1991: Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
Friday, July 17, 2020 at 8:45PM by Lynn Lee
- Locksley…I’m gonna cut your heart out with a spoon!
-Why a spoon?
-Because it’s DULL, you twit, it’ll hurt more!”
If you remember anything about Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, it’s probably those lines. Or, more generally, Alan Rickman’s scrumptiously hammy turn as the villain who bellows them. Or perhaps you remember Kevin Costner’s complete failure to master anything resembling an English accent. If you’d just as soon forget Costner ever played Robin Hood, you’re not alone: consensus opinion generally holds that Rickman was the only good thing about the movie, which received tepid reviews at the time of its release and hasn’t exactly aged into a classic.
It’s worth noting, however, that a lot of people really liked Prince of Thieves at the time...
It was the second-highest grossing film of 1991, trailing only the megablockbuster Terminator 2: Judgment Day. And among its most enthusiastic fans were none other than yours truly and my quietly nerdy set of middle school friends. The movie got regular VCR rotation at our nerdy parties. We would quote the most iconic lines to each other and sing along with that sappy (Oscar-nominated!) Bryan Adams song. Some of us swooned over Costner, then in his mature dreamboat phase. Others sighed for the edgier up-and-coming young heartthrob, Christian Slater, who plays a rather angry-emo Will Scarlet.
Even as I grew into more of a cinephile, for years I retained a soft spot and a place on my shelf of videotapes for Prince of Thieves. Eventually I lost track of it in the post-VHS era, as other movies took its place in my consciousness and DVDs replaced the videotapes on my shelf. Until recently, I hadn’t seen it in well over a decade - maybe closer to two. However, in honor of TFE’s Smackdown-inspired celebration of all things 1991 and the movie’s availability on Hulu, I revisited this staple of my adolescence to see how it held up.
The verdict?
Honestly? I still love it.
Oh sure, it’s not for everyone. To those who prefer a more traditional Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves (directed by Kevin Reynolds, who would later collaborate with Costner on the even-more-maligned Waterworld) may seem like an unprepossessing, fitfully revisionist take on the much-adapted legend – one that shifts awkwardly between gritty (but still PG-13) violence and tongue-in-cheek comedy in the vein of The Princess Bride, while attempting to embrace the 1990s Hollywood version of a “woke” sensibility. There are no courtly scenes, no archery tournament, no Prince John and barely any Richard the Lion-Hearted. The color palette is all drab greens, grays, and browns and lurid shadows, in stark contrast to the Technicolor gloss of the Errol Flynn/Olivia de Havilland The Adventures of Robin Hood, which remains the gold standard for Robin Hood movies.
In this version of the story, Robin of Locksley returns from the Crusades, accompanied by a noble Saracen (Morgan Freeman), to find his father murdered and his property despoiled by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Rickman). On the lam from Nottingham and his right-hand henchman, Guy of Gisborne (Michael Wincott at his raspiest), Robin seeks refuge in Sherwood Forest, where he encounters other victims of the Sheriff’s oppression and becomes their leader almost by accident. This Robin Hood is less focused on the Robin Hood part – i.e., stealing from the rich to give to the poor – and much more on the building showdown between Robin and Nottingham, who’s also plotting, in King Richard’s absence, to usurp the throne by marrying the King’s cousin, Maid Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio).
Here’s the thing: setting aside the legend, Prince of Thieves works quite well as an action adventure and simple revenge drama. Never mind the overabundance of subplots; even if you don’t care about Robin’s daddy issues or Nottingham’s witch-mommy issues, or whether Maid Marian can be won over by Robin’s naked butt (in one of the movie’s silliest scenes), the Sheriff’s hissworthy antics are highly effective at getting you to root for Robin Hood to take him down. The fight and flight scenes are well choreographed and deftly shot, contrasting the natural beauty of the English woods and countryside against the griminess of its inhabitants. The final climactic sequence at Nottingham’s castle is still as tense and thrilling as ever. And the music, composed by Michael Kamen, is downright fantastic – the opening credits overture alone offers a far more inspiring rallying cry than any of Costner’s attempts at oratory.
As for Costner...there’s a reason I used to describe PoT as a great movie if you took him out of it, notwithstanding it was literally billed as “Kevin Costner IS Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.” Apart from his conspicuously American accent, which does stick out like a sore thumb, his performance isn’t bad – certainly not bad enough to merit the Razzie it won – so much as inert, especially next to his chief antagonist’s fervid scenery consumption. Costner’s subdued affect and moments of quiet humor fail to enliven an interpretation of a folk hero that feels less like Robin Hood and more like a low wattage medieval variation on his character in Dances With Wolves. He’s got the physicality of the role down; where he falls short is the kind of energy and charisma that one would expect of a leader of rebels.
And yet I’d argue Costner’s flatness doesn’t matter that much because everyone around him is so fun to watch. There’s Rickman, of course, who revels in the vicious petulance of the scheming Sheriff; Mastrantonio charms as an unexpectedly feisty Maid Marian; a raft of British supporting players supply the local color and drollery that the American leads lack, with Nick Brimble and Michael McShane the standouts as Little John and Friar Tuck, respectively. And above all these is Freeman’s Azeem, the Moor whom Robin breaks out of prison in Jerusalem, and who swears he will stay with Robin until he’s saved Robin’s life. With his imperturbable calm, faultless manners (apart from the occasional expressive side-eye), and seemingly limitless array of superior skills and tools that he deploys to aid Robin, Azeem verges at times on “magical Negro” territory, yet Freeman – as Freeman does – invests the character with such dignity and grace that he becomes a compelling figure in his own right and the movie’s stealth MVP. At the same time, his rapport with Robin is one of PoT’s most enduring pleasures, even if it stretches historical plausibility; Robin Hood is a myth, after all, subject to constant reinvention.
Is nostalgia coloring my response to a movie that the rest of the world has mostly forgotten over the last three decades? Perhaps. Still, if you like a good old-fashioned swashbuckler with some ’90s inflections, you could do far worse than Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It may be be a bit shambly, but ultimately it’s pretty damn entertaining.
Reader Comments (20)
Alan Rickman played villains so well. It's hard to choose whom I hated most.
Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves
Hans Gruber in Die Hard
Ronald Reagan in Lee Daniels' The Butler
Costner is the weak link here but not so weak that he spoils the whole.
The great Alan Rickman is stupendously entertaining understanding that scenery chewing is just what the movie needs. Geraldine McEwan likewise makes the crone Mortianna deliciously vile.
Freeman and Mastrantonio balance their operatic shenanigans with measured intelligent readings and the film moves at a good clip.
Is it a masterpiece? Far from it but it is a good rainy Saturday entertainment.
I remember enjoying this in the theatre with my nephews. Costner's flat accent and performance were as bad as described here, but everyone else was good. Especially Alan Rickman.
I may be in the minority, but the Russell Crowe version wasn't better in my opinion.
The Errol Flynn version is still the most swashbuckling.
My sister was OBSESSED with this movie. I think it holds a lot of nostalgia for a lot of people. Like we can acknowledge that it may not be a great movie but it's still very beloved.. I love that the BAFTAs embraced the ham and gave Rickman the win for this.
Welp, this sent me on a stroll down memory lane. I saw this in the theater in the summer of '91. I was 11, and I thought it was the greatest movie ever. I was not the only one. When school resumed that fall, many of my friends had Robin Hood posters/magazine clippings in their lockers. My science lab partner even covered her text book in a homemade collage of Christian Slater as Will Scarlet. My 7th grade was nuts for the film.
I haven't seen this in decades. I wonder if I would respond the same way as Lynn.
Alan Rickman stole the show for me as he was a joy to watch as is the supporting cast. I just I didn't have to hear that fucking Bryan Adams song as that was one of those songs for me as a kid that got OVERPLAYED to fucking death.
At least Prince of Thieves was better than the Ridley Scott's version. And Rickman, Freeman and Mastrantonio were pure gold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICdPZKc9bVY
Alan Rickman winning the Bafta for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. In those times when the Bafta thought with their own mind. None of the nominees was at the Oscars.
The Bafta winner that year was better than all the Oscar nominees, at least for me
I remember Rickman passed away on oscar nomination morning a great actor never recognized by the academy. And what a bad and upsetting morning! the academy also snubbed carol in best picture
I remember disliking the whole feature but Alan Rickman, who was a riot.
But like, EVERYTHING. I think I was in shock that it would get nominated for Original Song (sooooo bland) and that it would be a b.o. hit... the movie was only alive when Rickman was let free.
I remember this but never actually saw it.
It is not a good film and should stay way back in 1991 when Costner was the one of the world's biggest film stars.
Ahahaha, Nathaniel, thanks for that last image - I love the role of Nottingham's vanity statue in the movie.
joel6: "Good rainy day Saturday entertainment" is spot-on.
Sarah and Cash: I love finding out other kids were just as obsessed with the movie as we were. This was of course pre-internet and social media, so I had no idea whether it was just us
thevoid99: Yeah, that song really did get way too much play, even for me at the time. It was the "My Heart Will Go On" of its time.
Kevin Costner is too American to play Robin Hood
In exchange for rewatching PoT, which was also one of my childhood favorites, I forced Lynn to watch another of my critically-panned favorites from the same year and with the same composer, Hudson Hawk. Needless to say, I enjoyed rewatching both; Lynn did not appreciate the latter and she vetoed a cameo mention in her review. I was hurt.
Mastrantonio is wonderful as Maid Marian, but she’s always a reliable performer. Rickman runs away with the whole show, of course, and Michael Kamen was wise to use Adams’s iconic song in his underscore, lovely in its own right.
Otherwise, the movie is a mess. I’ve never been much of a Costner fan, though, so the mileage can only take me so far.
Love love this movie!
Rickman is a riot! And this movie introduced me to Bryan Adams. «Everything I do» is such an iconic song
The Bryan Adams song worked so well to promote the movie.
Kevin Costner was miscast and didn't seem to enjoy the role much either, unlike Rickman and Mastrantonio.
Speaking of Mary Elizabeth, what happened to her career, why has she not become a bigger star? Having this and The Abyss should have guaranteed here more leading roles.
Great article and I agree— this is a fun action movie that still holds up!