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Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves by Kevin Reynolds
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Alan Rickman, Christian Slater, Kevin Costner, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Morgan Freeman Director: Kevin Reynolds Brand: Warner Brothers DVD: 2 Sides, Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled) Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1 Running Time: 144 minutes DVD Release Date: 1997-10-01 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Robin Hood - Prince of ThievesMovie Review: Nasty Agenda Driven Nonsense Summary: 1 StarsThe legend of Robin Hood is a myth but its based on a number of real political and historical issues. This awful mean spirited movie substitutes modern political notions for ancient ones.
The first modern agenda is the exaltation of blacks and moslems and the denigration of European whites. Simply put this is a racist movie. Morgan Freeman - an African American - is shown to be wise and civilized and the red headed Irish are portrayed as mindless savages. Not only is this offensive but it is bizarre. Islam to this day embraces the slavery of black Africans. Islam at the time of the crusades was not a place of racial harmony and enlightenment. Millions of blacks were marched across the Sahara for centuries. Most died. Those that didn't were given the most menial tasks. In Islam blacks were the least valued of slaves.
During the crusades, this movie would have you believe that an African who is also a Muslim could wander around England and be well accepted. He is shown giving a Caesarian operation to peasant's wife with his dagger. Really?
The second agenda is anti-clericism. The religious figures are depicted as impossibly evil. The medieval church had a lot of faults but these churchmen are laughably villianous. They seem modeled on Snidely Whiplash. Everything we know about the high middle ages tells us of the extreme devotion of the people to the Church. This ugly caracature of a history is agressively anti-Christian and pro-Islam.
It has been said that the all the inventions of Islam were by either Jews, Christians or Persians. The Arabs served to transport ideas from India and China toward the West, but like those other conquering people, the Mongols, they themselves made few contributions to civilization.
This propoganda movie turns all that on its head. Morgan Freeman is portrayed like a visitor from another planet with miraculous products of their advanced culture. This is just an anti-Western agenda. The creators of this film want to spread the notion that the roots of civilization were not European but Islamic.
There was of course a real political context to the Robin Hood legend. It revolved around the Norman - Saxon rift. It involved language - Germanic Saxon versus Norman French. It involved the very bad English King John and his conflict with the nobles leading to Magna Carta. It involved Richard Coeur de Lion.(This goofy movie has Richard who couldn't speak English at all speak with a Scottish accent. Ha!).
You would think that these real historical issues would provide enough material for a screenplay but instead we get a lecture on modern American race relations and the evils of Christanity. The plot seems to have been devised as an exhibit for Black History Month.
Summary of Robin Hood - Prince of ThievesAcademy AwardO winner* Kevin Costner triumphs as the legendary Sherwood Forest outlaw leader in this epic adventure bringing a 12th-century medieval world to spectacular screen life. Enhancing the sheer fun of this audience rouser are 10 added minutes of footage not seen in theatres especially more of the juicy malevolence and sinister background of Robin Hood's archenemy the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman). Morgan Freeman Christian Slater and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio also star in this lavish production lensed in Britain and France where historic structures majestic forests and vividly realistic recreations of Olde England combined to create a world at once ancient and ageless.Running Time: 144 min.System Requirements:Starring: Kevin Costner Morgan Freeman Christian Slater Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Director: Kevin Reynolds Interactive Menus Production Notes Theatrical Trailers Scene Access Languages: English & French Subtitles: English French & Spanish Dolby Surround Stereo Widescreen version presented in a "matted" widescreen format preserving the aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition Note: This disc must be "flipped over" to be viewed in its entirety. Additional Information Special Features: Interactive Menus Production Notes and Theatrical Trailer Video Format: Widescreen (no A.R. specified) Subtitles: English Spanish and French Track Info: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround French: Dolby Digital Surround Closed Captioning: Yes # Discs: 1 Produced by Pen Densham John Watson; written by Pen Densham John Watson; running time of 144minutes; Closed Captioned. Copyright: 1991 Warner Bros.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 085391400028 Kevin Costner's lousy English accent is a small obstacle in this often exciting version of the Robin Hood fable. That aside, it's refreshing to have a preface to the old story in which we meet the robber hero of Sherwood Forest as a soldier in King Richard's Crusades, coming home to find his people under siege from the cruelties of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman). After Robin and his community of outcasts and fighters take to the trees, director Kevin Reynolds (Fandango, 187) is on more familiar narrative ground, and he goes for the gusto with lots of original action (Robin shoots two arrows simultaneously from his bow in two directions). Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as Marion, makes a convincing damsel in distress, and Morgan Freeman brings dignity to his role as Robin's Moor friend. Alan Rickman, however, gets the most attention for his scene-chewing role as the rotten sheriff, an almost campy performance that is highly entertaining but perhaps a little out of sorts with the rest of the film. --Tom Keogh
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