This week, I’m taking aim at The Death of Robin Hood, an adaptation of the 17th century ballad of the same name from Pig and A Quiet Place: Day One director Michael Sarnoski which stars Hugh Jackman as the legendary folk hero and outlaw. Set in 1247, an elderly Robin Hood is living in self-imposed exile in the wilderness until he is approached by his longtime companion Little John (Bill Skarsgard) to help him retake his farm and rescue his family from bandits. But as Robin embarks on this adventure, he forms a kinship with John’s daughter Margaret and reckons with the consequences of his derring-do as he encounters people whose lives have been shaped by his actions. The legend of Robin Hood is a timeless one, and the appeal of his escapades of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor has endured across countless generations including a plethora of film adaptations. But what tends to separate the bullseyes from the complete misses is their sense of fun and heart, something understood by The Adventures of Robin Hood, Disney’s animated incarnation and Mel Brrooks’ spoof Men in Tights, and cut out with a spoon by Prince of Thieves, Ridley Scoot’s 2010 retelling and the disastrously bad Taron Egerton version from 2018.
New Retelling of an Old Story
The adventure The Death of Robin Hood most closely resembles is Hugh Jackman’s original Wolverine swan song Logan, not only due to its more down to earth tone but also as it seeks to recontextualise and strip away the romanticism of previous adaptations. Robin Hood may be revered as a folk hero through song and story in the 13th Century, but this perspective has been shaped by decades of his escapades being passed down and reshaped into tales that gloss over the violence and brutality of the acts he committed. Sarnoski is clearly very interested in exploring the power and consequences of storytelling and it’s this aspect where his screenplay sings loudest, as Robin find himself unexpectedly face to face with figures well aware of who he is despite impacting their stories decades prior. However, the material struggles to connect emotionally despite the clear desire for it to in the bond between Robin and Margaret, in part because of how exposition heavy it is without much of a visual frame of reference for his prior exploits. Sarnoski’s last two directorial efforts also had the benefit of concise 90 minute runtimes which made their unrelenting bleakness more palatable, while at exactly 2 hours The Death of Robin Hood’s trajectory is considerably slower paced and though not necessarily dull it’s a surprisingly passive viewing experience.
Carrying Performances
What helps carry The Death of Robin Hood is Hugh Jackman’s central performance, the second this year in which his demise is inevitable after The Sheep Detectives. He brings a grizzled, weary presence to the role, one which has grown jaded to the distortion of his acts into something resembling heroism amid the constant cycle of bloodshed against endless, replaceable lawmakers, which makes the brief flickers of such an image that much more poignant. The supporting cast alongside him of Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgard, Murray Bartlett and Noah Jupe put in uniformly reliable work, but regardless of whether their English accent is natural or affected their dialogue is at times difficult to make out due to poor enunciation and a sound mix which isn’t balanced well enough. Michael Sarnoski’s direction meanwhile uses darkness to his advantage, creating a hostile, unforgiving depiction of Medieval England, with visually striking images aplenty that feel almost akin to a Grimm fairytale, while also managing to make the prominent nighttime shots actually discernible.
Overall
Though The Death of Robin Hood does sing an interesting enough song that justifies its existence as another glum adaptation, it showcases the limits of Sarnoski’s grim reach when working with a longer runtime, but the performances and flawed, yet compelling deconstruction of its figure’s legacy makes it a tale worth being retold.
3/5 stars
The The Death of Robin Hood movie review was created by Joe Warne, a member of the Sedgemoor fm team since 2017.
Joe specialises in providing weekly reviews of the latest film releases at 6.30pm each Monday evening as part of the Sedgemoor Life Show. Tune in each Monday for more movie reviews