One of the most told tales in movie history, the much loved story of Robin Hood is once again on the big screen. This time around the successful partnership of Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe team up to give this famous old fable their own unique stamp.
A Different Robin
The team that bought us such films as American Gangster, Body of Lies and most famously, Gladiator, team up once more to re-invent the hero of English folklore. Crowe plays the eponymous hero; however, this is a different animal to the swashbuckling, tights-clad Robin Hood of Errol Flynn. Crowe’s Robin is a grittier, tougher stonemason’s son, as is expected from a Russell Crowe character. This film opens with Robin Longstride (as he's known here), an archer in the English army fighting in France for King Richard the Lionheart. Richard is killed in battle, and Robin, accompanied by some fellow fighters, heads back to England. Along the way, they find a group of English soldiers who’ve been ambushed whilst returning the crown to England. Robin talks to a dying Robert Loxley, who tells him to return his sword to his father, and pass on a message to his family in Nottingham.
Robin Becomes Legend
Once in England, now under King John’s reign, Robin heads for Nottingham as promised, and duly passes on Robert’s message. However, Robert’s blind, aging father (Max Von Sydow) tells Robin to stay with them as his adopted son, as a way of keeping his estate as his own. This is how Robin meets Marion (Cate Blanchett), the widow of Robert, whom he now has to pretend to be. At first they hardly see eye to eye, but they do grow closer, eventually falling for each other in reality. Elsewhere, the man who ordered the attack on Robert Loxley, Godfrey (Mark Strong), is back in England, and, as a kind of medieval double agent, has landed himself the job of collecting taxes from across the land; however, he uses this as the mask to cover his bringing in of French soldiers to ransack the land, and de-stabilise it for a planned invasion.
As towns and villages around the country are attacked, the fighting men of the country come together to stand against the new insurgency; Robin rouses them to fight against injustice, and alongside King John they head out and rout the French as they arrive on the beach, before they even have a chance to invade. Unfortunately, John reneges on his promise to build a fairer Britain, and so sows the seeds for the enduring Robin Hood story of Robin Hood, along with Maid Marion and his band of merry men, stealing from the rich to give to the poor, and forever fighting the injustices and tyrannies of King John.