I saw this movie way back as a young boy in its first run on an early HBO, and loved it! I just watched it again on TCM and... "meh".
The credits run and the movie opens as two armored soldiers dig the ground. Either accidentally or in a poorly scripted bit of slapstick their helmets knock into one another as they free their treasure from the soil which as it turns out, is a large stone. The camera pans out as they labor from the ground to a neaby catapult. Now in the background we see a dilapidated castle and a mere handful of other knights. Seems this poor excuse of a siege army is about to lay siege to this even poorer excuse of a castle. They load the catapult, then crank it up and let loose. The stone launches and flies a pitiful halfway to its target... and there you have this movie in a nutshell. Underpowered and understaffed, despite its top tier star power.
This retelling of the tale of Robin Hood and Maid Marian is, as I'm sure you've no doubt already seen the synopsis, is bottom line an original and quite engaging take on the story. Problem is like the two knights banging heads tries to be funny when it just doesn't jive with the overall mood of the story. And as a whole tries to hit the lofty targets it's made for itself but, like the stone just fall short.
I honestly wish I never re-watched it. Not because it's a terrible movie, it's not. I think its 6.6 rating is about the only thing that really is spot on here. It's just I prefer my childhood memory I had of the story. Whether my remembrance of the climactic scene between Robin and the Sheriff being much more brutally realistic. Or the lack of any memory of Audrey Hepburn's perfectly dyed and coiffed perm... where they hell would a nun get her hair done in 13th century England!?
The credits run and the movie opens as two armored soldiers dig the ground. Either accidentally or in a poorly scripted bit of slapstick their helmets knock into one another as they free their treasure from the soil which as it turns out, is a large stone. The camera pans out as they labor from the ground to a neaby catapult. Now in the background we see a dilapidated castle and a mere handful of other knights. Seems this poor excuse of a siege army is about to lay siege to this even poorer excuse of a castle. They load the catapult, then crank it up and let loose. The stone launches and flies a pitiful halfway to its target... and there you have this movie in a nutshell. Underpowered and understaffed, despite its top tier star power.
This retelling of the tale of Robin Hood and Maid Marian is, as I'm sure you've no doubt already seen the synopsis, is bottom line an original and quite engaging take on the story. Problem is like the two knights banging heads tries to be funny when it just doesn't jive with the overall mood of the story. And as a whole tries to hit the lofty targets it's made for itself but, like the stone just fall short.
I honestly wish I never re-watched it. Not because it's a terrible movie, it's not. I think its 6.6 rating is about the only thing that really is spot on here. It's just I prefer my childhood memory I had of the story. Whether my remembrance of the climactic scene between Robin and the Sheriff being much more brutally realistic. Or the lack of any memory of Audrey Hepburn's perfectly dyed and coiffed perm... where they hell would a nun get her hair done in 13th century England!?