As we are making an adaptation, I decided to choose a story and watch a few different adaptations of them. Robin Hood and King Arthur are two of my favourite characters of all time. (I will be talking about King Arthur in a separate blog post later on). If I like a film, I generally watch it a few times, if I really love a film, I will probably watch it more than six or seven times. Robin Hood films (especially the Disney version, I pretty much wore the VHS out) are some of the latter.
- I rewatched the Disney classic, Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973)
- I rewatched Robin Hood: King of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991)
- I rewatched a few random episodes of Robin Hood (BBC, 2006-2009)
- I rewatched Robin Hood (Ridley Scott, 2010)
- I finally got around the watching, for the first time, the new adaptation: Robin Hood (Otto Bathurst, 2018)
The story of Robin Hood from English Folklore is of the legendary hero, who becomes an outlaw and helps the poor, by stealing from the rich. In some versions, he is depicted as a nobleman and someone who fought in the Crusades. From the 16th Century, Marian has been his love interest. His band of 'Merry Men', included: Little John, Will Scarlett. His main opponent has been the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Disney - Characters
Prince of Thieves - Criticism and Praise
BBC - Criticism
Ridley Scott - Robin-Marian Relationship
Taron Egerton - Robin-Marian Relationship, Characters
Things that I MAY touch on:
- Robin-Marian Relationship
- Criticism and Praise
- Characters
I going to talk about Adaptation and my opinion of all of them.
Robin Hood (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1973)
Left: Robin Hood (Voiced by Brian Bedford), Right: Little John (Voice by Phil Harris)
This adaptation is an animated romantic musical comedy.
Characters have been changed into animals.
- Robin Hood - Fox
- Little John - Bear
- Maid Marian - Vixen
- Alan-A-Dale - Rooster (He is also the narrator of the film)
- Friar Tuck - Badger
- King Richard and Prince John - Lions
- Sir Hiss - Snake
- Sheriff of Nottingham - Wolf
In my opinion, this version of Robin Hood is fun for all the family and one of the best Robin Hood adaptations.
Robin Hood: King of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991)
Left: Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), Right: Robin (Kevin Costner)
This was one of the first adaptation of Robin Hood I watched and I think it still stands up well as a Robin Hood film even to this day.
This particular adaptation had its fair share of criticism as well as praise.
Left: Alan Rickman portraying the Sheriff of Nottingham. Right: Morgan Freeman portraying Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir.
Alan Rickman and Morgan Freeman were praised massively for their portrayals of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Rickman) and Saracen warrior, Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir (Freeman). Rickman denied the role twice and eventually took it after being told he could have CARTE BLANCHE. On the other hand, Costner was criticised for his performance as the title character of Robin of Loxley.
This was one of the first adaptation of Robin Hood I watched and I think it still stands up well as a Robin Hood film even to this day.
This particular adaptation had its fair share of criticism as well as praise.
Left: Alan Rickman portraying the Sheriff of Nottingham. Right: Morgan Freeman portraying Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir.
Alan Rickman and Morgan Freeman were praised massively for their portrayals of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Rickman) and Saracen warrior, Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir (Freeman). Rickman denied the role twice and eventually took it after being told he could have CARTE BLANCHE. On the other hand, Costner was criticised for his performance as the title character of Robin of Loxley.
In my opinion, I agree with the critics about Morgan Freeman and Alan Rickman's performances and Kevin Costner's accent still annoys me to this day.
Robin Hood (BBC, 2006-2009)
Left to Right: Will Scarlett (Harry Lloyd), Much (Sam Troughton), Alan a Dale (Joe Armstrong), Robin Hood/Robin of Loxley (Jonas Armstrong), Djaq (Anjali Jay), Little John (Gordon Kennedy)
This adaptation is one of my favourites as it is a series with lots of different stories. It keeps things interesting throughout and its all about Robin Hood and his Merry Men and their fight against the Sheriff and Prince John.Left: Lady Marian (Lucy Griffiths)
SPOILER ALERT: However, the series did finish ten years ago!
At the end of the second series, Marian dies after marrying Robin. Will Scarlett and Djaq stayed in the Holy Land. The third series received negative criticism and they killed off Alan-a-Dale, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Isabella Thornton, Guy of Gisborne and Robin Hood all in the same episode.
In my opinion, the first two seasons are amazing, however, the third season I have only watched once. When I watch the series, I normally just watch the first two and stop.
Robin Hood (Ridley Scott, 2010)
Left to Right: Alan a Dale (Alan Doyle), Robin (Russell Crowe), Little John (Kevin Durand), Will Scarlett (Scott Grimes)
This adaptation diverts away from the whole Robin of Loxley character as Robin Hood is "Robert Longstride" in this film.
The Robin-Marian relationship in this adaptation is unlike any other have seen. Robert "Robin" Longstride comes back to England to return Robert of Loxley's (who died in the Crusades) sword to his father and Lord Loxley asks Robin to pretend to be his son otherwise he'd lose all the Loxley lands. Therefore, Robin has to pretend to be married to Marian, widow of Robert Loxley, much to her dismay. She becomes less cold towards Robin after him and his 'Merry Men' (Little John, Will Scarlett and Alan a Dale) make sure the harvest is able to recover. Throughout the film, Robin is a gentleman in basically every way towards Marian and treats her like she actually is his real wife. They eventually fall in love and end up together.
Left: Robin (Russell Crowe), Right: Marian (Cate Blanchett)
In my opinion, I understand why it didn't receive the same sort of appeal as some of the other Robin Hood adaptations, however, I did enjoy it nonetheless.
In my opinion, I understand why it didn't receive the same sort of appeal as some of the other Robin Hood adaptations, however, I did enjoy it nonetheless.
Robin Hood (Otto Bathurst, 2018)
This adaptation had a modern twist to it and was obviously competing with Guy Ritchie's King Arthur film that came out the previous year. I believe King Arthur won that battle.
Left: John (Jamie Foxx), Right: Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton)
The character of John is played by Jamie Foxx and he is a Saracen warrior. He was fighting against Robin and almost killed him until one of Robin's comrades chopped off his hand. When John's son is sent to be executed, Robin tries to stop it and John sees his act of bravery and decides to follow him and help him in England to avenge his son and to help stop the Crusades.
The character of John is played by Jamie Foxx and he is a Saracen warrior. He was fighting against Robin and almost killed him until one of Robin's comrades chopped off his hand. When John's son is sent to be executed, Robin tries to stop it and John sees his act of bravery and decides to follow him and help him in England to avenge his son and to help stop the Crusades.
Above: Robin of Loxley (Taron Egerton), Maid Marian (Eve Hewson)
The Robin-Marian Relationship in this adaptation plays a key role in the plot. Everything Robin does is to try and win Marian back.
In my opinion, this film had its weak spots, especially some of the dialogue, however, the action was good and the editing and cinematography too.
No comments:
Post a Comment