By Elaine Bergstrom
The first stories of Robin Hood date to the ninth century. The tales became ballads in the 15th and 16th centuries, and a children’s novel some 400 years later. With the advent of movies and television, the action, romance and nobility of Robin Hood resulted in dozens of films and series. And while another telling of the popular story would certainly attract viewers, Ridley Scott, director of the most recent film adaptation of Robin Hood, chose to look at how the legend may have begun.
With that decision, he was in agreement with his star, Russell Crowe. “I said I’d do Robin Hood, but only if it were a fresh take,” Crowe says. “It is one of the longest-surviving stories in the English language. That requires due respect. I took the attitude that if you’re going to revitalize Robin Hood, it has to be done on the basis that whatever you thought you knew about the legend was an understandable mistake. It has to be different from what has come before.”
In this film, Crowe plays Robin Longstride, an archer in Richard I’s army, who makes a promise on the battlefield to return a dying noble’s sword to his family. Impersonating the dead Loxley, whose sword and armor he carries, Robin travels to Nottingham and gets caught up defending a town suffering from crippling taxation and an evil sheriff. He’s also attracted to Loxley’s spirited widow (Cate Blanchett), who fights alongside the men when the going gets tough.
Robin Hood also looks at the royalty of the era. The immature libertine King John and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, are integral to the story as their decisions determine the fate of Nottingham and all of England.
“With our film, we explain who the Sheriff of Nottingham, Maid Marion and her father-in-law are, the dynamics of the northern part of England and the barons, and how England was controlled at the time,” co- producer Brian Grazer says of this “origin story” type of film. “By the end of the movie, you also know who Robin is. The end of our movie is the beginning of all the dozens or so other films that have been made.”
“Robin Hood” is now showing on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.
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© 2010 Universal Studios. Credit: David Appleby
