Robin Hood

📀 Cammmalot 📀4.0

Cinematic Time Capsule1922 Marathon - Film #42'Twill not be long ere we storm the very castle itself.Douglas Fairbanks pulls out all the stops and produces one of the most expensive films of the 1920s. Including a massive castle which is reputed to be the largest Hollywood set built for any silent movie. This was also the first motion picture ever to have a Hollywood premiere. The first hour is mostly setup and an origin story, so there’s not much “Robin Hooding”…. But once the second half kicks in, this film takes off like a sprite green rocket with nonstop action, swashbuckling hijinks and a massive group of the merriest men you’ve ever seen.I mean, just the sight of Friar Tuck picking up a grown man outta thin air and enthusiastically spanking him will have you doing double takes.… merry men indeed!BONUS POINTS for Alan Hale as jail breaking, Little John. 16 years later he played the same role in opposite Errol Flynn in “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and then again in the 1950 production of “Rogues of Sherwood Forest”. This was a total of 28 years from this film’s release. Making it one of the longest periods for any actor to appear in the same major role in film history.’Twas but my knightly privilege.Cinematic Time Capsule - 1922 Ranked

heatherNZ4.0

Lavish sets, amazing scale, hundreds of extras, and plenty of romance and drama, but the fun really starts at the halfway mark when Robin Hood shows up and we get 40-year old Douglas Fairbanks shrugging off the chain mail and bouncing around like a kitten who’s been into the catnip. This is an excellent and ambitious production. Sam de Grasse is a great Prince John and also gets the best costume. Meanwhile, we can put the blame on medieval fashion, but there’s really nothing good I can say about Doug’s hair in this one. However, that last scene in the moonlight? Stunning. To God, to Richard… and to Her.

Sally Jane Black

The most striking part of this were the sets. Huge castles and grand forests made up most of the film, and they were of a scale that gave the whole thing an epic feel, even if it is was one of the slower Robin Hood tellings I've seen--until the last act. The last act becomes a huge, sprawling battle that would not be out of place in something Tolkienian, but without the orcs. The effects are all a bit basic, but the size of things made up for that remarkably.That said, it's all spectacle and nothing more. The story focuses a bit more on Robin's time before outlawry, giving emphasis to his friendship with Richard. This is all well and good, but it leaves all of the Merry Men, the villains, and Maid Marian out to dry. Marian is rarely given her full due, and here is no different. The Merry Men get introductions, but in most of the later scenes, they are barely distinguishable. Prince John has the most characterization of the villains, and even he is pretty one note. All in all, it's not a terrible telling; style makes up for a lot. But it's not an all time classic.December count: 42/100.