A great tasty collection not even mentioning a colorful presentation of this classic adventure story. Errol Flynn as Robin and Basil Rathbone as Guy of Gisborne might just be the finest hero-villain casting in the history of film. They are perfect in their roles and their swordfight is easily in my all-time top ten list of favorite movie moments. I've long had a still of the classic duel, which is tucked away in a box right now, but has historically been in my office.
Vic Prezio
Original Cover by Lansky and Eng
If ever there was an actor who brought the zeitgeist of the "superhero" to the big screen it was Flynn, a larger-than-life personality who could play the bejeezus out of any large role he was given. And Robin Hood, star of many a comic book, and the inspiration for such hardcase "superheroes" as Green Arrow and Hawkeye the Marksman is certainly a larger-than-life role. And it's hard to take your eyes of off Olivia De Haviland as she saunters through the movie in one beautiful outfit after another. Claude Rains is on hand for some prime villainy as well. Alan Hale plays Littler John a role he amazingly performed three times in three different decades on film.
This is a must-see classic movie, if only for the orgy of colors provided by refined Technicolor of the era.
. Rip Off
This film treats King Richard as an heroic figure but in fact he was a religious fundamentalist and vicious anti-semite. He was King of England for 10 years (1189-1199) but spent only six months in England during that time and heavily taxed the peasants in order to pay for his crusade to the Holy Land. When Richard died he was buried in a French abbey alongside his French mother because he considered himself to be French not English. Yet this thoroughly horrible man is known as "Richard The Lionheart" and treated as a hero thanks to misinformed films like the one starring Errol Flynn (and others).
ReplyDeleteRIP Jimmy Carter.
For sure. Richard is (pardon the pun) lionized to an idiotic degree in the movie, but it's a movie with good guys and bad guys and very little if any subtlety of character in that way. Jimmy Carter was a better man.
DeleteWhile that's quite true, it's never been an issue for me where The Adventures of Robin Hood is concerned. To me, at least, the movie (and many similar iterations of its story) aren't History, but Legend. And the Richard it portrays certainly isn't the historical Richard, but the ideal of a noble & worthy king. Sometimes we just want - need! - the Legend rather than History. This wonderful movie delivers all of that, I'd say.
ReplyDeleteOh, I get that for certain. In America we cherish the legendary characters of Washington and Lincoln despite many historical flaws in their characters. It's not a bad thing to have a nigh mythic ideal for people to aspire to.
Delete