There aren’t any merry males to be present in “The Death of Robin Hood,” an elegiac portrait of the famed people hero that ultimately delivers on its title, however not earlier than an prolonged bout of myth-busting and ethical reckoning. Following a dip into studio franchise waters with “A Quiet Place: Day One” two years in the past, the third characteristic from writer-director Michael Sarnoski sees him returning to the intimate scope and melancholic timbre of his debut “Pig” — this regardless of story materials way more accustomed to blockbuster therapy on display screen. Starring a Gandalf-coiffed Hugh Jackman as a battle-worn Robin Hood weary of his heroic fame, Sarnoski’s revisionist interpretation dares to counsel that his lifetime of crime wasn’t in reality charitably motivated; his quest right here is an inside one, to salvage his soul from the lie he’s been dwelling.
The result’s pensive, delicate and bracingly low on derring-do, although it’s additionally somewhat one-note. Sarnoski deromanticizes the legend with eager consideration to historic and atmospheric element, and a studious curiosity in how tales are informed and retold by means of time. However the unhappy smallness (or small unhappiness) of the story it settles on as a substitute is each the purpose of the train and a gradual, regular downer from the get-go. Fantastically shot and designed in a full rainbow of earth and stone and sackcloth, and carried out with grace and conviction by Jackman and a well-chosen ensemble — together with Jodie Comer as a stoic abbess nursing our man, if to not well being, a minimum of to peace — this can be a manufacturing of unimpeachable integrity and intelligence, and a commendably mature little bit of summer season counter-programming from distributor A24. But it surely nearly wears its dourness as a badge of honor.
“The Death of Robin Hood” is definitely the second movie to take as its inspiration an alternate narrative from the traditional ballad “A Gest of Robyn Hode,” which concluded with the ageing hero within the care of a murderous prioress, lastly assembly his maker at her arms. Richard Lester’s 1976 “Robin and Marian” redesigned the story as a bittersweet autumn-years love story, conflating the roles of the prioress and Maid Marian. Sarnoski’s model likewise recasts the feminine character as a benevolent pressure, and is basically stripped of romance — although permits itself a streak of sentimentality in a subplot in regards to the grizzled outlaw’s light bond with a younger woman.
The predominantly stern tone of proceedings is established, nonetheless, by a gap sequence that introduces Robin as a lone-wolf nomad, dwelling off what little the land has to supply after years of warfare and pillaging, and briefly sharing hearth and meals with a younger feminine drifter (Jade Croot, from final yr’s “Rabbit Trap”) earlier than stabbing her within the head. The yr is 1247, seemingly empty phrase of his heroic goodness has lengthy handed into native lore, and all of the “wrecked and wanton” killer now desires is “a right death.” Earlier than that may occur, nonetheless, he’s roped into one remaining skirmish: He’s unexpectedly visited by Little John (Invoice Skarsgård), as soon as certainly one of his underage prison accomplices, and requested to assist defend the youthful man’s household and homestead from vengeful previous foes.
The battle that ensues is startling within the depth of its violence, as our bodies brawl and break within the mud, flaming torches are taken to the face, and red-hot blades are seared into flesh. Sarnoski initially appears to be pursuing a type of fever-dream hellishness akin to the battle scenes of Robert Eggers’ “The Northman,” although bloodthirsty thrill-seekers could be suggested to load up on the movie’s first half-hour: There’s a marked shift in temper, rhythm and quantity as soon as Robin, left brutally wounded and unconscious within the conflict, wakes up within the serene priory overseen by Sister Brigid (Comer), who has opened its doorways to all left alone and unsheltered on this ongoing local weather of terror.
Amongst his fellow residents are a masked, unnamed leper (Murray Bartlett), whose sanguine acceptance of his misfortune units the tone for Robin’s personal non secular self-confrontation; Arthur (Noah Jupe), grievously injured in the identical battle, and reluctantly tasked with revenge on the shattered outlaw; and Margaret (delicate newcomer Religion Delaney), newly orphaned daughter of Little John, who attaches herself to him with weak want. What ensues is a quiet, pained sequence of conciliatory encounters between these variously broken people, every chasing some method of therapeutic and redemption — and in Robin’s case, a last-ditch narrowing of the chasm between the person he’s and the person others consider him to be.
It’s an ambitiously inner narrative arc, traced extra by means of dialog and remark than overt incident, and Sarnoski’s script is loath to pressure undue pressure between its characters, whereas Robin and Brigid’s bond is left nobly platonic. But it surely’s solely an intermittently compelling story, given the constant tenor of Robin’s jaded self-loathing and the portentous inevitability of his destiny. The dissonance between the human husk introduced right here and the dashing, green-clad adventurer of outdated is placing, however regardless of the haunted solemnity of Jackman’s efficiency, the character stays slender and unknowable — and our curiosity within the rightness or in any other case of his loss of life is extra theoretical than deeply felt.
Nonetheless, after his proficient however compromised-feeling “Quiet Place” prequel, the place you may sense the friction between the director’s humanity and the grind of style equipment, Sarnoski’s newest is an altogether extra assured assertion of intent, pursuits and id, from the richly overcast 35mm textures of Pat Scola’s cinematography to the generally lilting formality of the dialogue. “The Death of Robin Hood” holds our consideration for the sheer severity of its reinvention, the rooted, hessian-rough vividness of its ruined world, and its earnest, advanced preoccupation with issues of the soul — a vanishingly uncommon advantage within the multiplex on the whole, not to mention within the realm of endlessly repurposed IP.
