(2010, director's cut) Director Ridley Scott's vividly detailed and violent action drama (screenplay by Brian Helgeland, elaborating on the 14th-century ballads and stories invented since then) isn't the Robin Hood tale with which most of us are familiar from scores of movies (the first in 1908) with Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn, Kevin Kostner, and many others, or the late '50s British TV series, The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene, with its catchy theme song.

This is a prequel to the outlaw of Sherwood Forest's more familiar adventures. When history fornicates with an idealization of a nation's vision of itself, a legend is conceived. Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe), a commoner who believes his mason father abandoned him at age six (similar to John Lennon), comes to realize: "This is where I was born."

Following the 10-year Third Crusade to the Holy Land, returning in 1199 with King Richard the Lionheart (Danny Huston) toward England, sacking castles as they crossed through France, Robin ("brave and honest" but godless after the siege and massacre at Acre) and his fellow archers - Will Scarlet, Allan A'Dayle, and Jimmy, along with Little John (with whom Robin had been set in stocks for fighting and speaking truth to the crown) - skedaddle upon hearing that King Richard has been killed in battle.

At court in London, playing upon the inexperience of Prince John (Oscar Isaac), who complains to his mother Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (Eileen Atkins) of "the wreckage which is my inheritance," Godfrey (Mark Strong) - acting conspiratorially as an agent of King Philip II of France - wheedles his way onto the regency council, taking the place of the honorable and loyal William Marshal (William Hurt), 1st Earl of Pembroke.

While leading the Royal Guard in advance of the army, bearing Richard's crown back to court, Sir Robert Loxley (Douglas Hodge) and his knights are ambushed by Godfrey and his men, expecting to assassinate the king (unaware of his death); fortuitously Robin and his band of Englishmen attack the attackers, saving only the crown, though Sir Robert with his last breaths imposes upon Robin an additional task: "You must take the sword to my father."

Pretending to be Sir Robert, Robin delivers the crown to Prince John, who after giving the knight a ring as a reward confiscates it for taxes unpaid at Peper Harow in Nottingham. With each to go his own way, Robin departs from his companions for Nottingham to hand over the sword entrusted to him (bearing a curious inscription on its hilt: "Rise and rise again until lambs become lions") to the blind and aged Sir Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow).

Here he makes acquaintance with Sir Robert's widow, Lady Marion (Kate Blanchett), a woman (in this version not a maid, for she acknowledges when she mistakes Robin's comment about her husband, "a good knight," for a question about consummating their marriage with a "good night" before he left her for the crusade) with a headstrong attitude. Sir Walter recommends a contract of marriage with Marion (to whom the proposition is most disagreeable initially) to Robin, who agrees at least to continue the deception of being Sir Robert.

Meanwhile, Sir Godfrey accompanied by his French marauders with a tax warrant to demand "pay or burn" of the northern barons, ostensibly to fill the new king's coffers or fill coffins, intends to stir up resentment and set the country at war with itself in preparation for a French invasion. Robin employs a dramatic method of torture to obtain information from a detainee. A great battle scene takes place on the beach beneath the white cliffs of Dover.

The film fancifully ties Robin through his father Thomas Longstride to the original charter of rights, guaranteeing justice and "liberty by law" to all Englishmen. The "Merry Men" of Sherwood Forest are depicted as originally runaway orphan boys, led by Loop, who poached and thieved from Peper Harow. Friar Tuck (Mark Addy) is a beekeeper, who prepares a honey liquor called mead, as well as a priest. The Sheriff of Nottingham has a small role prior to Robin Hood's being pronounced an outlaw of the realm (impersonating a knight being a capital crime). An arresting animation runs throughout the end credits.

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Copyright © 2010 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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