By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD" TAKES AIM AT A LEGEND
Throughout the years, there have been countless versions of the legendary outlaw Robin Hood, most portraying him as the noble English folk hero who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. But lurking beneath the familiar tales of heroism and adventure is a much darker story, one steeped in violence, regret, and mortality.
That shadowy side of the icon takes center stage in
"The Death of Robin Hood," writer-director
Michael Sarnoski's ("A Quiet Place: Day One") haunting reimagining of the legendary archer's final chapter.
Adapted from the 17th-century ballad "Robin Hood's Death," this gritty and often gruesome drama stars Hugh Jackman ("The Sheep Detectives") as an aging Robin Hood who is forced to confront the bloodshed and consequences of a life spent living outside the law.
After suffering a devastating injury, Robin Hood finds himself increasingly dependent on his loyal friend Little John (Bill Skarsgard, "Dead Man's Wire," "Nosferatu") and eventually in the care of a nun, Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer, "28 Years Later"). As his physical wounds deepen, so too do the emotional scars from a past he can no longer outrun.
What follows is less an action-adventure than a slow descent into a world of guilt, pain, and reckoning. Sarnoski strips away much of the mythology that has long defined Robin Hood and replaces it with something far more somber and unsettling.
The violence here is not the swashbuckling, crowd-pleasing kind audiences may expect. It is brutal, bloody, and often difficult to watch.
The movie is dark both literally and figuratively, with much of the story unfolding beneath gray, bleak skies, inside candlelit rooms, and within forests that seem determined to swallow the characters whole. While the atmosphere is undeniably immersive, there are times when the relentless gloom threatens to overwhelm the story itself.
Still, there is no denying Jackman's commitment here. He fully embraces this weathered, haunted version of Robin Hood, portraying him as a man whose greatest battles are no longer fought with a bow but within his own conscience.
Robin Hood gradually becomes humanized through his interactions with the compassionate Brigid, who devotes her life to caring for orphaned children, and through his growing affection for young Margaret (Faith Delaney, "Wicked: For Good"), the sweet and spirited daughter of Little John.
The arrival of Arthur (Noah Jupe, "Hamnet"), a wounded young man struggling with a horrendous eye injury, serves as a painful reminder that Robin's past is never as far away as he would like to believe.
Comer brings quiet strength to Brigid, while Skarsgard provides a steady presence as the fiercely loyal Little John. Particularly memorable is Murray Bartlett (TV's "The White Lotus" and "Nine Perfect Strangers") as The Leper, a man wrapped almost entirely in bandages and whose friendship with Robin Hood becomes one of the film's most affecting relationships. With little more than his eyes and faint voice, Bartlett has a small, but moving role as someone who, like Robin Hood, has been marked by suffering and forced to live on the fringe of society.
With "The Death of Robin Hood" Sarnoski has crafted a film that feels gritty, lived-in, and hauntingly beautiful even when its story occasionally struggles under the weight of its own dreariness.
It is admirable more often than it is engaging, and at times its deliberate pacing creates a distance that is difficult to overcome. Consequently, "The Death of Robin Hood" may leave some viewers appreciating it, more than thoroughly enjoying it.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
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"THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
