Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
In this era of Peak TV and endless streaming services, you definitely have no shortage of things to watch. But when faced with a deluge of options, true to the literal name of the website you’re on right now, I’m here to help you decide what to watch. In this case, I’m alerting you to shift your bingeing priorities around a bit, because there’s one movie that you won’t be able to stream in just a few weeks’ time: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The 1991 blockbuster adaptation of the Robin Hood legend is currently on HBO Go, but that all changes on June 30 when the film disappears, like Robin Hood himself retreating into the shadows of Sherwood Forest.
You’ve still got a few weeks left to revisit this early ’90s gem, and you definitely should–although you might wanna temper your expectations a tad. If you were like me and first saw this flick when you were still in grade school, odds are you were also wowed by the film’s dark depiction of a character previously popularized by Disney as a sly fox. Rewatch it now on HBO Go and you might be surprised to learn that Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is… well, it’s kinda goofy. To put it in modern terms, the movie is much more Transformers than The Dark Knight.
That’s not a bad thing! All of the film’s medieval campiness actually makes it enjoyable on a whole other level. This is, after all, a film that features the legendary Alan Rickman playing the Sheriff of Nottingham as a spoiled and vain madman obsessed with using spoons as torture devices. This is, after all, a film that cast improv comedian Mike McShane as Friar Tuck, forever making me confused about whether or not he was in Prince of Thieves or the 1993 Mel Brooks parody Robin Hood: Men in Tights (he wasn’t). This is, after all, a film that celebrates Christian Slater at his most floppy haired idol-ness–and then shoots an arrow through his hand. This is, after all, a film that features a scene where Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman get catapulted through the air like a Middle Ages Batman and Robin.
Let’s talk about Kevin Costner. As a kid, we did not bat an eye at the casting a California born-and-bred all-American actor like Costner as the preeminent figure of British legend, second only to King Arthur. As an adult, it’s downright nutty how little Costner tries to adopt an accent. Instead, he has his usual dry drawl, in the midst of a so-drab-it-must-be-historically-accurate production. Costner playing Robin Hood as a kind of hangdog John McClane is definitely A Choice, and it’s one that’s totally baffling in retrospect.
Still… it’s Kevin Costner! And Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a key part of Costner’s frankly legendary run at the box office. He had Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and Dances with Wolves before this adventure, and he followed it up with JFK and The Bodyguard. Kevin Costner was arguably the biggest actor on the planet from 1988 to 1992, and this is him at the peak of his pre-Waterworld career.
Let’s also take a moment to realize just how massive this movie was in 1991. It was the #2 movie of 1991, behind Terminator 2: Judgment Day but ahead of both Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Silence of the Lambs. It made $165 million domestically (which is $360 million adjusted for inflation, so it was as big as the average Marvel movie). This over-the-top adventure truly had a moment in 1991, which makes it a must-watch for everyone that either wants to revisit the early ’90s, or the young’uns that want to know what all the fuss used to be about.
And even if after all that you still need convincing to carve out time for this piece of blockbuster history, I’ll let Bryan Adams have the final word.
