Robin Hood
The adventures of Robin Hood is one of those movies many people know of but few people have actually seen, which is exactly me. I were really looking forward to finally getting to see this one and expectations always places the movie at a disadvantage. This one I expected to be an easy watch so I saw it with friends and snacks and good wine and this was also how it turned out.
The mood is really light. They may be fighting with swords and shooting people by the dozens and for the survival of regular folks, but no worries, life is easy, full of laughter and merriment. This is not Robin Hood and his merry men for nothing. It is easy to see why this type of movies have been mocked in later years as we have all have lost our movie innocence, but if we forget it for a moment and assume that innocence then this is really like being a child playing Robin Hood and with this in mind it is difficult not to love it.
Of course it is highly artificial. Nobody is their right mind would ride unseen through the forest with a bright red outfit or any of the other customes the outlaws are wearing and many of the scenes do not last deeper scrutiny. Particularly I found the scene comical when the merry men are having a very merry party in the forest Robin convinces Marian in the justice in his cause by showing how the poor peasants are poor and miserable. Hey, there is a party going on! if you care for them so much, why are they not invited!
But of course if I was a 10 year old child I would not be bothered by that sort of things and it is in that light it should be seen.
The adventures of Robin Hood is one of the first movies in colour and maybe the first blockbuster in colour. Being used as I am now to watching movies in black and white it really takes off decades of a movies age to see it in colour, even as exaggerated as they are here. It was an expensive production and it shows in the details.
It is a long way from The adventures of Robin Hood to Game of Thrones, but that is not where this movie intend to go.
This is Disney with real actors. This is the original of countless Hollywood productions even of today.
Was it silly? Yes
Did I enjoy myself? Certainly
Did I regret seing it? Not for a second
This is Disney with real actors.
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY.
I really enjoy this movie - it's only intention is to have fun.
And that is how it should be seen.
DeleteBoy could Errol Flynn "swashbuckle" with the best of them. Wait until you see Captain Blood where he first got to show what he could do in a leading role.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the silliness of the colorful costumes, but they were done that way to intentionally to take advantage of the fact the film was being shot in color.
Oh, I saw Captain Blood, just haven't got write about it yet. I enjoyed it well enough, but where Robin Hood goes the entire length and become almost a cartoon, Douglas Faribank'ish, Captain Blood still has a pretence of something more serious. In that light some of their antics seem just silly or too much. But hey, it's Errol Flynn, so who cares?
DeleteCould you imagine if Game of Thrones did a spoof of this movie? It would be a riot!
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned the word "artificial" in your review, and that's how I view this. I only gave it 2 stars and a bunch of people flipped out and said how good it was. Really?
How about a South Park version of the old Robin Hood film?
DeleteThis was my very first review on this blog, so I may have been carried away. Certainly it is with some chagrin that I now read it again. Ooouch, did I really write that? However I still stand by it. As for realism this is a joke, the antithesis of Games of Thrones, but for an 11 year old this is just perfect, so you really need that state of mind to watch this.
Btw. I know the feeling. I have trashed a number of movies that other people turned out to love. Too bad.