The Real Robin Hood (2010) (TV)

Director:

M. David Melvin

Release Date:

11 May 2010 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | History

Plot:

A special about the origins of the English folk hero. |

Plot Keywords:

Robin Hood | Friar

Cast

Ridley Scott	...	Himself
Russell Crowe	...	Himself
Cate Blanchett	...	Herself
Dominic Kinnaird	...	Friar Tuck
Lockhart Ogilvie	...	Will Scarlet
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Hurt	...	Narrator

Directed by
M. David Melvin

Produced by
Brandon Carroll	....	consulting producer
Christopher G. Cowen	....	producer
Scott Free	....	producer
Dan Gates	....	associate producer
Matthew I. Goldberg	....	line producer
Mark Herzog	....	executive producer
Mary Lisio	....	executive producer
Joy Lissandrello	....	consulting producer
M. David Melvin	....	producer
Ridley Scott	....	producer
Tony Scott	....	executive producer
Jana Triska	....	co-producer
David W. Zucker	....	executive producer

Film Editing by
Scott Canning
John Laus
Andy Robertson
Stephen B. Strout
Martin Wilson

Production Management
Lindsey Michelle Bogard	....	post-production supervisor

Art Department
Andres Barajas	....	graphics designer
Noa James Krauss	....	graphics supervisor
Raleigh Stewart	....	graphic designer

Sound Department
Mark Burton	....	sound mixer
J.M. Davey	....	supervising sound mixer
Zach Seivers	....	supervising sound mixer

Stunts
Dominic Kinnaird	....	stunts
Mike Loades	....	action coordinator
Lockhart Ogilvie	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Richard James Lewis	....	Steadicam operator: UK
Mark Morley	....	grip
James Perry	....	second assistant camera

Editorial Department
Peter R. Berg	....	on-line editor
Jimmy Browning	....	assistant editor
Allan Giron	....	assistant editor
Brian Halopoff	....	assistant editor
Hutson Hayward	....	supervising online editor
Christopher Leckie	....	post-production coordinator
Brian McCarthy	....	post-production coordinator
Mark T. Osborne	....	digital colorist
Leanne Crowley Sellers	....	assistant editor
Lauren Woods	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Jesse Goodwin	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Rory Brosius	....	operations
Justin Cooper	....	production coordinator
Teresa Darby	....	location manager
Mike Loades	....	presenter
Heather Miller	....	operations
Lucas Saunal	....	location assistant
Ryan Schiavo	....	production coordinator
Brandon Torres	....	operations
Sara Volkman	....	project coordinator
Mark Weicht	....	operations

Thanks
Austin Barker	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Herzog & Company
• Scott Free Productions

Distributors

• History Channel (2010) (USA) (TV)

Other Companies

• Snap Sound  post-production sound services

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:120 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG

Company:

Herzog & Company

Movie Connections:

Features Robin Hood (2010)

Definitely not the "real" Robin Hood

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This was less a documentary to find the real Robin Hood, and more a justification for the contortions the legend underwent in Ridley Scott's movie.

Mike Loades, a military historian, said Robin lived between 1180 and 1280, giving absolutely no reason for this, and the program continued based on his dates. J. C. Holt, the leading Robin Hood historian, says in his book that, due to social circumstances described in the ballads, it is VERY unlikely Robin was active before 1200. Also, the earliest record we have of outlaws starting to use the alias "Robin Hood" comes from a 1262 Easter Memoranda Roll. Assuming that they were emulating an original Robin Hood, the program should have been looking between 1200 and 1262. Except then the Third Crusade (Richard set out in 1190, peace was reached in 1192) would not have rated inclusion, and the Third Crusade was a big part of the movie.

None of the ballads says Robin went on crusade. The one ballad that mentions Richard I does not mention the crusade, or John, or Magna Carta. (Which was not about equality under the law but, among other things, protecting the nobles' inheritance from a corrupt king.) Why was Mike Loades saying Friar Tuck could have been on crusade, when we know Tuck was not a part of the original legend, but added in the sixteenth century, like Maid Marian, through the May Games? The original Friar Tuck was most likely Robert Stafford, a thief active in 1417.

Information was not well presented. For example, one man said that Scarlet was the "fop" of the group. He did not say that this was because "scarlet" used to refer to an expensive fabric. Another historian stated that "Scarlet" was derived from "Scathelocke" or "Scarlock," meaning to break locks (an obvious outlaw alias). But no one put these two statements together to explain that Will was not actually a fop (or necessarily a red head - scarlet evolved to mean red because this was an expensive dye), but only collected these traits because of later corruptions of his name.

One historian said that Marian's character has changed over time to mirror how society has viewed women. It would have been interesting to hear how the seventeenth century ballad about Marian's hour-long sword fight with Robin factors into that theory.

The quarterstaff demonstration was interesting, but irrelevant. Neither Robin nor his men were said to use staves until the eighteenth century.

Graham Black of Nottingham Trent University shared, in my opinion, the best information. He talked about J. C. Holt's best Robin Hood candidate, outlawed in 1226, who was then completely ignored for the rest of the program.

Most of the documentary was spent talking about the history behind the movie, not the man. (And that history was not always accurate.) Russell Crowe should stop saying that giving to the poor was the legend's core value and why it survived. That value was not added until the sixteenth century, along with Richard I and rumours of Robin's nobility. If the documentary were objective, it would point out things the movie got wrong, like almost everything about how Richard I died, or the fact that John's Isabella was twelve or younger when he married her.