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DVD Robin Hood
Film buffs may remember the tangled tale of competing Robin Hood projects in 1991. Kevin Costner, riding high from his Oscar wins for Dances with Wolves, had his pick of projects at the time, and he juggled his interest in parallel Hood films that were under development at different studios. Costner chose Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, of course, directed by his friend Kevin Reynolds, while the other production (the one described here), attached to veteran British director John Irvin (The Dogs of War), ended up on cable television with another Yank, Patrick Bergin, in the lead. Comparisons were inevitable, even though the two films were very different from one another. A little harder edged and more surprising than Reynolds's work, the Irvin-Bergin movie made all that medieval heroism seem more an effort of the heart than previous versions. Roughing things up a bit is Uma Thurman as a bratty Maid Marion, not quite the traditional damsel in distress of yesteryear. Irvin keeps the adventure quotient up, but this is simply a darker, grittier variation on the old tale. With Jürgen Prochnow, Jeroen Krabbé, and Conrad Asquith. --Tom Keogh
If you have your choice between Costner's Robin Hood and Bergin's, pick Bergin's. I had never seen the movie before until I picked up the DVD and was immediately glad I had. Costner's Prince of Thieves is a good action movie, but lacks a heart. Bergin's Robin Hood is much less high flown and much more satisfying. The story is grittier, the characters better drawn, and the actors appear to be having the time of their lives. The first thing I thought when I saw the film was that screenwriters certainly knew their Robin Hood ballads. There's a false Marian, a disguised Marian, a Green Man, the Norman/Saxon conflict, the band lives in caves rather than treehouses, Nottingham is a textile town (part of the action takes place in a dyer's shop), and Robin himself resorts to disguises and the help of his outlaw band rather than a great deal of derring-do. None of the characters is particularly black or white. They are all portrayed as shades of gray, even the heavies, which makes the action of the story more realistic. In particular, Jeroem Krabbe gives a nuanced performance as Marian's Norman uncle. Uma Thurman, whom I'm not particularly a fan of, is especially luminous on screen. Her character has a great deal of backbone, much more than the usual "distressed damsel" role the character is usually relegated to. Even with her back to the wall, Marian still refuses to marry the man her uncle has picked out for her. Uma also looks quite convincing dressed as a boy. Patrick Bergin's Robin is a fair man and a cheeky fellow, but is also overly proud and impulsive. My overall recommendation: buy it. You'll be glad you did.
Almost my favorite Robin Hood movie...
This is, hands down, my favorite Robin Hood film. Unfortunately, the studio chose to cut out about twenty minutes of unequaled dialogue. I saw this film when it made its American debut, and the somewhat racy, Chaucerian dialogue made it past network television censors. So, why cut it from a DVD release? Too sad, actually. Emblin and Lily are missing most of their good lines.
For those who buy this edition, it is a shame you will not get the full effect.
Light, Stylish and Fun
John Irvin's `Robin Hood' is a stylish and fun rendering of the classic legend that strikes a nice balance between action adventure, romance, and humor. Its actions scenes are exciting and fun, with nearly bloodless violence, making it suitable for family viewing. It has few pretensions beyond being a light-weight adventure flix, but accomplishes that very well.
As this `Robin Hood' came out the same year as Kevin Costner's Robin Hood project, it is hard not to compare them, and Irvin's `Robin Hood' is superior in nearly every way. It is a travesty that Costner's bomb received all the publicity while this far better movie disappeared into obscurity. . Its chief virtue is its fine cast, led by Uma Thurman in one of her best performances as a fiery Maid Marian, and Patrick Bergin, who captured and owned the title role of Robin Hood as no one else has since the great Errol Flynn. Thurman and Bergin struck real sparks together, giving some life and zip to the romance between Robin and Marian. . Jeff Nuttall created a brilliant Friar Tuck, and Owen Teale and David Morrissey both turned in fine performances as Will Scarlett and Little John.
`Robin Hood' is fast paced, exciting and creative. Its action is fun, and its romance sizzles. It may fall short of being a great or memorable film, but it is certain to entertain you and your whole family.
Dashing Errol Flynn is the definitive Robin Hood in the most gloriously swashbuckling version of the legendary story. Warner Brothers reunited Michael Curtiz, their top-action director, with the winning team of Flynn and Olivia de Havilland (Maid Marian) and perennial villain Basil Rathbone as the aristocratic Sir Guy of Gisbourne, and pulled out all stops for the production. It became their costliest film to date, a grandly handsome, glowing Technicolor adventure set to a stirring, Oscar-winning score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The decadent Prince John (a smoothly conniving Claude Rains) takes advantage of King Richard's absence to tax the country into poverty but meets his match in the medieval guerrilla rebel Robin Hood and his Merry Men of Sherwood Forest, who rise up and, to quote a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Errol Flynn - Olivia de Havilland Director(s): Michael Curtiz DVD Release Date: Released the 30 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Kevin Costner's lousy English accent is a small obstacle in this often exciting version of the Robin Hood fable. That aside, it's refreshing to have a preface to the old story in which we meet the robber hero of Sherwood Forest as a soldier in King Richard's Crusades, coming home to find his people under siege from the cruelties of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman). After Robin and his community of outcasts and fighters take to the trees, director Kevin Reynolds (Fandango, 187) is on more familiar narrative ground, and he goes for the gusto with lots of original action (Robin shoots two arrows simultaneously from his bow in two directions). Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as Marion, makes a convincing damsel in distress, and Morgan Freeman brings dignity to his role as... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kevin Costner - Morgan Freeman - Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Director(s): Kevin Reynolds DVD Release Date: Released the 30 September 1997 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A rarely screened cult favorite from Paul Verhoeven, this story of medieval war and revenge should please action fans and admirers of the director and his semi-regular leading man, Rutger Hauer, but its graphic scenes of sexual violence earmark it for mature viewers only. Hauer stars as a 16th-century mercenary hired by a Western European ruler (Fernando Hilbeck) to assault a neighboring kingdom; when the king reneges on his promises to Hauer and his men, they kidnap his son's fiancee (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and hole up in a nearby castle. Hauer and Leigh are standouts in a strong cast that includes Tom Burlinson, Bruno Kirby, the late Brion James, and Susan Tyrrell; Verhoeven's realistic approach to the down-and-dirty facts of medieval life and the bloody aftermath of warfare offers a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Verhoeven DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This underrated Richard Lester film is really a classic--and one of the most romantic movies ever made. Working from James Goldman's script, Lester casts Sean Connery as an aged Robin Hood, returned after years away at the Crusades with an increasingly mad King Richard (Richard Harris). Robin and Little John (a very funny Nicol Williamson) return to find that the sheriff of Nottingham (Robert Shaw) is up to his old nasty tricks--and that Maid Marian (Audrey Hepburn) is now a nun. Lester brings the same touch to this period film that he did to The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, blending authenticity with a knowing wink at the conventions of period films. But the heart of this film is the very palpable emotion between Hepburn and Connery (and between Connery and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sean Connery - Audrey Hepburn Director(s): Richard Lester DVD Release Date: Released the 16 July 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose is a flawed attempt to adapt Umberto Eco's highly convoluted medieval bestseller for the screen, necessarily excising much of the esoterica that made the book so compelling. Still, what's left is a riveting whodunit set in a grimly and grimily realistic 14th-century Benedictine monastery populated by a parade of grotesque characters, all of whom spend their time lurking in dark places or scuttling, half-unseen, in the omnipresent gloom. A series of mysterious and gruesome deaths are somehow tied up with the unwelcome attention of the Inquisition, sent to root out suspected heretical behavior among the monastic scribes whose lives are dedicated to transcribing ancient manuscripts for their famous library, access to which is prevented by an... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Sean Connery - Christian Slater Director(s): Jean-Jacques Annaud DVD Release Date: Released the 06 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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