Robin Hood (1922)
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Robin Hood Movie Review
Robin Hood is a 1922 silent adventure film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Douglas Fairbanks and Wallace Beery. It’s an uneven, but wildly appealing and charming flick.
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“Each day do loyal men rally to our cause.
‘Twill not be long ere we storm the very castle itself“
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A nobleman becomes the vigilante Robin Hood who protects the oppressed English people from the tyrannical Prince John. The very first movie to premiere in Hollywood itself, 1922’s Robin Hood is a historic picture in a couple of other regards too. It was the highest-grossing film of the year and the first truly epic and accomplished entry in the Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckling canon.
The film also aged like fine wine and is almost as enjoyable now as it was back then. It’s certainly one of the better adventure films from this very lucrative period for that genre. While I did appreciate this picture for all of its merits, I still find Errol Flynn’s ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ to be the better and the definitive version of this oft-adapted tale.
My prime issue with this adaptation is that it is missing some of the most iconic elements found in other versions. Gone is the famous arching tournament plot point for example. As a result of these famous sequences missing here, the first half ended up being rather uninteresting and overly uneventful. There is this very prolonged emphasis on sending letters between the characters that was too literary for the cinematic medium, rendering the aforementioned half inferior to the second one.
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But the second half fixed all of those issues by delivering on the epic spectacle of swashbuckling that you’d come to expect from this actor. Douglas Fairbanks is truly incredible in this movie. He jumps around, fights many opponents all the while being dashing and highly charismatic. He had been born to play these types of roles and here he showed his full potential.
Unfortunately, others failed to impress as much as he did. Well, with the exception of Wallace Beery himself, who was terrific as Richard the Lion-Hearted. The dynamic between the two is superb and it was great seeing Beery excel in such an early role. But Sam De Grasse and Enid Bennett as Prince John and Lady Marian were just serviceable and it was odd that Marian got such a small role here. As for the Merry Men, they jump around too much in this version, resembling children in a way. That was very cute at first, but their hijinks got old pretty quickly.
But this Robin Hood features a phenomenal third act full of exciting action set pieces. The adventurous elements are top-notch and the scenes in the forest are my favorites as they were gorgeously shot and composed. The cinematography is fantastic for the time while the production design takes the cake as the best of the entire year. This is where most of that enormous budget went toward and the results are outstanding.
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The score in the version that I watched on YouTube was also very charming and quite timeless. The dialogue is suitably not too sparse nor too overstuffed. The costumes are gorgeous and fitting the time period well while the flamboyance to the whole proceedings actually worked in the movie’s favor as it made it more endearing. The editing is also surprisingly good for an early silent feature. I just wish that the first half was more engaging.
1922’s Robin Hood lacks some of the signature plot points found in earlier versions, such as the arching tournament. The first half is, thus, not as interesting as the second one as it was at times uneventful. But the latter half is where most of the best action set pieces are and here the film soared as a true swashbuckling spectacle. Douglas Fairbanks was fittingly outstanding in the main role. This was the most expensive movie made until then and that shows in every frame as the lavish costumes and sets are fantastic.
My Rating – 4
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