6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 3.9 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.9 |
After the death of Richard the Lionheart in the Crusades, Sir Robin of Loxley returns from war to his home in the north of England. There, he comes up against the oppressive regime imposed by the tyrannical new Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin summons up a group of supporters and puts his formidable archery skills to use in an effort to free the people from corruption and political injustice.
Starring: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, William Hurt, Mark StrongAction | 100% |
Adventure | 70% |
History | 24% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French/Spanish: DTS 5.1 @768 kbps
English, English SDH, French, French SDH, Spanish, Spanish SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (1 BD, 2 DVDs)
Digital copy (on disc)
DVD copy
Bonus View (PiP)
BD-Live
D-Box
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Filmgoers have had a glut of Robin Hoods through the years, everything from the 1922 silent with Douglas Fairbanks to the 1973 Disney animated version to, heaven forfend, a softcore porn outing made in the Free Love era’s perfect year, 1969, called The Erotic Adventures of Robin Hood. Television audiences have also had their share of Robins, from the 1950s series starring Richard Greene to the British series Robin of Sherwood which featured the evocative music of Clannad. And yet, which version is almost universally cited as the perfect amalgamation of charm, wit, romance, adventure and action? No, it’s not Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It is, of course, the spectacular 1938 version starring Errol Flynn as Robin and Olivia de Havilland as Marian, with a supporting cast the likes of which will probably never be seen again, people like Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale and Una O’Connor. This Warner Brothers classic had everything in abundance: a dashing hero played perfectly by Flynn, a lovely and demure, yet feisty, heroine in de Havilland, rousing action scenes, a classic score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and effectively unobtrusive direction by Michael Curtiz. More than 70 years after its release, The Adventures of Robin Hood remains a model of freshness, élan, and sumptuous fun. Obviously, people have tried, over and over and over again, to either recapture that magic or to recast the Robin legend in a different light, usually to no avail. Enter Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, who evidently started with what might have been a completely original and unexpected take on Robin’s story. This film was originally titled Nottingham and posited the Sheriff as the good guy (to be played by Crowe) and Robin as the baddie. That at least might have made for a fascinating new take on the subject matter. Crowe insists in one of the extras on this Blu-ray that the first version of the screenplay read like CSI: Sherwood Forest, but after having seen the finished version of Robin Hood, even that take might have been preferable to what we’re ultimately given here. This is yet another film with everything that money can buy, gorgeously produced, shot, and, for the most part, splendidly performed, and yet there’s that ineffable missing element. You might call it magic, if you’re inclined toward the ephemeral. Or, you might simply call it fun, that sense of wonder that permeates virtually every frame of the Flynn Robin Hood and which is sadly missing from this gargantuan attempt to reinvent Robin of Loxley.
Russell Crowe is Robin Longstride, assuming the ID of Robert Loxley, and soon to become Robin Hood.
Robin Hood scuffles onto Blu-ray with a good, though at times problematic, AVC encoded transfer in 1080p and a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. When this transfer works well, it works very well indeed. Notice the gorgeous crosshatching pattern, where the viewer can almost feel the texture of the parchment, on the opening scroll scenes. The entire opening segment, bathed in gorgeous blue tones and with admirable black levels and contrast, look brilliantly sharp and well detailed. Close-ups give us abundant detail, from Crowe's increasingly weathered face to Blanchett's unkempt auburn hair. Robin Hood is a deliberately dark, and at times desaturated, film, tending toward yellows and browns for large swaths of its two and a half hour-plus running time. While some may wish for a more deeply saturated palette, the blanched and almost monochromatic look of the film help to recreate its time period quite admirably. As seems to be the case with many films set in this same time period, the Blu-ray can't quite resolve the chainmail completely, and some minor, but noticeable, shimmer creeps into the image when Robin and his cohorts are in that kind of costume. More troubling, and really rather odd, were one or two moments of shimmer on completely unexpected scenes. Watch, for example, in the first showdown scene between Robin and Godfrey, in the hall outside of King John's throne room, and you will notice some frankly odd shimmer on the gray walls behind the actors. Overall, though, despite this film's inherent bleakness and darkness, this is a respectably solid looking effort with only a few minor anomalies keeping it from a better score.
Much, much better is Robin Hood's exceptionally immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. In fact, this is where this film finally erupts into some of the fun and imagination that the rest of the movie seems to lack. The battle scenes here are incredibly impressive, with zinging arrows flying in from the surrounds, and the bone crunching sound of men and horses colliding providing some very robust LFE. But even in ostensibly simpler moments, the sound design is exceptional. In the "carnival" scene, where Robin is plying his "shell game" trade, listen to how the ambient crowd noises spill effectively into the surrounds, while the very "small" noise of Robin moving the shells about the table still come through very clearly, and completely aptly from a directional standpoint. Dialogue is very cleanly presented here, and the quasi-Celtic underscore also works very well in the overall mix. There's really a fantastic use of dynamic range here; scenes cut from very loud and boisterous sound effects to whispers quite frequently, and it's very, very effectively rendered on this DTS track.
Robin Hood has a nice array of extras supplementing the feature, which is available both in the original theatrical version (running 2:20:26) or the extended director's cut (running 2:35:48).
Robin Hood has eluded a variety of filmmakers through the years, despite its seemingly timeless appeal. Watching this humongous and often bloated version, I couldn't help but wonder what the original Nottingham concept might have been like. Post-modern revisionism is fine, but Scott stuffs this turkey with too many extraneous ideas, everything from anti-Muslim bigotry to women's rights to children with colds (and, no, I'm not kidding). The production design here is the real star, and it looks mostly fantastic on Blu-ray. If you don't mind the muddle of the screenplay, there are dribs and drabs of an exciting action feature here. What could have elevated this film is a less relentlessly dour take on its subject. The medieval era may in fact have actually been like this, but that doesn't mean filmgoers are going to want to spend two and a half hours experiencing it, however vicariously.
4-Disc Edition
2010
2010
2010
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2010
2010
Director's Cut
2005
Extended Cut
1991
Director's Cut
2004
Director's Cut
2004
2007
2011
2017
Unrated Director's Cut
2007
2010
2000
1938
2017
2011
2016
2014
1995
2011
2013
2010
1995