Blu Ray Review: Robin Hood – Unrated Director’s Cut

The Film  || Video || Audio

Extras || Replay || Overall Rating:  

THE FILM

Ridley Scott’s deconstruction of the Robin Hood mythos and restructuring of the legend into a fully realized story was a gutsy move by the director.  Judging by word of mouth and critical reviews, the masses went in to Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood expecting something completely different.  The film’s marketing and highly deceptive trailers told us we were going to get the standard “gritty version” of the tale we’re all familiar with.  However, we were shown the exact opposite. 

Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is a “prequel” of sorts.  This is the first part of a larger story.  Hence, Universal’s choice to name this film Robin Hood is extremely misleading to the standard movie goer.  This isn’t the story of “Robin of The Hood”.  This is the story of Robin Longstride, the man who would one day be known as Robin of The Hood.  This is a shame, because without pretenses, Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood is an epic medieval tale on the grandest scale very much worth your time.

2 versions are presented on this Blu Ray: the Theatrical Cut and the superior Unrated Director’s Cut.  The Director’s Cut solves most of the problems that plagued the Theatrical Cut.  Interactions between Robin and Marian are flushed out a bit more, plus the “Orphans of Nottingham” don’t seem tacked on, their story is actually fully realized here.

I still have a couple of issues with the film.  Russell Crowe seems to almost just sleep walk through most of the first half of the film.  Also, the film’s score by Marc Streitenfeld (whom I usually love) just seems generic and misplaced at times.  But, these criticisms are minor quibbles compared to how much of the film I actually loved.

Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood places third if I’m comparing to Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven.  The story does not have as much gravitas as the other films, and there’s an emotional weight that is never fully reached.  However, the visual mastery on display here is staggering.  It feels as if Ridley Scott took his film crew back to medieval England and actually filmed on location.  The story itself is sprawling and epic, setting us up for a sequel, while also being contained for the most part. 

As Robin Hood concluded, I didn’t want it to end.  It had successfully set me up for the story of “Robin of The Hood” that we are all familiar with.  That is both this film’s blessing and it’s curse.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed, though.

VIDEO

Ridley Scott is a master of visual storytelling.  From Blade Runner to Gladiator to Kingdom of Heaven, I absolutely adore how he fills each frame.  Here, in 1080p, each frame stunning to look at.  On par with the Kingdom of Heaven blu ray transfer.

AUDIO

The dialog is crisp and the battle scenes are thundering with the 5.1 DTS-HD mix.  My only gripe is the music seemed a bit too soft at times, but other than that, this is reference material.  You’ll be giving your sound system a good work out. 

EXTRAS

With an hour-long Making Of documentary,  “Rise and Rise Again”(62:41), it’s easy to see why Ridley Scott is one of our top directors.  His meticulous attention to detail is impressive and it’s impressive to see him re-create these time periods. 

Other features included are:

Director’s Notebook (A Pop-Up style feature you can turn on with the movie, but most of this is covered in the 60 min. documentary.)

13 minutes of Deleted Scenes

The Art of Nottingham (a detailed look at the pre-vis/storyboard effort all the way to costumes and art design of the film)

Also, the deceptive Theatrical Trailers and T.V. Spots are included.

REPLAY VALUE

How much you re-watch the film will depend on the potential sequel.  If a sequel does happen, this will be required viewing, I’m sure.  However, you may find yourself rewatching certain scenes here and there, but that’s about it.

I plan on revisiting this film a couple more times myself, with or without a sequel.

FINAL THOUGHTS

 Even if you hated Robin Hood in the theaters, I’d recommend you check out the Director’s Cut.  I guarantee some of the things you hated most (ex: the wild children) are explained better here.  I still do have some minor gripes about the film, but not enough to write it off.

Although mis-titled, Robin Hood is a carefully crafted film with some rousing battle scenes and a well thought out story.  It may not have been the film everyone wanted, but I can’t fault it for going against people’s preconceived expectations.  This is the film Ridley Scott wanted to make and it’s well acted, well shot and held my attention for 2 hours and 30 minutes. 

When it all was finished, it did leave me wanted to see more of the story.  If there is a sequel (and I really hope there is!), this is the perfect set up for a home run.