{"id":4129,"date":"2009-06-22T07:45:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-21T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2018-03-14T11:25:09","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T03:25:09","slug":"the-man-in-the-hood-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/06\/22\/the-man-in-the-hood-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man in the Hood \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog-robinhood-01\" Since I\u2019m on the topic of sword and sorcery movies, I thought I\u2019d do a couple of posts on Robin Hood films too.:)<\/p>\n

Like the Arthurian Legends, there\u2019s been over the decades so much novelization and entertainment media adaptations of the character that every retelling could be as viable as another, just so long as one didn\u2019t completely turn the general character dispositions on their heads: like I dunno, turn Robin into a crossbow instead of a longbow man.<\/p>\n

Of the films regarding Robin of Locksley, the most well-known one in semi-recent years is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves<\/a><\/em>. This was Kevin Costner\u2019s baby and pet project, and he\u2019d been riding on the goodwill after his Oscar-nominated performance as John Dunbar in Dances with Wolves <\/em>(loved the film, especially the four hour director\u2019s cut. May do a blog entry next time).<\/p>\n

I remembered the newspapers terrifically assailing Costner for his hokey Brit accent and that Costner is well, just nearly as naturally wooden as Keanu Reeves. But the film was more good than bad, and largely because his supporting cast were all having a rollicking ball of time making this film.<\/p>\n

There was Morgan Freeman as Robin\u2019s Moorish and sensible companion, and who seemed to heave a heavy sigh every time Costner\u2019s Robin brought out another harebrained scheme. And Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio whom we don\u2019t see very often in films anymore as the feisty Maid Marian with a mean crotch kick.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s best remembered though for Alan Rickman\u2019s Sheriff of Nottingham (above). He somehow simultaneously channeled the best and funniest parts of being a megalomanical villain, and had all the best lines in the movie.<\/p>\n

\"blog-robinhood-03\" Released at the same time was a smaller-scaled Robin Hood<\/a><\/em> film starring a bonafide Brit actor Patrick Bergin in the title role, and Uma Thurman opposite him as Marian. Thurman was still pretty fresh out from her breakout and eye-opening role as the impressionable Cecile de Volanges in Dangerous Liaisons. <\/em><\/p>\n

Bergin\u2019s Robin Hood<\/em> was made on a more modest budget than Prince of Thieves<\/em> and looked it too. The production was originally made as a TV movie but was screened in theatres here. Bergin was a far better actor than Costner in this role, and I remembered the production sets had an authentic, unsanitized and grim look.<\/p>\n

As both films were released at about the same time, comparisons were inevitable. I enjoyed Prince of Thieves<\/em> as a pop-corn flick then, and still (funnily) enjoy it today and largely because of Rickman\u2019s Sheriff. Robin Hood<\/em> was more a serious character study of the hero, but I never picked up the DVD for it \u2013 so my recollection of impressions is getting all foggy 18 years after seeing it on the big screen.<\/p>\n

Still, Prince of Thieves<\/em> gets \"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"blank-star\" from me.<\/p>\n

Continued in the next post.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I\u2019m on the topic of sword and sorcery movies, I thought I\u2019d do a couple of posts on Robin Hood films too.:) Like the Arthurian Legends, there\u2019s been over the decades so much novelization and entertainment media adaptations of<\/p>\n

Read More The Man in the Hood \u2013 Part 1<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-entertainment","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-10-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}