Put on comfortable clothes because we are going to go deep into the Sherwood Forest in the company of the notorious thief for robbing the rich and giving him to the poor. COSMO broadcasts the classic ‘Robin Hood, prince of thieves’. One of the most famous revisions of the story in history, with the participation of stars such as Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio, Alan Rickman and Christian Slater.-
An adaptation that unites the classicism of old Hollywood adventure films with the flavor of modern blockbusters and that was one of Costner’s most notable successes in a decade, that of the 90s, in which he also left us tapes like ‘ The Bodyguard ‘or’ JFK, case open ‘.
El origen the Robin Hood
The tale of the merry thief Robin Hood is born like that of the archetypal hero of medieval English folklore. A story that the peasants told each other to deal with the inequality that exists between the different levels of society. A just man who gave the greedy nobles what they deserved and gave his plunder to the most unfortunate.-
The origin of his legend is not in medieval England, but takes inspiration from the character of Ghino di Tacco, a thief who appears in the works ‘The Divine Comedy’ and ‘The Decamern’, written respectively by the Italian authors Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccacio, the concept of the character being very similar to the one we ended up getting to know. English folklore was limited to taking the character to its territory.
Many historians claim that a real man named Hood lived in the Locksley area at the time the tale is set, and that the account also takes details from this true story. The doubt about whether it is real or not adds more mystery to its legend.
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The many faces of the thief
The Robin Hood is a tale belonging to the folklore of the town and its story has been adapted in numerous and diverse films. His first appearance at the height of the silent film era was in 1912 in a film that bears the name of the character.
Ten years later, actor Douglas Fairbanks brought Hood back to life, though the most celebrated version of classic Hollywood came in 1937 from Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in a swashbuckling film that became a bombshell of the time.
We had to wait almost 40 years to see the goalkeeper on the big screen again. In 1973 Disney released the version of the story in which Robin was a cunning cartoon fox. Three years later we witness a more romantic take on the legend in ‘Robin and Marian’ in which Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn brought the title characters to life.
In the 1990s, in addition to the Costner version, we also had a more modest adaptation with Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman leading the cast. Finally, in the past decade, we got two more. One directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and another with a more modern approach with Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx on the bill.
Robin Hood and his merry companions
The film that COSMO premiered was an absolute success for both critics and the public. The producers did not have them all with them before its premiere: in 1991 the character was almost forgotten after two decades without appearing in a film and many did not want to bet on her. They were obviously wrong.
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Leading the cast is Kevin Costner, who was jumping from success to success at the time. ‘The untouchables’, ‘Field of dreams’, ‘Dancing with wolves’ … the first nineties had an indisputable king.
To give life to Lady Marian, Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio was counted on, who came to leave her stamp of quality on films such as ‘Scarface’, ‘The Abyss’ or ‘The color of money’.
Playing Azeem, the friend that Robin brings from the Crusades, we have a Morgan Freeman who despite being a veteran at the time, had just experienced his first big successes on the big screen thanks to films like ‘Walking Miss Daisy’ or ‘The bonfire of the vanities’.
Sean Connery’s cameo is no accident, but a nod to his participation in ‘Robin and Marian’ two decades ago. In this version he appears briefly giving life to King Richard the Heart of Len.
A villain to match
The role of the bad guy is for the unforgettable Alan Rickman. At that time he was only known for playing another villain, Hans Gruber from ‘The Crystal Jungle’, which by the way was his first major role on the big screen.
At first Rickman rejected the role of Sheriff of Nottingham because he feared that he would be pigeonholed forever in the role of the baddie of the movie. He finally agreed when director Kevin Reynolds promised he could improvise the character to his liking. And that’s palpable on tape, as Rickman seems to have fun delivering every line.
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‘Robin Hood, prince of thieves’ fueled the career of the Briton who would later feature in such classics as’ Love Actually’, ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (also in COSMO), ‘Perfume’, ‘Alice in Wonderland ‘and above all, the Harry Potter saga, in which Rickman gave life to one of his most remembered characters, the mysterious Severus Snape.
Unfortunately, the actor passed away in 2016 due to pancreatic cancer at the age of 69.
(Everything I do, I do it for you
The soundtrack also helped raise the quality of the tape. Among the songs that accompanied Robin and his merry crew was this ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’ by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams.
The subject reached number one on the sales charts in no less than 30 countries, staying there for months. It even had a Spanish version performed by the Argentine singer Adrin Barilari.
Saturday, January 30 at 15:15
Sunday, January 31 at 11:05 p.m.
Saturday, February 6 at 08:15
Sunday, February 28 at 6:55 p.m.
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Manuel Varela
Web writer
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