Film Review: Robin Hood Stands Up To Economic Inequality
“The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer!” This is the ancient adage that gets most resuscitated by the 99%, Yet, Robin Hood shows the rich stealing from the poor has never gotten old. This is a historical issue, and it is heroes like Robin Hood that motivate the people to stop letting kings lord over them.
Imagine soldiers and politicians being allowed to take your hard-earned property, decrease your wages, and place policies that curtail your life to fund a war in a country you will never go to and kill a people that never really hurt you? Can you picture it? Does it sound familiar? Robin Hood clearly amplifies this dynamic with Taron Egerton bringing out the nobility of Robin of Loxley: both figuratively and literally. This version of Robin is a Lord that understands the echelons of the upper class, but has too good and kind a heart to deny the needy.
Good people are simply good people, and, from the beginning, Robin Hood shows that Robin is a genuine, pure heart, despite his wealth. This is an intriguing perspective considering that every other rich person you meet is horrible. From the pope to the sheriff, everyone in authority is corrupt, but it is not because power corrupted them. If anything Director Otto Bathurtst and writer Ben Chandler use this film to exemplify; power does not corrupt, the corrupt simply get power. The people choose poor leaders to tell them how to live their lives, and Ben Mendelsohn as the Sheriff of Nottingham continuously takes from them to their allowance. They cry, kick, scream, and protest, but, oddly enough, they never act until Robin Hood arrives.
Mendelsohn’s Sheriff gives Trumpian levels of fear speeches, and also a surplus amount of self-pity. You could say this “monster was made,” but once you meet Jamie Foxx’s John, then you understand life can make you suffer, but you can be the healing. Foxx gives John a strength and spirituality never before scene in this character. From its beginning, the film clarifies that this version of Robin Hood is unlike any other. They are “revealing”/ changing details of his origins that you never knew before. Frankly, I welcomed it. Robin Hood is such an old, integral story to internationalized lore that it is natural for its plot to have new twists added, of which Bathurst and Chandler deliver a story on how the masses pick their empowering and their disenfranchising leaders.
While I loved seeing this take of Robin Hood as both a political and profit revolutionizing leader, it might throw people off that Robin Hood 2018 is 100% a blockbuster, especially in terms of action sequences. The first 15 minutes feel like a Michael Bay war epic spliced between a Barbra Streisand romance. While I ate it up, I know some will feel particular about how it has turned the folklore of Robin Hood into a “comic book” of sorts. You would think Robin Hood was more of Marvel origins than Medieval. Yet, I loved the way this film spoke to income inequality, and how politics have always been determined by money. When you are rich you are powerful, and it takes people like Egerton’s fiercely charming Robin Hood and Eve Hewson’s Marian to rise as checkers of evil men’s strategies to rule over others while never controlling themselves.
I was very happy to see Eve Hewson’s rendition of Marian. She is one step closer to having more action roles, even if small, for women. She is no damsel, and is NOT waiting for Robin to save her. She does it just fine, and even inspires courage within him. Together, they reveal to the people of Nottingham that, “You are only powerless when you believe you are powerless.” This quote is said by John in the beginning, and become a thematic epicenter throughout the film. If someone tells you to sleep, and you do it, then it is your choice. While you believe you are going to see the origins of Robin Hood, what you are really seeing is the origins of Nottingham, and how a city awakens to confront the few, rich politicians that have made them sleep on their power. Thus, I am open to a sequel.
The biggest surprise, for me, about Robin Hood is that it sets up a sequel. Frankly, I would go see it. Jamie Dornan’s Will Scarlet is not featured that much throughout the film, but his character gets set up as vital for the next chapter. Dornan’s performance garners enough intrigue for you to see Part Deux because he represents that a life under duress can stress out the good of a soul. Rules and policies are often more for the people being ruled then the politician making the rulings. Scarlet picks up this difference immediately, but he is adamant that if you play by the law, you will end up being a beacon of justice. Cruelly, he learns, as we all do, that this is not so, and Robin Hood 2020 could be a very intriguing take on this truth. Robin Hood comes out in Theater November 21.
