13 Sept - "I keep the bees and the bees keep me"

Robin Hood (2010)

dir. Ridley Scott (Alien, 1979)

CAST
Mark Addy (A Knight's Tale, 2001)
Eileen Atkins (What a Girl Wants, 2003)
Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, 1998)
Russell Crowe (Rough Magic, 1995)
Ned Dennehy (Jane Eyre, 2011)
William Hurt (Tuck Everlasting, 2002)
Danny Huston (The Warrior's Way, 2010)
Oscar Isaac
Matthew Macfadyen (Death at A Funeral, 2007)
Simon McBurney (Jane Eyre, 2011)
Gerard McSorley (Braveheart, 1995)
Lea Seydoux
Mark Strong (Sunshine, 1999)
Max von Sydow (The Exorcist, 1973)
Bronson Webb (Atonement, 2007)
Velibor Topic (London Boulevard, 2010)
Kevin Durand (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, 1999)
Ralph Ineson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, 2010)

Oh Wow! Lots of back-links in this cast! Although I'm surprised I haven't written about any Ridley Scott movies yet. All well, something to look forward to. I watched Robin Hood the other night with my neighbor/new best friend, and we both agreed that Russell Crowe is very, very much hot shit. By that I mean that he can shoot those arrows straight into my heart, because I've already be slain. Sure, he has his detractors, and certainly this movie did not do wonderfully in terms of revenue, but I've always loved movies like this: set in the middle ages, browbeaten hero triumphs over injustice. I love it!

Important to note is that this is not the classic Robin Hood legend, but rather a sort of prequel to that story, which is fine, because in my opinion that Robin Hood story was perfected by this guy:

Am I right?? I think so.

Other highlights include Cate Blanchett playing a pretty ballzy and not-so-maidenly Marion, plus a restrained and slowly developed romance that was pretty hot. I also liked the trio of Robin Hood's sidekicks, Little John, Will Scarlet, and Alan Adale. Except that I remember that Robin Hood had a Moorish friend (This is in Kevin Coster's version as well as Men in Tights and I think I read it in a book too) but there weren't any black characters in this movie, which I think is silly. The diversity is already canonized! It's like the work is already done for you, entertainment-cinema complex! Maybe it would have been too much of a strain to include a strong minority character AS WELL AS a strong female character. Young white males will only suffer so much of that nonsense, right?

As to why this movie didn't do so well. I think it has partly to do with marketing, partly to do with everyone remembering how piss-poor some other recent middle-ages set movies have been (I guess I'm thinking about Kingdom of Heaven, King Arthur (2010), etc.). They probably should have pushed the renovated storyline a little bit harder, because I think everyone's pretty satisfied with the whole archery-contest, Sheriff of Nottingham story.

There's also what appears to be a social commentary in there, but I've never been too good at analyzing that sort of theme.