dominant resulted in editor Peter Boyle locked out of the editing and director Kevin Reynolds walking out of post-production, amid lots of re-editing to make Costner more prominent. The UK cinema release cut the first part of the opening prison scene and Christian Slater’s improvised F word; the video removed a further minute of violent and bloody shots, and the film wasn’t seen uncut over here until 2001.

The opening titles take place over medieval tapestries and by god is the musical theme still rousing, perfectly preparing the viewer for what’s to come, though the first scene is very gritty and intense, set in a Middle Eastern prison with a gloomy look, screaming prisoners and a guy having his hand cut off, perhaps a strange beginning, but good for warning viewers that this version will be tough in places. Robin and Azeem are both prisoners there; Robin does what might be his first totally unselfish act, taking the place of another man who’s about to be dismembered. An escape ensures, though one man is killed; Robin promises to look after his sister Marian. Back in Britain, Robin’s father [an impressively restrained Brian Blessed] is killed by the Sheriff’s men, clad in white robes. Now comes a real goof which I’m amazed got through seeing as the film was shot is England. Robin and Azeem land by the white cliffs of Dover, and  Robin says “By nightfall we will celebrate with my father” yet they haven’t even got a horse and Nottingham is 170 miles from Dover. Next thing is they’re climbing over a wall, which is Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland., some 120 miles north of Nottingham. Robin has a fight with some of the sheriff’s men, sees them off and says to Azeem “It’s five miles from here”. Huh? Some trip they took. Robin and Azeem bicker and bond, though Azeem is very choosy about the time he will repay his debt of saving his life to Robin, preferring to give advice like “Get up move faster” then to give real aid. Of course Azeem wasn’t in the original legends, and you could say that the script does push a PC agenda with its showing of Azeem being superior in so many ways to these uncultured Brits, and before the days when this ideology began to take over Hollywood, but at the time it was unusual to have a Muslim character to be portrayed so positively, and some of his quips [“How did your uneducated kind ever take Jerusalem”?] are great.

Despite this and a lot of other revisionism the first half of the film does incorporate some of the iconic situations, such as Marian in disguise fighting Robin [it’s funny when Marian’s somewhat less pretty maid pretends to be Marian and Robin, who hasn’t seen her in many years, remarks “The years have been….kind“], and Robin, fleeing with Azeem from soldiers, first encountering the outlaws in Sherwood Forest and battling Little John for passage across a river. The outlaws are a disorganised group who aren’t very positive until Robin stands on a tree and delivers a rousing speech, even critisising the Crusades. “One free man defending his home is more powerful than ten hired soldiers. Crusades talked me that”. Seeing as he used to set her hair on fire as a child, Marian isn’t particularly pleased to see him the first time around, but when Robin sneaks into a church to see her with the Sheriff very nearby her demeanour is a little different. The Sheriff wants both her land and her, but she’s holding firm. The outlaws soon make a name for themselves stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, but the Sheriff s getting increasingly frustrated, and just can’t understand why the poor love him despite the Sheriff’s vicious reprisals targeted mainly at them. Eventually Marian ends up in the forest  and at the outlaw’s base which is rather like the village of the Ewoks, and the fast “a burst of excitement every ten minutes” pacing slows to we can spend some good time with these people, and see a growing liking between Robin and Marian in scenes that have a wistful quality to them. When Marian leaves at dusk as the sun rises by a foggy river, the music swells and the blind Squire says to her “I think he fancies you”, we’re getting old-style Hollywood romance which makes you feel all soppy inside at its best, and it’s such a shame this we rarely get this sort of thing today. Later on we get a moment of lovely corn at its best as, thought dead, Robin appears over the horizon as the sun rises [again], with a halo round his head.

Action tends to be quick but frequent as Robin keeps on meeting the Sheriff’s men, and eventually we get two sizeable set pieces set in the forest and in the Sheriff’s castle. There’s a strange mixture of traditional skill and athleticism with perhaps more realistic clumsiness and brutality, rope swinging and cool arrow gags shaking hands with bloodied faces and people including a young boy almost being strangled by nooses. Bizarrely it works, even if the obligatory duel between hero and villain is a bit of a let down; surely we expect more sword play than things being thrown and kicked? And did we need the Sheriff to utter a comical comment while he’s trying to rape Marian, replete with a shot [unseen in the UK video] of him forcing her legs apart? The Sheriff character is an odd mix if you think about it. He prances about, pulls faces and utters most of the funniest lines, such as “Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas”. Yet he’s also a psychopath who tortures enemies, mutilates servants, kills his cousin and has a witch living in his castle. The Extended Version, restoring 12 minutes, has one extra action beat but is otherwise all Sheriff material. We learn that the witch killed the true George Nottingham as a baby and replaced him with her own infant son, revealing that she’s the Sheriff’s mother, while another scene details the conspirators’ plot to steal the throne. However, there’s also a major cock-up when a scribe is shown having had his tongue cut out in a new scene, yet later on he speaks. While Rickman remains magnificent, those who shortened the film actually made the right choice in focusing more on our hero. This is one of those rare occasions where I prefer the Theatrical Cut, which seems a lot tighter even though it’s not much longer.

The satanist element is half-arsed and the wedding at the end seems to be pagan. The hurried production is revealed in lots of continuity errors, though then again this is a film where we have a refracting telescope even though such things weren’t invented until the 17th century, gunpowder which wasn’t invented until the 13th century, and an army of Celts from a great many centuries before. Such silliness, which goes alongside much intended humour anyway, doesn’t so much intrude on the darker and gritty aspects as balance them out; it’s a maybe weird mix but Reynolds, by some weird alchemy, pulls it off. Costner probably insisted on having so many hero shots but he remains hugely likeable; like Errol Flynn, he’s a leader you’d follow, and when he’s about to be catapulted into the Sheriff’s castle, Costner makes us believe that he’s now totally transformed into somebody who will die for what he believes in. Morgan Freeman is in fine fighting shape at age 57 while the incarnations of Little John [Nick Bramble] and Friar Tuck [Michael McShane] are among the most memorable. As Will Scarlet, here given a new subplot to provide another obstacle for our hero, Christian Slater brings angst. Michael Kamen’s music score is superb from beginning to end, a symphony of propulsion showing Kamen’s knack for creating action music which is cohesive yet perfectly matching what’s taking place on screen, with some lyrical breaks where even the melody of that song is a joy to hear. Despite – or rather maybe because of its perhaps disparate elements, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is fabulously entertaining yet also has true heart and sincerity. It’s one of those films that, as the end credits roll on, may really make you believe that honour, justice and just plain goodness can prevail in this world, even if just for a few minutes.

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