Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

Official trailer

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is Kevin Reynolds’s 1991 American adventure film.

The film depicts Robin of Locksley returning to England from the Third Crusade after escaping a Jerusalem prison alongside Moorish companion Azeem. He arrives home to find his father murdered and his lands seized by the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin gathers outlaws in Sherwood Forest to resist the Sheriff’s reign while pursuing his attraction to Maid Marian Dubois, his childhood friend. Kevin Costner plays Robin of Locksley. Morgan Freeman plays Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays Maid Marian. Alan Rickman plays the Sheriff of Nottingham in his career-defining villainous performance. Christian Slater plays Will Scarlett. Geraldine McEwan plays the witch Mortianna. Michael McShane plays Friar Tuck. Brian Blessed plays Robin’s father Lord Locksley. Pen Densham and John Watson wrote the screenplay. Morgan Creek Productions produced the film on a budget of approximately 48 million dollars, and it grossed approximately 390 million dollars worldwide.

I have a soft spot for this movie the size of Sherwood Forest. It’s big, loud, sincere and a little silly, and Alan Rickman steals his scenes so completely that Costner sometimes seems like a guest in his own film. My reservation is Costner himself, who never once convinces me he’s an English lord.

Despite mixed critical reception, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was among the most commercially successful adventure films of the early 1990s.

The film works inside the heavy tradition of Robin Hood adaptations including The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Robin and Marian (1976), and other productions. Kevin Costner was at peak commercial standing following Dances with Wolves (1990) which had won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. His casting brought major commercial draw to this work.

The film also gave Alan Rickman material that established him as one of the principal villainous performers of his generation. The Bryan Adams song (Everything I Do) I Do It for You ranks among the best-selling singles in popular music history through its association with the film.

Rickman as the Sheriff

Alan Rickman plays the Sheriff of Nottingham with the controlled theatrical excess that became his career trademark, combining surface civility with an underlying brutality. He delivers his lines with a measured precision that sets the Sheriff apart from conventional medieval villains, and the threat to cut your heart out with a spoon has acquired particular cultural reference standing over the years. I think he’s having more fun than anyone else in the picture, and his glee is the main reason the film works for me.

Rickman had already played a great villain in Die Hard (1988), and this part gave him even more room to enjoy himself. Galaxy Quest (1999) and the Harry Potter films came later, and I think the Sheriff is where audiences decided they’d happily watch him be awful in anything.

The Costner Accent

Kevin Costner plays Robin of Locksley without attempting an English accent, and his American midwestern speech pattern remains throughout the English nobleman role.

Audiences split on it. Some readings argue the absent accent reflects Costner’s commercial standing more than any artistic intention, and others argue an attempted accent would have made the film unwatchable for American audiences. I side with the first camp. Every time Costner opens his mouth next to Rickman the film shrinks a little, and that’s the biggest reason this is a 7 for me.

The accent choice reflects broader patterns of American actors playing historical European characters. Many American performers including Charlton Heston, John Wayne, and others have played European historical figures without attempting accurate accents. The pattern has continued through later decades despite occasional efforts at accent fidelity.

Whether accent matters for historical drama remains debated. Audiences who care about accent fidelity find Costner’s performance jarring. Audiences who don’t care receive the performance as ordinary American leading-man work.

The Azeem Character

Morgan Freeman plays Moorish character Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir as Robin’s companion who saves his life during the Jerusalem prison escape and accompanies him back to England.

Azeem serves multiple functions in the narrative. He provides Robin with technical knowledge that conventional English medieval characters wouldn’t have possessed. He provides moral compass that the English characters often lack. He represents the cultural sophistication that the medieval English society hasn’t yet developed.

The character has produced varied critical response over decades.

Some readings have praised the respectful treatment of Moorish culture in a film that could have ignored or stereotyped non-European characters. Other readings have argued that Azeem lands as conventional magical Negro figure whose primary function is supporting the white protagonist’s development. Both readings have textual support. Freeman’s performance gives the character depth that less committed work wouldn’t have produced regardless of the underlying screenplay function.

Freeman is my favorite part of the film after Rickman. He brings a calm authority to Azeem that makes the character feel like the smartest man in England, and I’d happily watch a whole movie about him.

Is Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves worth watching?

Mixed critical reception didn’t stop Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves from ranking among the most commercially successful adventure films of the early 1990s.

Alan Rickman’s Sheriff performance launched his later career as one of the principal villainous performers of his generation. The Costner accent choice reflects broader patterns of American actors playing historical European characters without accent fidelity. The Azeem character matters beyond structural function through Morgan Freeman’s committed performance.

It’s a 7 from me because the film is a lot of fun whenever Rickman, Freeman or the Bryan Adams song takes over, and it sags whenever Costner has to hold a scene on his own. I’d watch it for the Sheriff alone, and I’d recommend it to anybody who wants a big, earnest early-nineties adventure with a villain who walks off with the picture.

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