Posted on 05/13/2010 11:09:08 AM PDT by SMARTY
Did anyone see the recent History Chanel production about 'Robin Hood'. I don't know what the program was called or meant to be, but it looked like a promo for the new film.
The director and Crowe were interviewed during the program.
It sounded like the new film is attempt to revise the traditional story.
Yeah, but the blue people were anti-capitalist and the message
was anti-military and the storyline was the same as “Pocahontas” and..
Oh, wrong show.
Never mind.
FYRC.
How many zillions of Robin Hood movies have already been made?
When is the last time Hollyweird came up with an original idea?
Fixed.
Ping.
Not exactly zillions, but over 100.
Does sound like their imagination is a bit lacking these days. Maybe because Hollyweird is more interested in politics instead of acting. They should stick to what they know.
The problem is that we don’t now the real story. Much is shrouded in myth which is one thing that makes the Robin Hood legend so fascinating IMHO.
Avatar was a left-wing film with bad acting and typically horrible James Cameron dialogue. Cameron and George Lucas are the most successful piss poor directors of all time.
Probably an attempt to get at the real Robin behind the myth........somewhat like the Clive Owen King Arthur movie.
Plantagenet kings...knights....varlets.... damsels in distress...And the Crusades.......dammm...I luv the medieval period ! :-)
looks like they added some sizzle this film..
never saw Robin Hood storming beaches and cliffs before..
I throw Spielberg in as well. The best thing he ever did was Jaws, 35 years ago.
I do know that Alan Doyle from the band “Great Big Sea” is in it . . . so I’m going.
“Did anyone see the recent History Chanel production about ‘Robin Hood’”
Yeah, that was pretty interesting.
“When is the last time Hollyweird came up with an original idea?”
Not sure, personally, but I think it was sometime back in the Fifties.
And someone should file a court injunction to keep Lucas away from a keyboard.
The History Channel show was quite good.
A single historical person named Robin Hood apparently never existed, and the various stories/legends, both oral and written, developed over about 200 years.
This new movie is just another interpretation of the myth.
I didn’t see it from the beginning, so I don’t know what it was called.
Was it just a film promo?
You mean you’re not thrilled ‘Indiana Jones 5’ is slated for 2012?
U G H ! ! !
Saving Private Ryan was good as well.... but just those two
I saw it last night in a free preview screening. It takes place before Robin Hood becomes an outlaw in Sherwood Forest. In this one he is with Richard the Lion Hearted returning from the crusades. Betrayal and skullduggery are the main themes. It might be a stretch but you could say this is a follow on to Ridley Scott’s crusade movie The Kingdom of Heaven. The movie ends with Robin setting up shop in Sherwood with his merry men. It is well done but mostly a medieval action and war flic.
My 14 yr old son has caught on to this as well. So it's not even taking all that long for the kids to pick up on the lack of creativity and originality in Hollywood.
Since it is long, are there any yawns here and there?
I suppose I could watch it on if it's on TNT though.
That's what I thought watching the trailer. At first I thought it was a remake of El Cid, which would of been a good thing, but then I learned it was Robin Hood and I said loud enough for others in the theater to hear, WTH
See it? Hell, I’m living it. Obama was robin hood and we are the wealthy tycoons ...
Russell Crowe as Robin Hood? He seems a bit long in the tooth for the role. Why do I sense a boat load of Razzies for this film?
Nope, it actualy went into a history of the legend quite a bit.
Not really. The pace and action are pretty vigourous. There are a few statements by Maid Marian and others against foreign wars which is clearly an allusion to current wars in Muslim lands though. Scott and his leftist views seep through sometimes.
***It sounded like the new film is attempt to revise the traditional story.***
No matter how bad it may be it will still be better than that Kevin Cosner piece of PC dreck from several years ago!
“When is the last time Hollyweird came up with an original idea?”
Robin Hood: Men In Tights” was definately an original idea...
Well you’ve got to have the mental capacity to separate the entertainment shows from the historical shows.
Here is the synopsis:
It is late 12th century England and Robin Longstride (Russell Crowe) is a common archer in the Third Crusade. Following the death of Richard the Lionheart in battle, Robin and three other common soldiers attempt to return to their homeland, having spent ten years fighting abroad. Along the way they come across an ambush of the King’s guard by Sir Godfrey; an English Knight with French lineage. The King of France had ordered Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong) to assassinate Richard. Having discovered the King is already slain Sir Godfrey is chased off by the arrival of Robin and his companions. Aiming to return to England safely and richer in pocket than they left it Robin and his men steal the armour of the slain Knights and head for the English ships on the coast under the guise of noblemen. Before leaving the scene of slaughter Robin promises a dying Knight, Sir Robert Loxley, to return a sword to the man’s father in Nottingham.
Upon arrival in England, Robin (who has assumed the identity of Loxley) is chosen to inform the Royal family of the King’s death and witnesses the crowning of King John (Oscar Isaac). The arrogant King John shows no remorse to his poor Kingdom and demands harsh taxes to be collected, sending Sir Godfrey off to the North with the task of raising revenue. Unbeknownst to King John, Sir Godfrey is an agent of the French King and uses this Royal Decree to stir up enough unrest to cause Civil War in England.
Robin and his companions head to Nottingham, where Loxley’s father asks him to continue impersonating his son, in order to prevent the family lands being taken by the crown. Loxley’s widow, Lady Marian (Cate Blanchett), is initially distrustful of Robin, but soon warms to him when he recovers taxed grain for the townsfolk to plant.
Meanwhile, Godfrey’s actions have stirred up the northern Barons, who march to meet King John, and demand the signing of a charter of rights. Having realised Godfrey’s deception, and knowing he must reunite his people in order to meet an imminent French invasion, the King agrees. A battle follows shortly where Godfrey’s men are interrupted whilst ransacking Nottingham, and chased off by Robin and the northern Barons.
The film climaxes with an invasion on England’s south coast by the French, who are met as they land by the English army. The English are victorious in the ensuing battle, during which Robin slays Godfrey with a well placed arrow from a long distance. In the final scenes, King John reneges on his word to sign the Magna Carta, and declares Robin (now revealed not to be Sir Loxley) to be an outlaw. In response, Robin moves to Sherwood Forest to form what will become the Merry Men of Sherwood Forest and win the accolade of Robin of the Hood (Robin Hood), becoming a legendary figure in English folklore.
http://www.foxnews.com/ has a slide show/list of all the versions they could find and rates each as a hit or a miss.
My choice for the best of the lot was Errol Flynn's. What a grand entrance he made at the beginning when he enters Prince John's castle. I've always wanted to do that but just never had the opportunity.
http://www.foxnews.com/ has a slide show/list of all the versions they could find and rates each as a hit or a miss.
My choice for the best of the lot was Errol Flynn's. What a grand entrance he made at the beginning when he enters Prince John's castle. I've always wanted to do that but just never had the opportunity.
The reception for the first screening in Cannes was decidedly muted, with some critics questioning the “politically correct” rewrite which has Robin arguing against the killing of Muslims in the Crusades and Marian donning chain mail to fight French troops on the battlefield.
ET; Close Encounters; Munich; Saving Private Ryan; Schlinder’s List; Indiana Jones; AI; The Color Purple; Empire of the Sun; Jurassic Park; Black Hawk Down; Minority Report; Catch Me If You Can; War of the Worlds; seaquest DSV
Plantagenet kings...knights....varlets.... damsels in distress...And the Crusades.......dammm...I luv the medieval period ! :-)
Then watch Robert Taylor in IVANHOE and Charlton Heston in EL CID (my favorite) and THE WAR LORD.
The SWORD OF LANCLOT with Cornel Wilde is not bad.
Along with the Lion in Winter and Becket.
***Cameron and George Lucas are the most successful piss poor directors of all time.***
Their movies are like dangling cheap beads in front of the natives.
“Saving Private Ryan was good as well.... but just those two”
I think Schindler’s List was pretty good too, and I think the message from that movie was anything but leftist, because it showed that an individual, acting on his own, had the power to do great things.
It’s gettin’ hammered on Rotten Tomatoes if that means anything:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/robin_hood_2010/
Trust me. Crowe is still a hottie.
I think
Listen, when a slick, computer-generated image comes on the tube, it is very compelling. It doesn’t matter what the premise of the show is. To most people, if it looks real on TV then it is just as real as life. That’s why TV is the most influential media of all time.
Seen most of them, thanks.
Am currently reading Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles.
Great stuff.....King Alfred’s Saxons v the fair and fierce Danes :-)
I got the opposite impression.
The History Channel show was about the historical basis for a real “Robin Hood”. Sort of like when people look for a historical basis for the real William Shakespear.
The show was very interesting.
They began by admitting there is no record of any Robin Hood at all to be found anywhere. The named the start of a Robin Hood mythology from a single line in a book/poem in the 1400s (I think). And at that, all it was was a character saying that he knew all the Rhymes of Robin Hood by heart.
The show then went on to try to find sources for the name, from criminals with similar names, to criminals who took up the name or were labelled with it.
They tied it to King Richard Lionheart, Nottingham castle, etc. and illustrated how the story varied over time, until a Maid Marion appears very late in the mythology, and wedded to Robin Hood by none other than King Richard.
The movies appearance was either convenient to the History Channel show on Robin Hood, or else was inspired by it. Who knows? I know little of Robin Hood beyond the great film with Errol Flynn and Olivia da Havilland.
The impression I got was that the Robin Hood mythology changed over the 800 years it has been around, and the movie tried to take in the entire mythology. Since I am not informed on it, I don’t know if Robin Hood could have been placed at Agincourt or if he could have fought in the crusades. I’m just not aware.
Where there is smoke there is typically fire, and I find it hard to believe there was not a fairly successful criminal/rogue and general all around PITA that inspired the original Rhymes of Robin Hood, previously
The new movie can’t revise history since Robin Hood is nothing but folk hero mythology. Maybe you are suggesting they have an agenda to revise the original inspiring tales of a person who took on big government to help the poor. It sounds like the original tales of Robin Hood is the original Socialist redistribution of wealth for Social Justice.
I will admit, I don’t trust government, Hollywood or the arts further than I can spit, ever since Glenn Beck revealed that Obama has directed liberal artists, writers, song-writers, screen writers and others, to push his agenda in their “works of art”.
So to that end, I would not be at all surprised if the History Channel program has a healthy does of backhanded praise for socialism, etc. I wasn’t looking for it, so I didn’t see it. I was just interested in the evolution of the Robin Hood legend over the few hundred years it changed. All out stories are spun through the lens of culture, mores and attitudes of the time the take is retold.
I have been watching the History of US on the History Channel and it is stacked to the rafters with hard commie libs adding their slanted commentary. Sure, they have a token “moderate” conservative or two, like Newt Gingrich, but it has mostly been a parade of socialist lib dems making commentary, from professors, to rappers, to Hollywood actors.
No, I don’t trust anything anymore. Once Glenn Beck showed that Obama was directing these people to produce propaganda, I am constantly looking for the slant, and finding it most everywhere, right down to the Disney Channels “Friends for Change” & etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.