Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

[domino harvey]

Description: Sometimes the only way to uphold justice is to break the law.

From Errol Flynn to Disney, Hollywood has long been fascinated with the legend of Robin Hood. Helmed by director Kevin Reynolds (Waterworld, The Count of Monte Cristo), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves pays homage to the past while transforming the famous outlaw of Sherwood Forest into a movie icon fit for the 1990s.

Robin of Locksley (Kevin Costner, Waterworld) returns from the Crusades to find his father dead and vows revenge. With his Moorish companion Azeem (Morgan Freeman, Unforgiven), he joins a band of peasant rebels to do battle against the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman, Die Hard) and win the hand of the fair Maid Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, The Abyss), cousin of the absent King of England.

This grand, swashbuckling adventure in the classic tradition is brought to life by an all-star supporting cast, including Christian Slater (True Romance), Brian Blessed (Flash Gordon) and a memorable cameo from Sean Connery (himself a former Robin Hood), plus an instantly recognisable score by Michael Kamen (Highlander) – not to mention a chart-topping Bryan Adams theme song. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves dazzles in an all-new 4K restoration, accompanied by a king's ransom of new and archival bonus features.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

NEW 4K RESTORATIONS of both the theatrical and extended cuts from the original negative by Arrow Films
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATIONS
Limited Edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper
60-page perfect-bound illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Jackson Cooper and Mark Cunliffe
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring newly commissioned artwork by José Saccone
Six double-sided, postcard-sized artcards
Original uncompressed stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary with director Kevin Reynolds and actor Kevin Costner
Audio commentary with actors Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater and writers/producers Pen Densham and John Watson
Here We Are Kings: Making Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves – a brand new, multi-part documentary featuring brand new interviews with Densham, Watson, director of photography Douglas Milsome, editor Peter Boyle, costume designer John Bloomfield and many more members of the creative team
Robin Hood: The Myth, the Man, the Movie – an archival 1991 documentary hosted by Pierce Brosnan
One-on-One with the Cast – archival 1991 interviews with Costner, Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Slater and Alan Rickman
Bryan Adams "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" performance at Slane Castle, Ireland
Music soundtrack cues
Theatrical trailer
TV spots
Image gallery
UK STREET DATE: NOVEMBER 18.

[domino harvey]

My thoughts from the Faith List Project

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds 1991) I’ve been thumbing through Jack Shaheen’s fascinating Reel Bad Arabs, which despite some obvious flaws (pro-Israel films are automatically suspect as anti-Arab) is still an unparalleled and exhaustive work of tracking racial stereotypes throughout the entirety of existent cinema. All of the films discussed are cataloged and at the end of the book, Shaheen reveals a surprisingly small list of only fourteen films out of thousands to earn the distinction of “Best” in terms of their depiction of Arabs. This popular early 90s take on the Robin Hood story is one of the fourteen.

Pretty unpopular and subject to much mockery now, revisiting it for the first time since I saw it in theatres makes me confused on its poor legacy, as it’s the most entertaining and competent iteration of the myth I’ve seen-- though to be fair, I don’t really care about Robin Hood and don’t mind that the filmmakers made their vision “darker” than other, lighter efforts. What’s most interesting watching now is how the film is fundamentally a conservative’s wet dream— Robin of Locksley steals from a corrupt government overtaxing its citizens and gives back to the everyday folks— and yet the film is stridently pro-Muslim, with characters responding negatively to Morgan Freeman’s Moor and then, once he proves himself wise and competent, admitting they were wrong and seeking to learn more about his culture. How surreal it is to see a progressive film like this was made decades ago and made a ton of money, and yet in today’s allegedly more socially advanced society it would be immediately shunned and banned by many of its core audience members for such a view point! Beyond its religious aspects (there are also dueling Christian viewpoints— commerce versus common faith), the film is fun and never feels like it runs over two and a half hours. And with all the interminable Biblical epics this list has foisted on me (and will continue to foist til I finish working through the unwatched pillars), that alone merits copious praise. Highly recommended.

[colinr0380]

It is hard to overstate just how inescapably big the Bryan Adams song (and its music video, especially the moment of the camera following the arrow that gets synced up with the music reaching its climax) was at the time. As big as the Celine Dion song from Titanic was years later. It was so huge that this is one of only two VHS retail tapes that I ever remember my mother buying, just because it had the music video included as a bonus at the end of the film! (The other film she bought was Gremlins 2: The New Batch, mostly because she felt that the goofy, constantly giggling Mogwai was her 'spirit animal')

I watched this again for the first time in ages last Christmas and found a lot of the action to have become more underwhelming than on previous viewings (though to be fair even at the time the film came out I was underwhelmed, as someone who grew up with the 1973 Disney Robin Hood. I am constantly thankful for the miracle that I never became a furry, because I loved that film so much as a kid that I could see an alternate universe where it may have ended up happening!), but the standout element of Alan Rickman's panto villain performance, all too relatably driven to manic frustration with the sheer incompetence of those around him (which was always the best part) only gets better and better! "... and cancel Christmas!" was always a big catchphrase from my parents around the holiday season! And that final surprise star cameo from the absentee King Richard belatedly returning to his homeland to restore some semblance of proper moral order, and bless a union, is an inspired climax!

All of those elements of star power and music played their part in assuring its status, so much so that it completely obliterated the competing Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman Robin Hood film, which I keep meaning to watch again. It may turn out to be the better and more down to earth of the two, but it just wasn't hitting the same romantic (and romanticised in the manner of classic Hollywood, just with a modern twist) beats that the Costner film did, which unfortunately made it come across as far too serious and therefore rather dull at the time. Without Prince of Thieves I also doubt we would have gotten Braveheart (and its similarly overshadowed-but-probably-better competitor, Rob Roy) a few years afterwards, which does most of the same things the Costner film does except with a masochistic 'downer' ending. And we probably would not have gotten First Knight either, for whatever that's worth!

Despite the fantastic Rickman performance (and I kind of find Christian Slater's seemingly purposefully anachronistic surfer dude take on Will Scarlet amusing! Or at least as amusing as his Italian monk in The Name of the Rose was a few years earlier! This was his big push to stardom period too: does anyone else remember Gleaming The Cube, Pump Up The Volume and Kuffs? Now that's an Arrow boxset, right there! There was a time when I was getting him confused with Keanu Reeves for a hot minute) I prefer Kevin Reynolds' later collaboration with Costner, Waterworld, for as much as that film is maligned. And Arrow releasing both of these films makes me cross my fingers in the hope that they might get to Rapa Nui at some point.

[domino harvey]

Wow, I had no idea there was a competing film with Patrick Bergin as Rutger Hauer as Robin Hood!

[What A Disgrace]

I have a fond, but distant and hazy memory of this movie, as a kid in the early 90s, but I haven't seen it since. I remember going on vacation to Florida to visit my uncle, and being obsessed with the Nintendo game in conjunction with the movie, and really wanted to try the breakfast cereal. I never actually got to play the game, but I do remember the cereal being fairly tasty.

[tenia]

I used to watch it everytime we were visiting cousins close to home, alternating with Bodyguard, which means I probably watched it a dozen times when I was between 6 and 10, but it's been a very long time since I last saw it. I remember it being long but fun and breezy, I probably would still like most of the acting but I wonder if I would still find it that fun and well paced.

[colinr0380]

I wonder how much The Bodyguard was a response to the Bryan Adams song in Prince of Thieves becoming a hit and so big that the only way to potentially top it was to actually have the singer be a character in the film and belt out the attached ballad!

I was also interested to see that Prince of Thieves has had its BBFC rating upped from its original PG to a 12. This apparently happened (at least according to the BBFC website) back in 2009 on a previous re-release of the film, and this apparently means the film is unedited now after previous versions were cut in the UK. Here's the information on the cuts history of the film, as reproduced from the Melon Farmers site:

Original 1991 cinema release:

The cinema cuts of 14 seconds were:
-The hand amputation scene in the introduction has been reduced
- Dialogue edited, Christian Slater's cry of "Fuck me, he made it" to "Blimey, he made it" when Robin swings onto the battlements.

The original 1991 VHS release

Passed PG after the BBFC required a further 18s of category cuts on top of the 14s of cinema cuts totalling 32s of cuts for:

The BBFC originally cut down the hand amputation for cinema but now feel that they did not cut enough as judged by the number of complaints received from parents. On the video release, the distributors removed all of the build up to the amputation as it was felt that the anticipation of the act causes a lot of the terror. All details of the hand after amputation has also been excised.

The additional video cuts were:

1. The hand amputation scene in the introduction was further reduced with sight of the amputated hand being removed along with screams from the victim
2. Robin Hood knocks a prison guard onto a stack of hot coals. The initial sight of the guard falling onto the coals and catching fire was retained, but the following shot of him rolling off of the coals and screaming was removed
3. The bloodied face of a soldier was removed after being hit in the face by Robin using a crossbow
4. Little John's remark of, "Well, I'll be buggered!" was eliminated from the end of his fight with Robin
5. The Sheriff stabbing his sword into a victim's belly is missing a close up of the stabbing and blood oozing from the wound.
6. The witch Mortianna uses her nail to cut into her arm to draw blood as part of a ritual. The close-up of this act was removed.
7. Dialogue is missing, where a disciple of the Sheriff is lewdly provoking Marian: "I have never seen the breasts of a noble lady before"
8. Three shots of Little John's son, Wulf, choking on his noose were removed
9. A sequence where the Sheriff is spreading Marian's legs trying to take her in the wedding scene has been removed.
10. In the climatic fight the sights of a bloody dagger being withdrawn and then being held out were removed
11. The sight of Mortianna's bloody face was removed.

Then in a 1995 VHS widescreen reissue there was a further edit:

The BBFC asked for a further 3s of cuts for the 1995 Warner video: When Little John chases Will Scarlet and throws him to ground revealing lash marks on his body, remove John's exclamation "Bugger me"

The 2003 DVD release (still at PG) waived some edits but added others:

The total cuts for this release were:

1. The hand amputation scene in the introduction has been reduced as per the cinema version
2. Dialogue edited, Christian Slater's cry of Fuck me, he made it to Blimey, he made it when Robin swings onto the battlements.
3. The Sheriff stabbing his sword into a victim's belly is missing a close up of the stabbing and blood oozing from the wound.
4. Previously three shots of Little John's son, Wulf, choking on his noose were removed. But this time the BBFC asked for further cuts to hangings: "Remove eight medium/close shots of struggling boy hanging. Remove sight of struggling men hanging, in long shot and medium shots."
5. A sequence where the Sheriff is spreading Marian's legs trying to take her in the wedding scene has been removed.

This was all reinstated when the film was classified up to 12 in 2009 along with its "Extended version":

The additional material for the Extended Version is non-contentious. The Extended Version adds a darker, rather evil background to Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham character. Commentators have suggested that this material was dropped from the Theatrical Version as it was too dark for a family release, and also rather let Alan Rickman steal the show from Kevin Costner.

The official BBFC information also warns of the film containing 'ritualistic magic including blood and human bones' and 'brief buttock nudity' (so that's where Braveheart got the idea from! ). So you have been warned if you have not seen the film in a while, this ain't your mother's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves!

[Feego]

as someone who grew up with the 1973 Disney Robin Hood. I am constantly thankful for the miracle that I never became a furry, because I loved that film so much as a kid that I could see an alternate universe where it may have ended up happening!)

Eddie Redmayne and Anna Kendrick have your back.

[colinr0380]

For me it was probably equal parts down to Little John cross-dressing in a buxom manner and my love for Peter Ustinov's Prince John, yet again showing that the bad guys in a Robin Hood film are the best characters!

[ianthemovie]

as someone who grew up with the 1973 Disney Robin Hood. I am constantly thankful for the miracle that I never became a furry, because I loved that film so much as a kid that I could see an alternate universe where it may have ended up happening!)

I've heard lots of Gen X and Millennial women talk about having had (or in some cases still having) crushes on Robin Hood from that version. Apparently it really made an impact, and not just on Furries!

[movielocke]

This is just uk release right? Not a U.S. arrow release?

[swo17]

All this month's announcements are UK-only except for Audrey Rose and Shawscope

EDIT: Actually, the individual announcement for the Dupieux is also US/CA even though the summarized listing says it's UK-only

[dwk]

Warner still has the US rights. I assume it had to do with the funding, so WB kept the the US rights even though their distribution deal with Morgan Creek has ended.

[therewillbeblus]

I revisited this today, and while I’m still not convinced of its greatness (though domino’s reading is interesting), it was more engaging than I had remembered and I think the action will play much better in 4K. The DVD from my library looks terrible and if there’s one thing that the UHD format has prompted me to remember time and time again, it’s that films I previously watched in shoddy versions can turn into new favorites simply through witnessing them in crystal clarity. I like to believe that my ability to see through handicaps in visual quality is uniformly supreme, but sometimes cleaning up a film reveals merits that were obstructed in previous cloudy editions (i.e. Lynch’s Dune shockingly transforming from a one star movie to a five star one on this last UHD viewing). The action spawned from the consistent forward momentum here falls a bit flat when viewed on a low grade DVD, but I can tell there’s some really exciting stuff in here that demands to be appreciated on a different format.

The best part of the movie is when Morgan Freeman gives his impassioned speech to the people during the final battle and says, "If you be free men!" very sincerely, yet thunderously theatrical, because I find it funny that he's saying his own name in a hammy way without acknowledging it

[therewillbeblus]

I’m happy to report my suspicions were true: the 4K disc’s presentation is a stunner and clears up the muddled DVD’s obfuscations to reveal a lot to love here. It’s surprisingly not the dark medieval violence or Rickman’s rich villain (an evil sociopath doubling as a foolish insecure ball of dysregulation is played as a quirkier hybrid than it could’ve been in anyone else’s hands) or the complex socio-spiritual systemic themes that stand out most though.. but the brilliantly-staged and directed set pieces that are at once caustically riveting and comfortably digestible. In many respects, Kevin Reynolds feels like ‘one that got away’, and his talents that shine through above anyone’s within this economically-constructed crowdpleaser condensed with an eclectic pallets of simple and ambitious pleasures. Hopefully more folks check it out under the right conditions and see the light