Robin and Marian
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Movie Reviews of Robin and Marian
Movie Review: Robin and Sean
Summary: 5 Stars
Robin and Sean are an unbeatable combination. At last a down-to-earth view of the mature Robin Hood, devoid of Hollywood's frilles and glitz.
Audrey Hepburn and Robert Shaw's excellent characters add further to a movie and a tale very well told.
Most recommentable.
A Norwegian film buff.
Movie Review: Audrey as Maid Marian .....
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent quality CD. Had not heard of this production before .. it is definitely worth watching, both for Audrey's wonderful performance and Sean Connery's classic acting. Strongly recommend it to complete your collection.Movie Review: Re-imaging of the Robin Hood legend is heartwrenching entertainment
Summary: 4 Stars
In 1967 Audrey Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar for her role as a blind woman in Wait Until Dark and it would be nine years before she would agree to appear in another one, and then only at the urging of her two sons. The movie that tempted her out of retirement was this admittedly rather odd retelling of the Robin Hood legend, and the reason her sons were so keen on her to take the role - well the fact that Robin Hood was to be played by James Bond himself in the shape of Sean Connery.
For Connery's part this movie is a lot more closer in general theme and appearance to the excellent MAN WHO WOULD BE KING than the 007 series of impressive sets and over the top villains. Sure this movie has sets and villains, but they are more muted and on a much smaller scale than anyone James Bond ever faced. Indeed Connery's portrayal of Robin as a middle aged man searching for some remnants of his past glory is not the impressive action hero who inhabited such blockbusters as THE ROCK which appeared some 20 years after this.
The movie begins in 1199 with Robin and Little John (played wonderfully by Nicol Williamson who would go on to play Merlin in EXCALIBUR) returning to England after the death of Richard the Lionheart (Richard Harris). Robin is shocked to discover that Marian has become an abbess after years earlier trying to take her own life over the loss of Robin to the Crusades. He also has to face his own advancing age when he meets up with Will Scarlet (Denholm Elliott of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and TRADING SPACES fame) and Friar Tuck (played by British television's comedian Ronnie Barker of the show THE TWO RONNIES).
One wonders how this movie would have turned out if the producers had gotten their way and had Albert Finney play Robin Hood and Connery play Little John. It's impossible to imagine it now, but I'm glad they made it the way they did as the chemistry between Connery and Hepburn is excellent and you really connect with the obvious affection they feel towards one another in the movie's quieter moments.
Anyone expecting an Errol Flynn-style adventure is set for a disappointment. In fact this movie, although it features Robert Shaw as possibly one of the best Sheriff of Nottingham's and sword fighting and battle scenes is not so much about the legend of Robin Hood as it is about heroism and how one comes to terms with one's own mortality.
One quibble I have about this movie is that the England presented here does not look like England. The fact that this is not England in fact is brought home in the closing credits when we see the sight of Golden Delicious apples sitting on the window ledge. In fact these kinds of apples did not exist in 12th Century England. My suspicon was indeed confirmed when I learned that the movie was filmed in Spain and it shows, it's a little jarring but not overly intrusive.
The final confrontation between Shaw's Sheriff of Nottingham and Connery's Robin (come on you knew it had to come) which serves as the action climax is telling with American Director Richard Lester (most famous for his work with the Beatles but would go on to direct the second Superman movie) having the two actors swinging swords wildly at each other. It's brutal and bloody and adds to the gritty look of the medieval world that Lester seems to have been going for.
The dramatic climax on the other hand is both poignant and heart wrenching and one wonders if the fact that it ends on such a down-note was one of the reasons why this ultimately did not perform as well as expected at the box-office. I personally am glad that Lester and his crew did not compromise the integrity of their story for the sake of popularity at the movie theaters. In fact the ending is somewhat beautiful and in keeping with the tone of the rest of the movie.
Speaking of tone, full marks must go to John Barry (who scored many of the earlier James Bond movies) for his great job in setting the mood of this picture.
Hepburn would go on to make only three other movies after this one before finally succumbing to colon cancer in 1993, but Connery, well he was just getting started and would continue on before announcing his retirement from acting after 2003's LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN. It seems they all came to terms with their own mortality years later and this certainly is one of their career's crowning achievements.
People who enjoyed this movie would be well advised to also check out the aforementioned MAN WHO WOULD BE KING and THE WIND AND THE LION - both excellent Connery movies from this era in his career.
Well recommended.
Movie Review: A tad uneven but overall well worth your eyes...
Summary: 4 Stars
With the latest addition to this `legend' already in theaters (saw it, really liked it, will review it soon) I decided to brush up on a few of these films I had yet to see. My friends all suggested `Robin and Marian', and since I love the two leads I decided to give it a go.
I'm glad I did.
Overall I found `Robin and Marian' to be a wonderful film. The acting, the concept, the imagery; everything came together very well here. For me, the loss of a star comes from the odd tonal shift the film encountered during the first ten minutes or so. It just seems very disjointed.
`Robin and Marian' opens like `Monty Python of Nottingham', completely in tune with its comedic timing and a wonderful spoof on itself. I was rolling, it was that hilarious. Every gag was fresh and intelligent. Then, suddenly, the film took a more serious tone, dropped the outlandish quality of the opening and subdued its comedic tones to a more subtle undercurrent. It went from a cull out laugh-riot to a more dramatic film with flourishes of `the funny'.
It just felt odd.
That said, the film winds up coming together for a great cinematic experience, I'm just still stumped by the strange tonal shift in the films outset.
The film takes place 20 years after the story most of us are aware of. Robin went off to war and left Marian alone. Upon his return he finds Marian in a convent and being sentenced to prison by the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. Of course, Robin has to play the hero and save the day, but he only aggravates the Sheriff and causes more problems for himself and Marian. Soon he is once again a hunted man.
I love both Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn, and Hepburn especially is outstanding here. Like I said, after those first ten minutes the film takes a far more serious tone, and Hepburn understands that and elevates that shift with every ounce of her acting talent. She really sinks her teeth into the pain Marian is undergoing, trying desperately to understand her love of Robin. Connery has a more difficult task of balancing the humor with the drama. He gets it right, for the most part, but his charisma makes him better suited for the humor here and at times he comes off mismatched with Hepburn when concerning the more dramatic scenes. Robert Shaw is deliciously evil here, and I loved Ian Holm's brief appearance as Prince John.
In the end, `Robin and Marian' works and I highly recommend it. Don't be misled by the films opening sequences. The film is not that type of a film (although I was really hoping it was going to be, since they totally nailed that formula). The final battle scene can be a tad overdone, especially when you consider the shift the film took. That final scene reverts back to the films comedic opening, yet it doesn't hit as hard since the focus has been shifted over the course of the films center. Still, Connery and Hepburn shine here and make this take on the famed character well worth your time and attention.
Movie Review: Moody, Bittersweet, and Uneven, Despite an Amazing Cast...
Summary: 4 Stars
Richard Lester's 1976 'take' on the AFTERWARDS of the "Happily Ever After" finales of the classic 'Robin Hood' films, Robin and Marian, is a mixed bag that critics loved, but many fans of the legendary Errol Flynn swashbuckler, and Lester's more light-hearted period comedies, hated. Part of the problem was promotion; contemporary advertising promised a The Three Musketeers/The Four Musketeers-like slapstick romp, with lots of romance, while the actual film, despite some welcome doses of humor, is somber, and occasionally quite dark (Lester and screenwriter James Goldman's original title was "The Death of Robin Hood", which the studio nixed, as too depressing). Another part was, I believe, the casting; Lester originally hoped to pair Albert Finney (as Robin Hood) and Audrey Hepburn (in her return to the screen after a 9-year absence), with Sean Connery as Little John. Finney and Hepburn had previously teamed in the tragicomic Stanley Donen 1967 drama, Two for the Road, about a contemporary couple's complex marital relationship; Lester's medieval 'take' on the subject, with the same stars, would have fit in nicely with the earlier film. However, when Connery, the world's biggest action star, demanded, and got the Hood role, many audiences assumed the film would be a lively adventure, not a deliberately-paced romantic drama, and ignored the film, despite Connery and Hepburn's superb performances. Personally, the chemistry of the leads, and wonderful performance of Nicol Williamson, as Little John, made this a far better film than a Finney/Hepburn/Connery team-up might have been.
Still, I can't give "Robin and Marian" five stars, as the comic and dramatic elements don't always mesh together well, key characters not only have 'feet of clay', but largely distasteful qualities (Richard Harris' King Richard is so petty, crazy, and mean-spirited, you wonder WHY Robin would have stayed with him all those years, and later, Robin's undeserved victory over the Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Robert Shaw, Connery's nemesis in 1963's From Russia With Love, left a bad taste, the rest of the film). Even the climax of the story seemed more selfish than self-sacrificing and romantic, and as I rapidly approach my own 'golden years', this film offers a depressing message about growing old (an accurate one, perhaps, but still, not one I look forward to!).
"Robin and Marian" is not for all tastes, but despite being flawed, offers proof of Richard Lester's directorial skills reaching far beyond simple comedy; even in it's less-successful moments, it is a testament to a gifted directing career that ended far too soon.