Review of Robin and Marian

In the dog days of Spring 1976 at the nation's cinemas, critics praised this collaboration between director Richard Lester and actors Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn (returning to the screen for the first time in nine years) as rapturous. It might have been with a more uplifting script. Connery is a middle-aged Robin Hood, and he's just right for the part. Unfortunately, this Medieval tale replaces sweep and pomp and grandeur with wintry discontent. Robin is still at war with the Sheriff of Nottingham (Robert Shaw), and he's loved again by Maid Marian, who has since become an abbess. Hepburn is predictably incandescent, though Marian's apparent dark side--what is perceived and what is implied--is jarring. The film has bits of nostalgia which are hurried passed and moments of sentiment undercut with dreary melodrama. It is also far too long and draggy, with blurry, sunlit cinematography from David Watkin that isn't lyrical and a vile-spewing villain who is so tyrannical and lusting for blood that he's no fun. Shaw's final battle with Connery (his nemesis in "From Russia with Love") is staged for a rousing effect, yet by this point the movie has pretty much imploded. It interests us with its built-in good will, but dashes all our hopes. *1/2 from ****