Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

 

Everything I do, I do it for you...

Sorry, but that song was so prevalent everywhere during 1991 and beyond and it is the title song for this film, after all. Now you will be singing that as well for days on end. So, you're welcome, I guess.

But all jesting aside, this is a solid adventure that remains entertaining to this day, although not always for the reasons one would expect. 

Does it have issues? Hell yes. But they shouldn't detract from the experience. 

The story of Robin Hood is presented yet again, with minor tweaks: Robin is a prisoner in Jerusalem during the crusades, yet manages to escape with the help of a Moorish soldier named Azeem. They head back to merry England, where Robin discovers his father dead, his castle ruined and the Sheriff of Nottingham now rules vast tracts of this land as the latter is aiming for the throne while King Richard is away. 

That is the Lionheart one, as Richard was indeed a rather popular name back then. For kings. 

Robin also gets reacquainted with Marian, a girl he falls in love with and decides to harangue the Sheriff by hiding out in Sherwood Forest with other outcasts and then robbing the Sheriff and his allies blind, while giving the proceeds to the poor who are absolutely downtrodden at this point. 

You see? For the most part, this is textbook stuff and why tinker with a structure that is in essence pretty spot on, even after so many years?

They really pulled out all the stops for this one and it shows: the production value is high, the locations absolute perfection (they really went to France and Britain for some gorgeous locations) and most of the costumes are fairly spot on for the timeframe. The action is solid and the pacing is also really tight, which is impressive for a film that is a bit over two hours long. 

The casting now, there are some pros and cons. It's a shame that the leads were nearly all American, as their accents are quite jarring at times. Biggest offenders are of course Christian Slater as Will Scarlett and alas our hero Kevin Costner as Robin. It still feels weird to have a British hero talk in a deadpan US accent all the time. The reason Morgan Freeman gets away with it, is that he plays the Moorish soldier Azeem and has an accent anyway. He is also the most educated and polite character of the entire cast, which is saying something, considering Hollywood's penchant for making Middle Eastern characters evil most of the time. 

Sidenote: this also was the film that introduced 11-year-old me to Morgan Freeman and life has never been the same. 

But you know who really steals every scene he's in? The late, great Alan Rickman as the Sheriff. He apparently didn't like the dialogue and spiced everything up with oodles of improvisation and this turns him into the most memorable, theatrical and downright funny villain in, well, almost ever. The great thing is, Rickman's overdoing it contrasts so wonderfully with Costner's underacting that their dynamic works even better. I'm not kidding, by the way: Rickman has by far the most memorable and quotable lines, and most of them weren't even in the script! They even do callbacks on them!

"I'll cut your heart out with a spoon!"

"Cousin, why a spoon?"
"Because it's dull, you twit. It'll hurt more."

Classic, absolutely classic. 

Add to that a rousing score by Michael Kamen and you've got a massively entertaining, old fashioned adventure romp that will put a smile on anyone's face.