Sorry to be so quiet lately. I started work last Monday (yay!) and have therefore been somewhat busy.
Today, though, our friend Tara offered to babysit, so Jonathan and I went off to watch the new Robin Hood movie! We thoroughly enjoyed it. Spoiler warning! It was like Henry V with Lord of the Rings, a little First Knight, and a reverse D-Day invasion. Very interesting. You never knew that Robin Hood was a returned crusader who was the brains behind the Magna Carta, did you? Well, sort of a proto-Magna Carta, really. And King John outlawed Robin Hood because he (Robin) saved his (John's) bacon when the French landed at Dover (?!!) to take over England, and John was bitter about it.
I never said it was an accurate movie. But it was a lot of fun. We got some great Russell Crowe moments, and I liked how they played Maid Marian as a land-holder who had been keeping the farm going for ten years while her husband was away. It was a bit jarring when she turned up at Dover in chain mail, but I suppose they couldn't help it.
They could have helped the little scene where they cremated the old man with his sword and a sprig of rosemary in his hand. What on earth? There was so much Christian symbolism everywhere else, what, did they think the English randomly reverted back to the pagan Norse? I can only assume that was failure of research.
Eleanor of Aquitaine - oh, she was wonderful. She was what you might call a forceful character and they got that across delightfully. We even got to see some of her signature "diplomacy."
Incidentally, if you ever feel the need to invade England, don't land at Dover. The archers will stand up on the cliffs and shoot you all. Just a word to the wise.
4 comments:
Oh, you beat me to the movie!!! Well, now I have to go see it. Robin Hood has been my hero ever since I could read chapter books. I wanted to be the first one in line -- but our terrible scarcity of babysitters prevented that one nicely. Oh well. One late night when I am not too tiered I SHALL see it... maybe. :-P
Lack of research is putting it a bit kindly. They took one of the most documented actual historical heroes of Britain's history (Richard the Lionheart)and butchered him. They also got a little creative with those WWII landing craft the French had. It was like, the Time Machine version of Robin Hood. In the sequel, I expect the French to have machine guns and missles.
I could totally see the French having gunpowder rockets - that's only a few centuries wrong. They'll shoot them off in the last battle scene. Then Robin Hood will take masterful aim and shoot a rocket in mid-air, and it'll fall on the French King. Who happens to be standing next to a pile of rockets. Which will explode in a wonderful series of fiery blasts. (Because Americans love explosions.)
I see a Fourth of July Weekend blockbuster in development here....
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