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Robin Hood - the latest Hollywood treatment

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Sir William:
Lookin forward to hearing what you think of it.  At least it doesn't LOOK like crap!

Sir Matthew:
If you take it for what it is, a Hollywood movie, then it was good and you won't be disappointed. If you expect complete historical accuracy in the weapons and armor, etc. then you will not like it. I appreciate movies for what they are, movies. I thought that this particullar telling of the Robin Hood story was very well done in that they tried to weave some of the various stories and legends of Robin into a historical background. I have heard several different versions of Robin Hood, some even older than the Crusades time period so trying to sort out the different stories is almost impossible and weaving them all together into one cohesive story that makes sense is just as impossible. The movies blending seemed to me to make sense and fit into the historic timeline they choose. I thought the acting was acceptable, not great but not terrible either. I'm not much of a Crowe fan, but I thought he did a passable job as Robin. I have not bought it yet, but I'm sure it will make it's way into my collection beside A Knight's Tale, Gladiator and The Last Legion among the medieval/rennaissance/ancient themed movies I have picked up.

Sir Patrick:
I watched this for the second time last night.  The first time I saw it, I hated it.  A certain GLARING inacurracy with the timeline at the beginning of the movie just put me off for the rest of it.  BTW, I am not a purist when it come to Hollywood flicks, but this would have been like watching a WWII movie where the atomic bomb was dropped before D-Day!   Anyway, I watched it again, and maybe it was my frame of mind, but I enjoyed it.  My advice if you didn't like it the first time, give it another look a little later.

Sir James A:
I went back and watched it again this weekend as I was doing some other tasks. It was much more tolerable, I think in large part because I wasn't trying to make any sense of it. At pure entertainment and storytelling, it does do a good job when I wasn't trying to link it to everything else I've heard/seen about Robin Hood.

I guess it's somewhat like Lord of The Rings. I thought the movies were good, but I never read the books. My cousin read the books and said the movies were an atrocity that left out important parts of the storyline, some implied romantic spots, and a few things like that. Watching the movie again and taking it as just a movie, it was entertaining.

(spoiler, but it's a link - http://forum.mastermason.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=7341&title=masonic-robin-hood-2010 - that link tells the bits linking Robin to the masons in this movie)

Sir William:
Sir James, I categorically disagree with your cousin...having read the Trilogy at least 20 times since I first read it as a kid, I can tell you- yes, the movies did omit portions of the books but in doing so, they took nothing away from the overall theme or even the continuity.

***Spoilers if you've seen the movies but never read the Trilogy before***

Sure, no Tom Bombadil, it was really Glorfindel in his wrath as an Elven lord that caused the Ford to overflow and sweep away the Black Riders and it was Gandalf's magic that made the waters look like horsemen but in the spirit of the story, that didn't really matter.  In the books, Eowyn meets Faramir in the Houses of Healing, they fall in love and marry w/Aragorn's blessing- but that was extraneous and took nothing away from the movie (or story) by not including it.

One part I wish they had included was the hobbits' journey back home...they deal with a new group of hardened men who have taken over the Shire under the direction of 'Sharku' (orc-speech for 'old man', a clue as it were)- it turns out they encounter Saruman again, and he's behind the destruction and disarray in the Shire only this time, Grima has enough of him and slits the old wizard's throat before fleeing.

There were other omissions but they don't come to mind immediately and I consider them small enough as to be inconsequential.

Back on topic, I watched the Costner rendition (again), Prince of Thieves yesterday...I must say, that one is my favorite Robin Hood movie of all the ones I've seen.

I find it funny that people look for the historicity in Robin Hood when it can't even be proven whether or not he actually existed.  LOL

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