“The Death of Robin Hood”: Michael Sarnoski’s Logan 2 – Electric Boogaloo

By Michael Cox

“[B]lood will have blood and it will follow you everywhere.” – Robin Hood

 

The Death of Robin Hood is a dramatic thriller directed by Michael Sarnoski (Pig, A Quiet Place: Day One) that centers around Robin Hood’s (Hugh Jackman) last days as the rogue we know him. However, all the stories we know? All lies. After a raid with Little John (Bill Skarsgård) goes wrong and leaves him badly injured, he is sent to a priory with supposed magical properties to heal himself thanks to a mysterious woman (Jodie Comer) with a hidden past. As he heals, he begins to reckon with the damage he’s done and the life he’s led.

Michael Sarnoski is a filmmaker I have kept my eye on since his critically acclaimed film Pig and I have been dying to check out his last film A Quiet Place: Day One, but have avoided it because I’m unfamiliar with the franchise (weird logic since it’s a prequel, I know). Nevertheless, something that is not tied to a studio and feels more familiar to what he achieved with Pig seems like something that should’ve been a hit, but alas ’tis not.

I feel Sarnoski saw that he had Hugh Jackman onboard and rewrote the script to be something more akin to Logan and wanted to not only replicate the film’s success with that, but also stray away from the all too familiar tale of the green brigand. Does it reach the same heights? No. It’s kind of its own thing, but still fails to reach the emotional heights of Pig, which should be familiar territory for Sarnoski. As an attempted deconstruction of the Robin Hood character and tale, it feels shallow. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but it feels like he doesn’t fully delve into the deconstruction. It feels like it begins and ends with Robin himself talking about how the stories being spread were lies. When it could’ve been so much more; while I get not getting too blockbuster-y by showing what actually happened in the stories with how Robin is now speaks enough, I don’t feel like it does enough to show how stories are spread and changed over time. Because I feel like the meat of this film comes from that aspect rather than being a deconstruction of a hero that is known now as a champion of the poor and meek. That’s the interesting part and focuses on the wrong things.

But the hard part with this film is what lies in its structure because it starts out as a very violent film, something like Robert Eggers’ The Northman, brutally ripping through the legend of Robin Hood shooting arrows at the bad guys and robbing the poor when it’s just killing and robbing for the sake of it. There this violent raid where characters get violently stabbed multiple times in an almost casual sense where it comes off as abrasive. Violence is commonplace and blood is spilled like child’s milk. Men, women and even children cannot avoid the end of a blade and sometimes, brutally so. It feels like a fire’s blaze has coated the screen and then all comes to a halt with the rest of the film as a meditative/reflective look on this character who now lies broken in a distant priory, a place of quiet and healing. Literally separated from the main land where anything violent like the simple trapping of a rabbit encroaches on its peaceful setting.

Compared the violent first act, as a said, the film feels like it’s coming to a halt. Robin lays in his bed for a scene or two while Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) tends to him via blood letting. Characters literally talk about tending the garden and Robin hobbles around, barely able to do anything except talk, really. From this moment, he is allowed to be something more than what his life has led him to be and through others interactions, he gets to reflect on everything. However, I don’t feel like the film does enough in that reflective regard except in the final act. It wants to be this moment of catharsis and mixes it with this theme about legacy, but I don’t feel like that is explored well. My emotions want to punch through, but can’t.

I will say the film is pretty to look at. Some nice visuals along with its use of lighting and the Irish landscapes billowing over our characters and their brooding. The score done by Jim Ghedi emulates the time period to produce a mixture of an old English and Celtic sound. An Anglo-Saxon sound, if you will.  It’s pretty interesting. I really like the costumes as well.

I want to say the acting is one of the best parts. Hugh Jackman (Robin Hood) and Jodie Comer (Sister Brigid) are very good. But to me, it’s the smaller roles that steal the show. Bill Skarsgård (Little John) does good work and Murray Bartlett (The Leper) gets the best scene in the film for me, emphasizing the stuff I wanted to see more of.

I do feel like this film suffers from the fact that it could’ve been more. Especially with all of who was involved. I had a good time and really liked aspects of it, but as a whole, I feel let down. It is in theaters right now.

Rating: 3.25/5