I do not think it wise to look for historicity in any Hollywood construct- their primary goal is to sell tickets and in order to do that, it has to be entertaining, engaging- which is why the flashy swordplay gets so much more air time (LOTR anyone) rather than realistic or at least semi-realistic fighting (Centurion, or Rob Roy for example). Those of us in the know, realize that an actual swordfight could be over with the landing of the first blow but that's hardly entertaining to the casual movie goer. No offense to anyone here but I cringe every time I hear someone looking for historical accuracy in a big budget Hollywood movie- unless there's a sudden outcry for historically accurate whatever, its gonna go pretty much the same.
For my part, I loved KOH- it was an epic movie, much in the vein of Troy, and I thoroughly enjoyed it; the Director's cut only made me like it more because a lot of the characters made little sense to me at first until I saw the underlying reasons for some of their actions. To each their own; I'd love to see a fully historically accurate undertaking but I doubt it'll happen anytime soon unless they get a director and producer willing to go that extra mile to bring something like that to the big screen. The question would then be- would it be accepted and appreciated by the masses? I dunno.
I DO want to watch the new Robin Hood movie; a friend of mine who knows of my proclivity for movies of this nature told me I'd love it- normally I wouldn't trust his judgement in other areas maybe but he knows me well enough to know whether or not I'd like something like that. Even he liked it, and he has no real love for anything medieval beyond video games.
Sir Brian, I wonder if (and here's what could be historical in aspect) if perhaps Maid Marion was not that unused to smelling a rank man coming out of his armor to be too put upon about it; after all, washing wasn't necessarily on the top of their daily list of things to do...just a thought.
