I’m probably the last person in the world to see this, because everyone else caught it in the cinema, but let me wholeheartedly recommend it anyway.
Robin of Sherwood is one of Shakespeare’s most fantastical plays, from the initial appearance of Herne the Hunter (played here by Branagh himself, in a lovely cameo) through the evil magic of the Satanic nuns to the old magic of the people of the hills. But it’s also one of his most down-to-earth plays, with the robust humour of Friar Tuck (Stanley Tucci! And he was great! He should do Falstaff next!) and Alan-a-Dale (Justin Timberlake. Well, he can certainly sing...) and the everyday story of a bad sheriff (George Clooney—he’d have been great if he’d managed the accent) a worse prince (Christopher Lee—he can do the accent!) and the outlaws who oppose them and bring back the true king (Brian Blessed).
The play is episodic and disjointed, scenes with the outlaws, scenes in Nottingham with Marion (Alison Lohmann) and her wicked uncle, robbery, archery, repression, not to forget the wicked nuns. The thing that draws it together is the friendship between the Merry Men. Shakespeare chooses to begin not with Robin’s exile from Locksley but with Herne’s prologue and then immediately thrusts us into the battle between Robin (Kevin Kline—and I didn’t think he was even slightly too old for it) and Little John (Sylvester Stallone). Robin and Little John refuse to give way to each other, they brag, they fight with quarterstaffs, and at the end of ten minutes are fast friends and go off together as the nucleus of an outlaw band. It’s wise not to mess with Shakespeare, he had a fine sense of timing. Showing Robin’s exile silently over the credits might make it easier to understand, but there’s no need for it—he does explain everything in his bragging, and then later to Marion, and it messes up the shape of the story. It isn’t a story about Robin’s exile, it’s a story of what he does in Sherwood (did you notice the title? Duh!) and Branagh shouldn’t have changed it. Having said that, this was the only place where I gnashed my teeth—well, except the love scene in the prison, but it isn’t Branagh’s fault Shakespeare had to be so ridiculously sentimental. And the old man with the pet rat who refuses to escape (Spike Milligan, typecast, but who cares) does give the scene some interest.
As usual with movies of Shakespeare (post-Olivier anyway) there’s an assumption that you can’t keep still to listen to someone talking and any long speech (even “Under the greenwood tree”) has to be broken up with cuts and visuals. But I didn’t mind it all that much. The CGI demons were very good, and as for the shadow of Herne’s antlers appearing over Robin when he made his impossible shot to win the contest, I thought that was nifty. It’s not in the text, but when you’re looking at the actual distance rather than a stage, it does help to be able to believe in supernatural aid.
I really liked Chiwetl Ejiofor as Nazir—I thought he stole the show every time he was in a shot. I loved the whole sequence with him bargaining with Herne for Robin’s life, and he said “By oak, by ash, by thorn, by all the trees” as if he was just seeing the trees and naming them naturally, and he managed the awkward line “let not his blood be swallowed by the sod that sups him up” as if he had no idea that “sod” could mean anything other than earth. I don’t think Shakespeare meant that line to get a giggle, but whenever I’ve seen it in the theatre it’s got one. Ejiofor’s other great moment was really just the look on his face when King Richard comes riding through the forest and he turns to Friar Tuck. I liked most of the Merry Men, in fact. The play rests on our ability to believe that they believe in Robin, and here we had that. I also liked seeing Marion practicing archery with them in the background—it’s not in the play, but the more women with bows in their hands instead of needles the better.
With this new definitive movie of the play available on DVD, I hope the old eighties version (in revoltingly “modernized” English) can be forgotten.
Wednesday April 01, 2009 01:49pm EDT
hahaha, very good one, and an exellent "review" as well. i would definitely see this, though would be even better on stage.
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday April 01, 2009 01:51pm EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday April 01, 2009 01:59pm EDT
Though Stallone's Yorkshire accent was a pleasant surprise.
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday April 01, 2009 02:09pm EDT
Wednesday April 01, 2009 02:10pm EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday April 01, 2009 02:11pm EDT
Not your fault they were showing trailers for that other English folk tale about folk who live in the Shire so of course you'd avoid this. I think stage derivatives - anything with stage directions rather than full imagination for effects - are less likely to demand a big screen than books anyway.
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday April 01, 2009 02:13pm EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday April 01, 2009 02:23pm EDT
(And, oh how I want it now: "Because unlike other Prince Johns I can speak with a real English accent!")
Wednesday April 01, 2009 02:53pm EDT
Brian Blessed, the One True King (Richard IV?)!
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday April 01, 2009 06:20pm EDT
And, while it's true that the big speeches have to be broken up, I hated, hated, hated this version of Nottingham's "What treason is there in the heart of man, that turns his thoughts from his lord to his hearth", where it's turned into a bit of light-hearted dinner table conversation. I mean, they got the point that it was being sarcastic about seizing land to pay taxes, but it's not lightly sarcastic; it's bitterly sarcastic. Nottingham is criticizing King Richard for going on Crusade, justifying the people who are feeding their serfs rather than paying for useless war, and then turning around and justifying his persecution of them by the same logic. It's a brilliant speech, and it gives Nottingham an internal logic that justifies the later scenery chewing rage.
I do think that the bits with the nuns and pagan magic were handled much better than in the older versions, and giving the lines of characters like Much the Miller's Son and George a Green into the more iconic Merry Men; putting them in the crowd scenes was a nice little nod back to the play.
The fighting was very good, as far as true to the period fighting goes, though it was a bit herky-jerky as far as cinematography goes. But I'm always uncertain about how period something like this ought to be. I don't insist on rapiers in Julius Caesar or Arthur, but there's something intrinsically fun about the fights in Robin of Sherwood that you don't get with heavy swords and shields.
As far as the Robin goes, comparing Kline to Brando is nowhere near as one-sided a competition as Timberlake and Kaye. Brando's Robin was dangerous in a way that Kline wasn't; you never expect Kline to kill Scarlock, but Brando seems a hair away from it, until he gives that laugh. But Kline's Robin is ruefully aware of his impulsiveness, though as unable to control it as Brando's Robin, and that works a lot better with the nested ironies of his speeches.
All in all, a very good production, despite their mishandling of Nottingham. And it's fitting to see Brian Blessed as King Richard; he certainly earned a good role in a good production, after his game attempt at Friar Tuck in that John Wayne disaster of the 70s.
Thursday April 02, 2009 12:06am EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday April 02, 2009 01:11am EDT
(And then we löled rly hard. :)
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday April 02, 2009 06:19am EDT · amended on Thursday April 02, 2009 06:22am EDT
I kept comparing it to Olivier's version of Ben Jonson's "Battlecart Eastanglia" and Dame Judy Dench in the title roll of Marlowe's "Buffy: Ye Vampyre Slayer" and it didn't do it for me.
Wednesday April 08, 2009 11:34am EDT