Robin Hood

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood and Richard Lester's elegiac Robin and Marian bookend the legend itself. Both cleverly utilise the well-known tale, with the latter showing the outlaw and his companions at the end of their lives, gathering themselves for one final battle. Robin Hood on the other hand shows us the genesis of the legend, with subtle tweaks. King Richard, so often viewed as the ultimate saviour of England, here dies at the beginning of the film. The Sheriff of Nottingham is a marginal, ineffective figure, and certainly no match for the ruthless traitor Godfrey. Robin himself has a double identity: the humble archer, who fought alongside King Richard on Crusade, ends up impersonating the noble Locksley initially in order to return home. However, he retains his new identity at the specific request of Locksley's blind, elderly father. Marian meanwhile is a feisty independent woman, as befits someone who has been responsible for her husband's domain during his 10 year absence, yet also keenly aware of her potential vulnerability - with no heir, the death of both her husband and father-in-law would leave her destitute. Amid all these slight revisions there's nonetheless an undoubted thrill at the first sight of Friar Tuck or realizing that Robin's antagonist in an early scene is the future Little John. Historians of course had best take a deep breath and ignore the usual Hollywood embellishments (Magna Carta? really?) and the geography is deeply confusing (for such a small island nation it's alarmingly easy to wonder where on earth the characters have ended up this time). The less said about some of the accents the better. Yet it's a pleasingly gritty Middle Ages, where even King Richard's crown looks more like a helmet, and ordinary people are thoroughly at the mercy of the nobility. Definitely not Errol Flynn then, but on its own terms it has merit.