I spent most of last night at the Broadway for a double feature because I missed a few movies that I really wanted to see while I was out of town. I began with The Death of Robin Hood and it is definitely my jam. Despite all of the stories that have turned him into a folk hero, the outlaw Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman) is tormented by a lifetime filled with violence and is living in self-imposed exile to escape those seeking vengeance against him. He agrees to help fellow outlaw Little John (Bill Skarsgard) fight a clan who has taken his wife and daughter hostage so that he can die in battle but he is severely wounded, instead. John takes him to a Priory on a remote island to be healed by Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) and he begins to find a measure of peace through his interactions with her, a leper (Murray Bartlett) who works as a caretaker on the island, and John's daughter Little Margaret (Faith Delaney). However, his past eventually catches up with him in the form of Godwyn (Noah Jupe), the sole-surviving member of the clan slaughtered by Robin and John, and he is finally forced to reconcile everything he has done. The movie begins with several bloody and brutal action sequences involving medieval warfare that establish Robin Hood as a villain but then it turns into a more contemplative character study as he deals with the consequences of his actions with a conclusion that I found very powerful. I loved the themes of vengeance, forgiveness, redemption, and legacy, especially in the scenes when Robin convinces Godwyn to abandon his quest as well as when Robin perpetuates the myth to spare Margaret from learning the truth about her father. The cinematography, which uses lots of desaturated blues and grays, is incredibly bleak but strangely beautiful and I was really struck by the change in aspect ratio because it becomes almost claustrophobic on the island to represent Robin's inability to hide from his actions. All of the performances are outstanding but Jackman is particularly haunting because he conveys a lifetime of regret with just his eyes and body language. This will not be for everyone (some may be put off by the violence in the first act and others may find the pace of the second and third acts to be too slow) but I always love flawed characters who find redemption and I really appreciated the subversive take on a well-known character.
