A horrible addition to the Robin Hood myth

Hi quintshawfan,

I'd have to agree with you -- even considering the good performances (Hepburn at her most glowing and loveliest, Connery less "Connery" than usual, and, my favorite, the fantastically good Nicol Williams) that this movie was pretty darn trite. Again, I admit that I was surpised by the very non-Hollywood ending, but the whole thing was so..... 70s!

Now, I'm 36, so I was a kid in the 70s, but please! The whole man-wants-adventure-woman-wants-security thing is so dated. I hated Marian for the slightly nagging way she got with Connery -- didn't she know that he was just a gray-haired adolescent? Every movie in the 70s seemed to portray heroic or interesting men as irresponsible and childish- - never really willing to commit and always just looking for a good time. And that's what Robin Hood was. And Marian was such a psychotic. Yuk!

Though it was beautifully filmed, I found the story annoying in the extreme. I enjoyed it mostly to see Nicol play a great Little John. Most of the "adventures" and "swashbuckling" seemed extremely dated and silly to me, too.

I saw this in the 1980s on TV, and then again just recently on DVD. I should have gone with my own advice to NEVER watch any Connery film that isn't a Bond...

-Elizabeth

It just goes to show that you didn't really pay attention to the film or the dialogue.
Will Scarlett (Denholm Elliott) says that wherever we go, people want to hear of the things you did - and Robin (Sean Connery) replies "We didn't do those things" to which Will Scarlett replies - "I know that!" -
It's all about the fleeting nature of glory and heroism -
It's all heavy footed, the soldiers are tired, the Sheriff is tired, Robin is tired - exactly how they should be in a corrupt society, where King John rules and the nation had just butchered thousands in the crusades in the Middle East (sounds familiar doesn't it?)
So Here comes Robin, back from the war and wanting some peace - finds Marian, gets one more shot at fleeting glory and realizes that it's over, but his love for Marian is what remains.

Great movie, great shots, music, acting - very though provoking!

The film was about Robin Hood, not Peter Pan. Even heroes age and die. This film is about as realistic as it is possible to be with a myth.

The Long Walk stops every year, just once.

Obviously, this movie was not meant for you. Try ARMAGEDDON instead.

"This are Nice shoes! Couldn't you afford some real Nike?"

Far from it. I first saw the movie as a kid on HBO, and I didn't care for it at the time either. That's because what I wanted out of a Robin Hood movie was what I suspect you want: a rousing, triumphant, swashbuckling adventure, where the baddies get their comeuppance and Robin and Marian go off to live happily ever after at the end.

That's not what this movie is, or what it was ever meant to be. It's a character study about, not the legendary Robin and Marian, but about the kinds of real people who could have been behind such legends, and more specifically about them getting older and having to live in the shadow of the legend that had grown up around them. Remember the scene where Robin and John meet up with Friar Tuck and Will Scarlet? Will tells Robin that he's been traveling around for years, singing songs and telling stories, because "people want to hear about the things you did."

"But we didn't do them," replies Robin in genuine confusion. The point being Robin and his men had had a few adventures, but nothing like the spectacular escapades that people heard of in the songs. That was all legend.

And at the end, while Robin defeats the sheriff, his peasant army is run off. While he talks of rebuilding it and gloriously fighting the good fight, Marian realizes that even if Robin doesn't die painfully of the terrible wounds the sheriff gave him (which is likely), he's starting to believe the legend himself and its going to make him bite off much more than he can chew. In the real world of the middle ages, little people like them don't get to overthrow the king and live happily ever after. Robin, if he recovers, is headed for a gallows, and she doesn't want to see him broken like that, so she gives him a peaceful end, and decides to go along with him herself as well.

It was a nice touch that they used the end that Robin had in the old legends, and the final, blindly-shot arrow to determine the site of his grave.

I'm sorry you feel that way about this movie.

15 years later, do you feel any differently about this film?

I liked it a lot when it came out, when I was in my 20s ... but now that I'm in my 60s & married to the love of my life for so many years, the film moves me in a way that it couldn't move my 20something self. Everything it's saying about the profound & redemptive power of love & acceptance of the end of life, is true. It's one of the most honest & beautiful films about growing older & realizing what really matters that I've ever seen, in fact.

I disagree.