The director of ‘Pig’ and ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ offers a muddy, blood-soaked reckoning with one of England’s most enduring heroes.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
If your film is named “The Death of Robin Hood,” we know how it ends, right? On top of that, we’ve already seen this “consummation devoutly to be wished” in Richard Lester’s magnificent “Robin and Marian” (1976) with Sean Connery as the legendary bowman and Audrey Hepburn as his love.
The third feature film from writer-director Michael Sarnoski (“Pig,” “A Quiet Place: Day One”), “The Death of Robin Hood” seems like a sequel to David Lowery’s moody, similarly atmospheric “The Green Knight” (2021). With its sudden eruptions of ultra-violence, it also recalls Robert Eggers’ blood-drenched slice-’em-up “The Northman” (2021). Starting out on a mountain, where the wind blows ferociously, we meet the film’s protagonist, old, scarred Robin Hood, although truth be told, with his cascading gray locks and bushy beard and “Jabberwocky”-ready fur cloak(s) he more closely resembles a Third Crusade-era version of star Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. Brooding on the bare side of the mountain, he is roasting a little beastie in a fire when he’s approached by a freezing girl. What happens next is shocking, but it also sets the tone for the rest of the film. In this revisionist version of the beloved, much-adapted tale, including the 1938 classic “The Adventures of Robin Hood” starring young Errol Flynn, life is indeed “nasty, brutish and short,” although Robin has cheated death thus far.
The myth of Robin Hood and his “merry men” is a lie, we are told. This Robin Hood was and remains a “villain,” and an “outlaw,” and the relatives and friends of his victims seek vengeance against him and his former cohorts, such as Little John (Bill Skarsgård), who has changed his name to Edward and become a farmer. Lonely Robin likes to hear Edward talk about his wife Margaret (Katie Breen).
“The Death of Robin Hood” is another one of those films in which things happen, but very little storytelling or character development is involved. We are far away from Sherwood Forest. “The Death of Robin Hood,” which was shot in Northern Ireland, is set in vast stretches of barren, but beautiful mountain terrain. Robin ends up strangely on an island where a priory housing a nunnery attracts people in need of healing. Robin needs all sorts of healing, and he gets some of it from the prioress herself, Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer), whose techniques include the occasional letting of blood.
“The Death of Robin Hood” looks great, and, like “The Northman,” is frequently lit by flames consuming wooden houses and the dead or dying people inside them. Cinematographer Pat Scola (“Sing Sing,” “Pig”) doesn’t mind occasional lens flares or out-of-focus shots. He loves elemental stuff: mist, mountains, fire and heaving water. The film’s composer Jim Ghedi makes what one person has called “apocalyptic folk music.” Ghedi describes his work as “doomy, earthy and dark,” and we get such music at regular intervals in the film. In one scene, a child who should be dead continues to ambulate. Can someone say, “I’m not dead yet?” Events end in blacked-out screens.
A leper at the priory, who is almost completely covered up, advises Robin to do no harm to “them.” An adolescent boy (Noah Jupe) with a recently blinded eye arrives at the priory and has his good eye on a girl (Faith Delaney) attached to Robin, who does not speak, eat, or sleep. Sister Brigid speaks not specifically about the priory’s connections to Druids and Romans. It seems like a lost opportunity. When Robin is able to hobble around on a stick, Sister Brigid orders him to trap rabbits and tend the priory’s orchard. Jackman and Comer have some chemistry. But the screenplay has all the romantic fervor of a crushed skull. Robin carves a small bow for the girl, who has already threatened people with a knife. Oscar-nominated Jackman’s recessive, long-suffering Robin stands tall at the center of the story, a “myth” in the ravaged flesh. He might be the right anti-heroic, unsentimental, furious and death-wishing Robin Hood for these times. But “The Death of Robin Hood” is a lot of sound and fury, signifying, not nothing exactly, but little. Fade to black.
‘The Death of Robin Hood’
Rating: R for strong bloody violence
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgård
Director/Writer: Michael Sarnoski
Running Time: 2 hours, 3 minutes
Where to Watch: In Theaters
Grade: B-
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