On Screen: “The Death of Robin Hood”
The Death of Robin Hood
Writer-director Michael Sarnoski takes a dark, revisionist view of the famed medieval folk hero in “The Death of Robin Hood.”
Gone is every remnant of Errol Flynn’s rascally swashbuckling swordsman, Kevin Costner’s brusque bowman, even Sean Connery’s middle-aged romantic version — and the adventurous Merry Men of Sherwood Forest are nowhere to be found.
Instead, Hugh Jackman’s grizzled, gray-bearded Robin Hood is a snarling, solitary, self-loathing outlaw, wearily roaming the barren, muddy 13th century English countryside, tormented by a ‘stole from the rich and gave to the poor’ reputation that, apparently, bore little relevance to reality.
When he’s gravely wounded in a skirmish that proves fatal to his pal Little John (Bill Skarsgard), Robin winds up in an isolated island abbey where his wounds are tended by stoic Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer).
As he recovers, Robin is befriended by a masked, heavily-bandaged leper (Murray Bartlett), a deeply troubled orphan (Faith Delaney), and an adolescent (Noah Jupe) suffering from an injury that cost him the sight of an eye. Eventually, the backstories of all three intertwine with pivotal incidents in Robin’s past.
Based on obscure Celtic ballads — “A Gest of Robyn Hode,” “Robin Hoode His Death” — Sarnoski’s pretentiously interminable screenplay is filled with grisly atrocities and bloodletting, punctuated by garbled dialogue that’s difficult to decipher.
Apparently after filmmaker Michael Sarnoski garnered praise for “Pig,” starring Nicolas Cage as a distressed chef searching for his truffle pig, and “A Quiet Place: Day One,” he turned his attention to this gothic dirge which may have limited appeal to curious cinephiles who relish primal brutality and graphic violence.
As for veracity, Sarnoski admits that — in the original ballads — the prioress was portrayed as an evil nun while Robin was the godly hero. Judging that to be too simplistic, Sarnoski took inspiration for her character from Hildegard von Bingen, known as a wise theologian-healer.
(Timely factoid: the 1,200-year-old Major Oak, a Sherwood Forest tree linked to Robin Hood, just died in the UK. According to legend, Robin used its hollowed-out trunk to hide from the Sheriff of Nottingham.)
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Death of Robin Hood” is murky, morbid 3 — playing in theaters.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.