My favourite Robin Hood adaptations were, in ascending order:
Robin and Marian - which continues the story in their autumn years and stars Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn
Robin Hood - with Patrick Bergen and Uma Thurman, which has a different approach to the story, which I found refreshing, though it's been a while since I last saw it so I can't vouch for its quality now.
Robin of Sherwood - a TV series in the 80s which, at the time, dramatically shaped my interests and tastes. It combined as much of the Robin Hood story as it did pagan myths and that creepy folklore edge which I still adore to this day and can never quite explain in words.
The Eroll Flynn version was okay, but I find it a little twee.
Originally posted by StarrmanWas going to post and mention these last two, but Starrman, clearly a fellow of exquisite taste, has beaten me to it.
My favourite Robin Hood adaptations were, in ascending order:
Robin and Marian - which continues the story in their autumn years and stars Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn
Robin Hood - with Patrick Bergen and Uma Thurman, which has a different approach to the story, which I found refreshing, though it's been a while since I last saw it so I can't vouch ...[text shortened]... ever quite explain in words.
The Eroll Flynn version was okay, but I find it a little twee.
Robin and Marion, one of the few adaptions where it actually rains in England. Imagine that!
Robin of Sherwood - totally awesome. The production looks a little ropey these days, but the stories hold up very well.
Phil.
Originally posted by sonhouseRussell Crowe looked hot.
Interesting stuff. They are somewhere in the 12th century, the french king is talking to his spy or some such, they are speaking french, the king says 'speak ENGLISH'! Wow.
Also later in the film, Marian and Robby are dancing, the music track is O'Carolyn's 'Women of Ireland'.
Just dripping with authenticity for sure dude.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/harrymount/100039825/russell-crowes-dreadful-accent-in-robin-hood-is-not-just-irish-its-also-geordie-yorkshire-and-west-country/
Russell Crowe's dreadful accent in Robin Hood is not just Irish. It's also Geordie, Yorkshire and West Country
By Harry Mount Society Last updated: May 14th, 2010
25 Comments
Good for Mark Lawson for taking Russell Crowe to task over his appalling accent, or accents, in Robin Hood – a dull film but for a few stirring bow and arrow scenes.
Crowe snapped when Lawson, in the politest possible way, said there were Irish hints to his accent – which there certainly are at the beginning of the film.
In his trademark aggressive way, Crowe said, “You’ve got dead ears, mate, you’ve seriously got dead ears. If you think that’s an Irish accent. B*******!”
Lawson, who is himself from the North, asked whether that was where Crowe was aiming his accent.
“No, I was going for Italian. Missed it? F*** me!” said Crowe before storming out of the interview.
Well, Lawson was spot on. When I saw the film, I tracked Crowe’s accent crossing the Irish Sea to the West Country for a bit of ooh-aar zoider-drinking, then hopping up north to Yorkshire and on to Northumberland, without stopping at Nottingham – Crowe’s intended destination.
Australian actors are generally better at doing English accents than Americans, because the two accents are closer in the first place. But neither country’s actors are much good at regional English accents; viz Dick Van Dyke’s disastrous Cockney in Mary Poppins.
The problem gets worse when actors – and this applies to British actors, too – go back to any period before about 1850. That’s when they tend to drop into the all-purpose Olden Days accent, a mix of Northern English, Stage Oirish, and Yokel West Country, that no real-life British, or Irish, person has ever spoken.
Crowe’s Robin Hood accent is textbook Olden Daysese. It should be broadcast at all acting schools, here and abroad, as an object lesson in how not to imitate an Englishman.