It must be list season in the McKinty household because here's another one, also inspired by the new Robin Hood. Strange film BTW. Russell Crowe was pretty decent (apart from the usual accent trouble) but I found the normally great Cate Blanchett to be something of a charisma black hole. There were a few interesting ideas but also a lot of speechifying and the action scenes were that rare Ridley Scott thing - boring. But that's not what I wanted to talk about here. If you want to read a sensible and pitch perfect review of Robin Hood, ignore the fawning Brits and check out Roger Ebert. In my own cheap and cheerful manner all I want to do ici is give you my Top 10 Robin Hoods. I should stress that I've used two criteria: the job the actor does in the role and the quality of the film. Drum roll please, Andre......
10. Cary Elwes: Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). Ok, I like Cary Elwes, he was terrific in The Princess Bride and that episode of Seinfeld but this movie is weak. Sometime in 1982 Mel Brooks just stopped being funny.
9. Richard Greene: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1950's). Even after 50 years this prime SoCal cheese isn't any tastier.
8. Patrick Bergin: Robin Hood (1991). Bergin actually isn't bad, certainly nowhere near as awful as Uma Thurman, I don't care what anyone says, that lady is not cut out for the acting game.
7. Russell Crowe: Robin Hood (2010). Ok the film wasn't brilliant, but it's got the grunty Mr Crowe in it and it was directed by Ridley frickin Scott.
6. Brian Bedford: Robin Hood (1973). The Disney version. I liked this film very much when I was a kid. I don't remember a whole lot about it except that Robin was a fox and Peter Ustinov was in it.
5. Douglas Fairbanks: Robin Hood (1922). Fairbanks is terrific in this picture and it would have been higher on my list if I wasn't such a Phillistine about silent movies. But my God the guy can buckle a swash. He's awesome.
4. Sean Connery: Robin and Marion (1975). I think this is Connery's best performance in anything. The film is a bit slow in places but that doesn't matter when you're watching two masters (the other is Audrey Hepburn) at work.
3. Kevin Costner: Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves (1991). Kevin's phoning in his performance from Iowa, but the film is pretty decent on the whole. Morgan Freeman plays Morgan Freeman excellently and Alan Rickman, famously, is the real thief here, stealing every scene he's in. (Just like he does in Die Hard and Galaxy Quest.)
2. Michael Praed: Robin of Sherwood (1980's). Does anyone remember this TV series from the early 80's? It was all very ethereal and mystical. The music was by Clannad and the stories were strange and mostly low key explorations of identity and loss. I know this doesn't sound promising, but believe me it was great.
1. Errol Flynn: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). The Tasmanian Devil himself in a delightful romp with his old sparring partners Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains. He's a saucy devil is Errol and he fights and loves and swings from things. The score is brilliant and the whole thing moves along at a rare old clip. It really doesn't get any better than this kids.
41 comments:
It's kind of odd how the name Errol never really seemed to have caught on. You would think there would be a whole slew of guys born in the forties with that name, but there aren't. Or if there are, they're covering it up pretty well.
I'm thinking there must have been yet another TV series from maybe the fifties that ended up on daytime television because I think my real exposure to Robin Hood must have been from some old black and white TV show. That and Mr. Magoo, who did all the classics, though in a nearsighted sort of way.
I like your list but I'd move Brian Bedford up behind Errol Flynn. If you don't really recall the Disney film, you ought to see it again. The music is Roger Miller's and the voice casting is impeccable.
Okay, I see that it must have been the Richard Greene one.
Adrian, you didn't teach Russell Crowe his Northern England accent, did you? It would explain everything!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr-6ZjlGuBU
Touchy bugger, isn't he?
Robin Fox for the win. Robin Crow down the list.
I had no idea there were so many Robin Hoods. It's worse than all of the Batmans.
Seana
Its a good name thought isnt it?
I think there was a Bugs Bunny Robin Hood too.
Naomi
I remember liking it quite a bit. Its not considered a Disney Classic though by the people who decide these things. But who are these people anyway?
Michael
How did I miss that!
Oooh, the truth must hurt doesnt it?
Its funny how many good actors just cant do accents. Sean Connery, Tom Hanks, everyone who was in The Departed...
Marco
You liked the Disney one too? Ok I'll check it out again. I did say that I liked it though.
Richard Greene in B&W. I don't suppose he counts as it was a t.v. series. But that was my boyhood fix! It started with the song:
'Robin Hood, Robin Hood,
Riding through the glen.
Robin Hood, Robin Hood,
With his band of men.'
Of course we sang this setting out with our bows and arrows to rob the nearest rich and give to the poor, singing our own second verse:
'Friar Tuck, Friar Tuck,
Ran ...'
Well, boys will be boys!
Miss Snob
There's a couple I left off too: Frank Sinatra of Robin and the Seven Hoods and the new BBC version which I havent seen.
Philip
Oh I remember the theme song very well along with Champion The Wonder Horse and Skippy The Bush Kangaroo - that was my Saturday mornings taken care of.
Skippy the bush kangaroo? That was like a portent or something.
Our Saturday morning fare was The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and a family favorite, Sky King. Girls are apparently very adaptable.
No Rocket Robin Hood?
My wife watches the BBC Robin Hood because she's one of those women with a crush on Richard Armitage who plays Guy of Gisborne. She gave up Alan Rickman for him.
Robin Hood and Space? This is an appalling lapse on Adrian's part--there's just no two ways about it.
That Armitage guy is pretty cute, and his middle name is Crispin for godssakes. However, Rickman may have him on the acting chops. You might tell your wife, though, John, that one does not have to be strictly monogamous in fandom from afar.
straGreat choice for number # 1. Errol holds icon status with me. I have not seen many of the others. I'm not a Costner fan to start with, and when I read his arrogant opinion on Errol's version, he moved to the permanent black list.
Basil Rathbone was the perfect foil in RH, and other movies, especially Captain Blood.
Stangely enough, Men in Tights was on last night. I had never seen that, and I didn't recognise the young Cary Elwes at first. I liked it, and he reminded me of Errol.
I have both Flynn Signature DVD collections that Warner Brothers out (tremendous) , and it includes one Robin that didn't make the list, BUGS BUNNY, awesome.
Flynn was a fascinating person, lived with no regrets, and died way to soon.
John
Yeah how did I miss that?
So the BBC one is worth watching? I could give a whirl on iTunes I suppose.
Seana
Well I cant speak to his sex appeal but Alan Rickman in Galaxy Quest is one of the funniest performances anywhere.
Sean
I can think of at least one regret he should have had. You know the whole Hitler thing...
Him and Lindbergh men of the hour in 1940 and then oops...
That Nazi stuff, and many other "facts" about Flynn in Charles Highman's book have for the most part, been prove to be fabrications. Of all the books I could have chosen to read on Flynn, unfortunatly, Highman's piece of shyte was the first.
Sean
I shall bow to your superior knowledge.
Has Alan Rickman even been in a movie he didn't steal? He makes me root for Snape in the Harry Potter films.
Adrian,
Now Robin and the 7 Hoods might be one worth seeing. I think I'd enjoy watching Frank Sinatra in that roll, not to mention it being a musical. Thanks for the tip.
Maid Marian and Her Merry Men is the best version of the story and it has a killer theme song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWhLp2Zpn1w
The new BBC version is on ABC2 at the moment. I find it a bit 'meh'
It's just as well that Rusty didn't master the accent. Nottinghamshire is in the Midlands and the Midlands accents, led by the Brummie drone, are not the accents of heroes. A Brummie James Bond? Simon Templar of Wolverhampton? Would Henry V's band of brothers had fought so bravely for him if he'd had a Leicester whine? Don't think so.
But if Robin Hood was actually from the Nottingham environs, doesn't that kind of disprove your point, David?
Could be Seana, except there are more traces of him in the robust North of England than there are in the Midlands. Robin Hood's Bay, for instance, is in one of the wilder parts of Yorkshire.
I'm sure you're right, David, as up to this moment, I thought Yorkshire was in the Midlands. I suppose that's why I found my college professor's Yorkshire accent so appealing. Thank god he wasn't from the Midlands or apparently I wouldn't have paid him any mind at all.
The Yorkshire accent is appealing and strong and I'm not sure why a Birmingham accent, for instance, isn't. But whenever a British sit-com needs a bumbling, put-upon character, you can bet good money on him or her being from the Midlands.
I'm really waiting for the Brummies to show up in force here now. Don't disclose your address here, David. Your life may well depend on it.
Name a couple of show examples if you want. I may have even seen one of them.
If you want the Nottingham accent try some of Shane Meadows' films, especially 24/7 and A Room for Romeo Brass although all of his films are bloody brilliant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoUgoAc1NTI&feature=related
The only thing that I would add is that I've always had a bit of soft spot for Brummies. Comes from spending three years in Coventry I suppose.
As usual my spiritual guide Jonathan Meades leaps to the defence of Brummies and Birmingham much better than I ever could.
Did I mention that I scored a goal once at Villa Park?
Happy days.
Yes Adrian, you did mention the goal (a few times, I think).
Seana, the archetypal Brummie TV character is Barry from Auf Wiedersehen Pet, played by Timothy Spall. Wonderful and accurate, even though Spall is not even from Birmingham. And if the Brummies come after me, I have a defence: my paternal line are Brummies to the core, bless 'em. But thank God for the assisted migrant scheme.
"His accent is all Brummie. Easy."
David
Yeah he's great in the Mike Leigh stuff too.
Marco
Those are Michael Forsythe's words, sir, not mine.
I'll admit though I would be slightly nervous if I went in for a brain operation and my surgeon had a Brummie accent. Actually if he had a Birmingham, Alabama accent I'd be nervous too. Its a prejudice I know.
About the accents, considering when the RObin Hood stories take place, would the accents have been the same as they are now?
Thanks for pointing to a few things, Rob and David. I love Timothy Spall so that will add to the experience.
It may look like Marco rejoined the discussion because of his interest in Brummie accents, but it's clear that that casual reference to Villa Park is what did it.
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