In the final scene King Richard tells his brother "I banish you and your followers for the remainder of my lifetime". If he dropped dead the very next second wouldn't John no longer be banished? Is that a mistake on the writers part and why did no one pick up on it>
shareNo, it's not a mistake.
Unless Richard has a son, John is still the heir to the throne. His banishment doesn't change that. After Richard's death, you can't very well have the man who is now the current King of England still be banished from England ...... even if that ascension to the throne had happened within minutes of his initial banishment.
Remember, while this movie is (like all of the Robin movies) highly fictionalized, Richard and John are in fact historical figures. You can see another (also fictionalized) movie representation of those same two brothers at an earlier point in their lives by watching The Lion in Winter (they were the eldest and youngest sons of Henry II, who appear in that movie; the middle brother, whose name escapes me at the moment, died between times depicted in the two movies). In actual fact, John *did* later become the King of England. As King he was actually quite a prominent figure in that he was the King John who was forced by his nobles into signing the Magna Carta; so the movie can't very well claim to banish him from the country forever.
Actually the brother between Richard and John, Geoffrey, left a posthumous son Arthur, Duke of Brittany, and Richard kept changing his mind who he wanted as the heir.
Eventually John Became king of England, Duke of Normandy and Aquitane, Count of Anjou, etc. etc. and Arthur suffered a mysterious fate while John's prisoner and John went on to murder many more kids.
Not to be completely pedantic, but Richard wasn't the oldest son. There was another, "Henry the Young" who was heir to the throne, but died before their father, Henry II, did, so Richard ended up inheriting the throne. The problem I have with the ending is that by having Richard banish John, they did away with the part where Richard forgives John and blames it on his having "evil counselors." I know why they did it - 1930s film has to have the bad guy punished - but it jarred me when I first saw it because the forgiveness is such an important part of the legend.
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