Robin Hood [VHS]

Robin Hood [VHS]
by John Irvin

Robin Hood [VHS]
List Price: $19.98
Category: VHS Video
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Product details

Actor: Edward Fox, J?rgen Prochnow, Jeroen Krabb?, Patrick Bergin, Uma Thurman
Director: John Irvin
Cinematographer: Jason Lehel
Producer: Chris Thompson
Producer: John McTiernan
Producer: Sarah Radclyffe
Producer: Tim Bevan
Writer: John McGrath
Writer: Sam Resnick
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Running Time: 104 minutes
Release Date: 1993-06-16
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Studio: 20th Century Fox

VHS Movie Reviews of Robin Hood [VHS]

Movie Review: DVD Review
Summary: 5 Stars

The DVD is double-sided.

Side A is 1.85:1 Widescreen (Anamorphic)

Side B is 4:3

The back of the box states incorrectly that the film is 1.235:1

I am very pleased that Fox has finally released this on DVD after all this time. It never once looks like it was made for TV. John Irvin did a wonderful job directing this. It is a very well acted and produced film with some beautiful cinematography and thoroughly deserves it's place in your DVD collection.

Movie Review: Patrick Bergin *is* Robin Hood
Summary: 5 Stars

There are various versions of the legend of Robin Hood, and many different retellings on film. Quite simply, this is the best I've seen.
The amazing thing about this, I think, is that it was orginally a made-for-TV movie that came out the same year as Kevin Costner's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," a big-budget movie--and is head-and-shoulders better than Costner's "What English Accent?" dreck.
The plot is much closer to the original legends (although I'm sure it takes liberties here and there) than most, and is tight and solid.
The acting (not to mention the casting) is first-rate. Patrick Bergin plays Robin Hood with the perfect mix of cunning, bravado, and sense of justice. Uma Thurman as Maid Marian is perfect. She is one of the few actresses that could really pull off playing a young page(sp?) boy convincingly, and still be attractive enough to turn Robin's head. J?rgen Prochnow and Jeroen Krabb? are perfect in their supporting roles, bringing their characters to life and saving them from the one-dimensional bad-guy flatness that they could have been.

All and all, an extremely well-made--and fun!--movie.

Movie Review: Easily the best of the lot for many reasons
Summary: 5 Stars

After seeing the earlier charming Errol Flynn versions and the later Kevin Kostner disaster I stumbled onto this version by accident on the Fox Movie Channel one evening and was blown away. Being a student of British medieval history for decades I was first struck by the authenticity of the costumes and settings representing the general period between the 13th and 15th centuries, the era of the earliest written and folklore references to Robin Hood. Unrecorded versions of the legend could have existed even earlier, perhaps the early 1200's or before. Legends usually exist long before they are written down.

The earliest known clear written references appear in Piers the Plowman in the late 1300's. They depict Robin Hood as a yeoman, a commoner of the same approximate social status as an artisan such as a potter, miller, or bow maker. Writers and bards seem to have elevated him to the rank of nobleman much later, at the end of the 16th century, giving him the title of Earl of Huntingdon. A Robert Locksley no doubt existed, but his connection with the much older Robin Hood legend is pure fantasy.

Despite many attempts scholars have been unable to connect Robin Hood with an actual historic person, although the legend might have been originally inspired by an actual person, as is often the case with legends and folklore.

Friar Tuck seems to have existed in seperate legends even earlier than Robin Hood and appears to have been merged into the Robin Hood legend later. The earliest eight or more known Robin Hood written verses make no mention of either Friar Tuck or Maid Marion.

Maid Marion appears later still, in the early 1400's, well after the first known versions of Robin Hood and Friar Tuck appeared together in the same literary contexts.

A definitive and scholarly discussion can be found on-line in Robin Hood, Wikipedia.

The Danny Webb, Conrad Asquith, Barry Stanton, and Patrick Bergin depiction of Robin Hood was produced in the U.K. and is about as authentic as it can get. No cleanly pressed forest green tights and feathered green caps worn on neatly combed hair. The unwashed characters were dressed in appropriately dingy clothes, sometimes almost rags, as real commoners would have been dressed in that period. This is a "dark" film until the very last, when it concludes with a beautiful, bright, Art Nuveau ending.

One scene depicted Robin and Marion briefly hiding in the loft of a small peasant house. It was dark and cramped, and the underside of the thatched roof could be seen almost touching their heads, just as it would have been in real life. The streets were muddy and domestic pigs and chickens roamed freely. Medieval celebration and processional costuming was well done in several scenes. There are just too many quality aspects of this film to cover in one evaluation.

The acting was acceptable or better and some of the lines were actually outstanding. The itenerant bowmaker with his trade cart in which Robin and Marion hid was a good example of well-written and well-delivered lines.

All-in-all, criticisms of deviation from the "original" story are totally unfounded because there is no known original story. Over the centuries there have been many versions, none of which can be proven original. This version seems to be an amalgam of the very earliest surviving references to, and ballads of, Robin Hood, with Marion and a rather crude friar folded in for viewers who expect them and feel cheated if they aren't there.

The primary conflict, which most modern formula film scripts demand, is in this instance the conflict between Normans and Saxons, especially between the nobles, rather than between the more traditional Robin and the Sheriff of Nottingham, a much later convention. Marion was there to satisfy the other formula requirement for inclusion of a love story.

The film gave me the wonderful experience of witnessing life in 14th century Britain as it actually was. My only criticism is of the ending with the obviously contrived Politically Correct concession of "we Saxons and Normans must all live in harmony together on this same little island." ... Blah! ... They might as well have all held hands and sung Koombaya. Other than that it was an excellent movie, well written, well cast, well photographed, well acted, and except for the brief bit of nausious PC dialogue at the end, devoid of any hidden political agenda. Easily the best film version of Robin Hood, and well worth five stars.

I was so impressed I bought the DVD.

Movie Review: Deafeningly Muddy
Summary: 4 Stars

Yes, I went for a tour of Sherwood here this day off. This movie isn't my favorite Robin Hood, that I reserve for Audrey HepburnRobin and Marian, but I liked it, sure. (In fact I can't generally stand Uma Turmond but after revealing my prejudices I did like this Robin.) Sure. Ok. I'm human.

This version is muddy, dark, sticky, sweaty, slimy, definitely you smell that everyone needs many bath, several, it gives me some idea that things are unlikely I'll push this era's button when the time machine gets invented, lots of swordplay, pretty fascinating play of Normand versus Saxon. I don't know if one can say it's historically "accurate' as I read somewhere here. Wasn't this a tale, like a myth? In the movie we follow the telling of that tale and it feels we are at the ground level, as if cameras might be fixed onto the front of the vestments and mics are swinging from the bows. I liked it. You might too. Shoot those bows.

I will tell you I didn't care for saucy smarty mouth Marion but I know THAT'S going to be over ruled by most males that watch. And I couldn't see so well many of the shots, due to my particular TV's limitations and my vision. But it was a welcome adventure on a day I'm marathoning movies trying to get in a story I loved as a child.

Movie Review: A Must Own Disc!
Summary: 5 Stars

While there are not a lot of extras on this disc, the movie itself is a must own for any Robin Hood or period film fan. The movie was originally shot somewhat dark, but the disc offers plenty of detail even when the screen is manually set lighter.
The inclusion of both full- and wide-screen versions is also appreciated, as some of us still have 4:3 TV's.
Write your own review

Summary of Robin Hood [VHS]

Film buffs may remember the tangled tale of competing Robin Hood projects in 1991. Kevin Costner, riding high from his Oscar wins for Dances with Wolves, had his pick of projects at the time, and he juggled his interest in parallel Hood films that were under development at different studios. Costner chose Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, of course, directed by his friend Kevin Reynolds, while the other production (the one described here), attached to veteran British director John Irvin (The Dogs of War), ended up on cable television with another Yank, Patrick Bergin, in the lead. Comparisons were inevitable, even though the two films were very different from one another. A little harder edged and more surprising than Reynolds's work, the Irvin-Bergin movie made all that medieval heroism seem more an effort of the heart than previous versions. Roughing things up a bit is Uma Thurman as a bratty Maid Marion, not quite the traditional damsel in distress of yesteryear. Irvin keeps the adventure quotient up, but this is simply a darker, grittier variation on the old tale. With J?rgen Prochnow, Jeroen Krabb?, and Conrad Asquith. --Tom Keogh

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