Info Favorites Register Log in
myArmoury.com Discussion Forums

Forum index Memberlist Usergroups Spotlight Topics Search


myArmoury.com is now completely member-supported. Please contribute to our efforts with a donation. Your donations will go towards updating our site, modernizing it, and keeping it viable long-term.
Last 10 Donors: Daniel Sullivan, Anonymous, Chad Arnow, Jonathan Dean, M. Oroszlany, Sam Arwas, Barry C. Hutchins, Dan Kary, Oskar Gessler, Dave Tonge (View All Donors)

Forum Index > Off-topic Talk > Good and bad Robin Hood movies Reply to topic
This is a standard topic Go to page 1, 2  Next 
Author Message
Jeff A. Arbogast





Joined: 16 Oct 2008

Posts: 180

PostPosted: Sat 30 Apr, 2011 6:32 pm    Post subject: Good and bad Robin Hood movies         Reply with quote

I had to post this-I know everyone has heard of the latest Ridley Scott Robin Hood movie. I don't know if I'm in the minority or not, but I thought it SUCKED. To me, Ridley Scott is the George Lucas of medieval movies. Some of his stuff just doesn't make any sense. There are too many things that irk me about that movie to site, but one of the most glaring, at least to me, is calling the main character "Robin Longstryde. " Okay, if he's a real tall long-legged guy , (which Russel Crowe is NOT) then fine. No problem. But if he ISN'T, just giving him the moniker "Longstryde" for the heck of it ain't good enough. I get the feeling that, like Lucas, he figures we are just too dumb to notice such things. At least that's the impression I get. He even re-uses props from other movies in new ones "Like Richard's ugly helmet (straight from "Kingdom of Heaven," another lousy movie).
Look, if someone has a nickname like "Longstryde" he should at least have long legs, right? Sorry, but Russel Crowe doesn't. Besides it smacks too much of "Longshanks" to me, from "Braveheart." And, as inaccurate as that movie was, I think few will disagree that Patrick McGoohan was a wonderful Edward I in that movie, stealing every scene he was in. I watch it just for him. When he grabs his wimpy son by the throat, throws his "friend" out the window, and beats the crap out of his son effortlessly, I thought "Now THAT'S a King of England."
But anyway, my point was that recently I saw another movie on REELZ called "Robin Hood" from 1991 that I never even heard about. I was quickly engrossed in the story. The characters were realistic and enjoyable, and I would say it's one of the best Robin Hood movies out there. Costumes and fight scenes seemed very true to life. It stars Patrick Bergen, Uma Thurman, and Jurgen Prochnow. Uma is the only one I am familiar with. I find her ski-slope nose enchanting.
Anyway, if anyone wants to see a real good Robin Hood movie, I would recommend this relatively unknown one over Ridley Scott's silly big-budget Normandy-invasion-in reverse nonsense any day.

A man's nose is his castle-and his finger is a mighty sword that he may wield UNHINDERED!
View user's profile Send private message
David Huggins




Location: UK
Joined: 25 Jul 2007

Posts: 490

PostPosted: Sat 30 Apr, 2011 10:10 pm    Post subject: Robin Hood films         Reply with quote

I think that 'Robin Hood' fell out of most folks radar due to the hype surrounding the Kevin Costner 'Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves' movie which was released much about the same time.

Notable 'Robin Hood's has to include Sean Connery in 'Robin and Marion' , and very much a product of it's time with new age pagan allusions, the television production 'Robin of Sherwood' with Michael Praed playing the titular character, and just for fun John Cleese in 'Time Bandits'.

best
Dave

and he who stands and sheds blood with us, shall be as a brother.
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Sa'ar Nudel




Location: Haifa, Israel
Joined: 02 Dec 2005
Likes: 16 pages

Posts: 361

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 1:19 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I think too that the "other" Robin Hood 1991 version was much better story, underrated. Patrick Bergin is very famous multi-talented Irish actor, best known in the US for Sleeping With the Enemy, and Patriotic Games. Jurgen Prochnow is a german actor who acted in many films, mostly as the bad guy.

BTW I had so much expectations from the new Robin Hood version and was very disappointed. Dull, boring movie.

Curator of Beit Ussishkin, regional nature & history museum, Upper Galilee.
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Ben Sweet




Location: 831
Joined: 21 Aug 2003

Posts: 519

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 1:30 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

The best Robin Hood to me is still Robin and Marian 1976 with Sean Connery and the stunning Audrey Hepburn... That thing with Russel Crow sucked bigtime, heck it even put me to sleep.... WTF?!
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Mick Jarvis




Location: Australia
Joined: 18 Jul 2010

Posts: 78

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 3:38 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

no the best one is 'Men in Tights'

and quote line fully sums it all up

"and unlike all the other Robin Hood's, i speak with an English accent!"
View user's profile Send private message
Lin Robinson




Location: NC
Joined: 15 Jun 2006
Likes: 6 pages
Reading list: 6 books

Posts: 1,241

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 6:41 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Gee...

I kind of liked it. Sure it was not historically accurate in many ways but then the story of Robin Hood is almost certainly fiction. I thought the Kevin Costner vehicle was silly as was the 30's picture. I saw the Patrick Bergin version and slept through most of it.

I liked Kingdom of Heaven very much, especially Eva Green, and realize that there was historic inaccuracy in the picture. However, the story of Balian of Ibelin in the Holy Land was accurate. He was the commander of Jerusalem when it fell to Saladin and negotiated the surrender, although the terms were different from those in the movie. I thought the Templars got something of a bad rap in the movie.

What I try to do in evaluating a movie is determine whether it entertained me and if it did then I am happy.

Lin Robinson

"The best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian, 1982
View user's profile Send private message
Joe Fults




Location: Midwest
Joined: 02 Sep 2003

Posts: 3,646

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 6:43 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

The bad ones are bad because they suffer from bad acting, and more often, just plain bad story telling. The most recent venture seemed to have a bit of the former and a whole lot of the latter.
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
View user's profile Send private message
Glen A Cleeton




Location: Nipmuc USA
Joined: 21 Aug 2003

Posts: 1,968

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 9:05 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Mick Jarvis wrote:
no the best one is 'Men in Tights'

and quote line fully sums it all up

"and unlike all the other Robin Hood's, i speak with an English accent!"


That one is for fun, for sure.

I'll always defer to the Errol Flynn Warner Brothers production as early Technicolor's best extravaganza. A sword fight with floppy prop swords with other 1938 stars makes for a good show all around. There were many Robin Hood movies and tv productions that have meant more to me but it is possibly having grown up with Sunday night movies on Disney along with milk carton matinees showing a lot of 1940s and 1950s movies.

Cheers

GC
View user's profile Send private message
Jonathan Hopkins




PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 9:44 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

My favorite is the animated Disney version. The rooster is a master of his craft. Happy
View user's profile Send private message
Jeff A. Arbogast





Joined: 16 Oct 2008

Posts: 180

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 10:04 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Sa'ar Nudel wrote:
I think too that the "other" Robin Hood 1991 version was much better story, underrated. Patrick Bergin is very famous multi-talented Irish actor, best known in the US for Sleeping With the Enemy, and Patriotic Games. Jurgen Prochnow is a german actor who acted in many films, mostly as the bad guy.

BTW I had so much expectations from the new Robin Hood version and was very disappointed. Dull, boring movie.


NOW I remember Jurgen! "Das Boot!" I even have that movie. One of my favorites. I KNEW he looked familiar. Man, I'm slippin'. Maybe I just didn't expect to see him in this movie.
I'm still trying to remember where I saw the guy who plays the sheriff, though. I know I've seen him somewhere.

A man's nose is his castle-and his finger is a mighty sword that he may wield UNHINDERED!
View user's profile Send private message
Roger Hooper




Location: Northern California
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Likes: 1 page

Spotlight topics: 4
Posts: 4,393

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 12:48 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I've never seen the Patrick Bergin version. Maybe I should look for it.

My favorite is the 1980's TV version, Robin of Sherwood, with Michael Praed and Jason Connery as consecutive Robins. Ray Winstone played Will Scarlet. It had an occasional magical flavor, matched with political cynicism that I found appealing. I remember an episode where they dared to portray Good King Richard in an unflattering light (Richard was played by the ubiquitous John Rhys-Davies)

I think all the Robin Hood films reflect the values of the times in which they were made. The 1930's Errol Flynn version pretty obviously reflects the New Deal, with sympathy for the little guy vs. evil rich people. I guess the Costner and Crowe versions do the same for the 1990's and the new millennium, though I'm kind of afraid to find out what those two films say about us.
View user's profile Send private message
Glen A Cleeton




Location: Nipmuc USA
Joined: 21 Aug 2003

Posts: 1,968

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 12:49 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Two lists of films and productions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_an...Robin_Hood

http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/rh/rhfilms.htm

Not surprisingly to me is to see the Errol Flynn example at the head of that last list and a neat set of pages overall there.

Cheers

GC
View user's profile Send private message
David Wilson




Location: In a van down by the river
Joined: 23 Aug 2003

Posts: 802

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 4:26 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

As big a stinker as it was, the Costner Robin Hood was stolen (not that it was hard to do, all things considered) by Alan Rickman as the Sheriff. Rickman's Sheriff actually makes this movie worth watching, IMHO.... although his performance is pretty much all this movie has....
David K. Wilson, Jr.
Laird of Glencoe

Now available on Amazon: Franklin Posner's "Suburban Vampire: A Tale of the Human Condition -- With Vampires" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072N7Y591
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
Sam Barris




Location: San Diego, California
Joined: 29 Apr 2004
Likes: 4 pages

Posts: 630

PostPosted: Sun 01 May, 2011 8:15 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Errol Flynn.

Seriously. Why even make another one after that? Big Grin

Pax,
Sam Barris

"Any nation that draws too great a distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools." —Thucydides
View user's profile Send private message Yahoo Messenger
Scott Kowalski




Location: Oak Lawn, IL USA
Joined: 24 Nov 2006

Posts: 818

PostPosted: Mon 02 May, 2011 4:45 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Jonathan Hopkins wrote:
My favorite is the animated Disney version. The rooster is a master of his craft. Happy


+!. That and the sly fox outwitting the wolf all the time was great. Who can forget the two vulture guards, Nutsy I believe was one of them. I remember making sure i got a copy of it for my daughters to watch as soon as it was re-released after the oldest was born.

My second favorite has to be the Errol Flynn version.

Chris Landwehr 10/10/49-1/1/09 My Mom
View user's profile Send private message
Job Overbeek





Joined: 21 Apr 2011

Posts: 49

PostPosted: Mon 02 May, 2011 2:25 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Nah, the BEST Robin Hood is Robin Hood - Men in Tights (1993)
View user's profile Send private message
Terry Thompson




Location: Suburbs of Wash D.C.
Joined: 17 Sep 2010

Posts: 165

PostPosted: Mon 02 May, 2011 3:52 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I think the Bergen and the Connery movies each have their charm. But I would have to go with the Erol Flynn version, as others, perhaps it was what I saw as a youth, but Erol Flynn (okay he was a little light in the turnshoes), Basil Rathbone (the baddest Sir Guy), Olivia DeHaviland (the hottest Marion), Claud Rains (weasilist prince John). And Howard Hill actually doing the trick shots; actually shooting people in the chest with blunted arrows. Bad-assery.
How would you have liked to be one of those stunt guys "Okay. I'm going to stick this piece of plywood with a 1/4" layer of cork on it, and Howard is going to shoot you in the chest with that bow and arrow when I say "action".
Wait. What?!

Olivia DeHaviland wasn't scantilly clad, or running through the woods with a bow and breeches. She was arguably an anti-femanist damsel in distress. But she was hot. And it's necessary for the archtypical hero to have a beautiful woman to save. (who needs a hero if the woman can save herself?).
Claud Rains was just awesome as scheming back-stabbing brother of the king. And what movie is bad that has Basil Rathbone in it? Throw in Alan Hale, Patrick KNowles, and that cowardly Sheriff (Melville Cooper). The cast was simply perfection.
-Terry
View user's profile Send private message
Jonathan Blair




Location: Hanover, PA
Joined: 15 Aug 2005
Likes: 9 pages
Reading list: 2 books

Posts: 496

PostPosted: Mon 02 May, 2011 4:17 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

At least it wasn't the Disney abortion Princess of Thieves. Godawful stuff.
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." - The Lord Jesus Christ, from The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, chapter x, verse 34, Authorized Version of 1611
View user's profile Send private message
Joshua Anthony




Location: The Redneck Riviera
Joined: 17 Sep 2010

Posts: 92

PostPosted: Tue 03 May, 2011 8:07 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Lin Robinson wrote:
Gee...

I kind of liked it. Sure it was not historically accurate in many ways but then the story of Robin Hood is almost certainly fiction. I thought the Kevin Costner vehicle was silly as was the 30's picture. I saw the Patrick Bergin version and slept through most of it.

I liked Kingdom of Heaven very much, especially Eva Green, and realize that there was historic inaccuracy in the picture. However, the story of Balian of Ibelin in the Holy Land was accurate. He was the commander of Jerusalem when it fell to Saladin and negotiated the surrender, although the terms were different from those in the movie. I thought the Templars got something of a bad rap in the movie.

What I try to do in evaluating a movie is determine whether it entertained me and if it did then I am happy.


I'm a huge Ridley Scott fan, and own both Robin Hood and the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven of which I'm particularly fond of. For me the mark of a good movie is one I'd like to see more than once, and I've watched Kingdom more times than a grown man should admit. Each to his own.

"...He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one." - Jesus, Luke 22:36
View user's profile Send private message
Tristán Zukowski




Location: Poughkeepsie, NY
Joined: 29 Oct 2009

Posts: 41

PostPosted: Tue 03 May, 2011 8:20 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Has anyone else seen the HTV series "Robin of Sherwood" with Michael Praed that was out in the 80's? I have a soft spot for that show, just because I watched the episodes over and over and over again when I was young Big Grin
Tristan P. Zukowski
Longsword (KdF) Instructor, New York Historical Fencing Association
Longsword (KdF) Instructor, Sword Class NYC
View user's profile Send private message


Display posts from previous:   
Forum Index > Off-topic Talk > Good and bad Robin Hood movies
Page 1 of 2 Reply to topic
Go to page 1, 2  Next All times are GMT - 8 Hours

View previous topic :: View next topic
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum






All contents © Copyright 2003-2024 myArmoury.com — All rights reserved
Discussion forums powered by phpBB © The phpBB Group
Switch to the Basic Low-bandwidth Version of the forum