Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Let's be honest: Kevin Costner doing a Midwestern accent in medieval England shouldn't work. And it doesn't, really. But here's the thing about Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It doesn't need to work perfectly to be a genuinely good time. This is a film that runs entirely on spectacle, swagger, and one absolutely barnstorming performance from a man who seems to be having the time of his life.
Kevin Reynolds directs this with the kind of go-for-broke confidence that defined early-90s blockbuster filmmaking. Big sets, big battles, big music. Michael Kamen's score is operatic and sweeping, and yes, Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do" is ridiculous and I still can't hear it without feeling something. The production design is lush, the forest sequences have real kinetic energy, and the finale at Nottingham Castle is the kind of rousing, chaotic set piece that big-budget adventure films exist to deliver. There's a genuine craft to the action here, the kind of large-scale sword fighting and archery that puts me in mind of Braveheart, even if this film lacks that one's raw brutality and thematic weight.
But the whole conversation about this film begins and ends with Alan Rickman. His Sheriff of Nottingham is one of the great villain performances in mainstream cinema, full stop. Rickman plays it with theatrical, gleeful relish, chewing every line like a man who has been handed a fantastic meal and intends to savour every single bite. He knows exactly what kind of film he's in, and he leans into it with a wink and a snarl. There's genuine menace underneath all the pantomime, which is what separates a great villain from a camp one. Every scene he's in crackles. Every scene he's not in, you're quietly waiting for him to come back.
It's a shame, then, that the performances around him are so uneven. Costner commits fully, I'll give him that, but his Robin never quite convinces. There's no real edge to him, no sense of a man genuinely changed by war and injustice. Morgan Freeman is a performer I have enormous time for. His work in The Shawshank Redemption is extraordinary. But here, as Azeem, he's been handed a role that gestures towards progressive representation without giving him anything substantial to do. The accent wanders, the dialogue is thin, and it feels like a waste of someone this naturally magnetic.
The accents are, famously, all over the place. That's become part of the film's mythology at this point, almost a charm in itself. But the tonal inconsistencies are harder to wave away. The film keeps shifting gears between earnest romantic drama, broad slapstick comedy, and moments of genuine darkness, and it never quite settles into a rhythm. The middle act sags noticeably, and there are stretches where you feel the film's considerable length.
None of that kills it, though. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't entertained throughout. This is exactly the kind of film it presents itself as: a lavishly mounted, big-hearted Saturday-night adventure with a brilliant villain at its centre. It doesn't have the moral complexity of something like Unforgiven, and it's not trying to. It's trying to give you a good time, and mostly it succeeds.
Three stars. Worth your evening for the spectacle, the score, and Rickman alone. Just don't go in expecting the accents to make sense.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1991 | Watched: 2026-05-25
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Sky Go · Now TV Cinema · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
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Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
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