Robin and Marian

Plot synopsis:
An aging Robin Hood (Sean Connery) is a trusted captain fighting for King Richard the Lionheart (Harris) in France, the Crusades long over. Richard orders him to take a castle that is rumored to hold a gold statue. Discovering that it is defended by a solitary, one-eyed old man (Esmond Knight) who is sheltering harmless women and children, and convinced that there is no statue, Robin and his right-hand man, Little John (Nicol Williamson), refuse to attack. King Richard (Richard Harris), angry at their insubordination, orders the pair's execution, but before his orders can be carried out, he is mortally wounded by an arrow thrown by the old man. Richard has the helpless residents massacred, with the exception of the old man, because Richard likes his eye; it also turns out that there never was a gold statue. The King offers to let Robin beg for his life. When Robin refuses, Richard draws his sword, but lacks the strength to strike him and falls to the floor. Robin helps him, and moved by his loyalty, with his last words, Richard frees Robin and Little John.
After Richard's death, Robin and Little John return to England and are reunited with old friends Will Scarlet (Denholm Elliott) and Friar Tuck (Ronnie Barker) in Sherwood Forest. When Robin casually inquires about Maid Marian (Audrey Hepburn), they tell him she has become an abbess. When he goes to see her, she finds him as impossible as ever. He learns that his old nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Robert Shaw), has ordered her arrest in response to the King's order to expel senior leaders of the Roman Catholic Church from England. Marian wants no trouble, but Robin rescues her against her will, injuring Sir Ranulf (Kenneth Haigh), the Sheriff's arrogant guest, in the process. Ignoring the Sheriff's warnings, Sir Ranulf pursues Robin into the forest. His men are ambushed and devastated by arrows; Sir Ranulf is left unharmed only because Robin orders him spared. When the news of Robin's return spreads, old comrades and new recruits rally once more to him. Sir Ranulf asks King John (Ian Holm) for 200 soldiers to deal with Robin.
The Sheriff waits in the open fields beyond the Forest, knowing Robin will attack. When Robin does, he proposes that he and the Sheriff duel to settle the issue, despite the protests of Sir Ranulf. Despite Robin appearing to have superior skills at the start of the fight, it soon becomes clear that the Sheriff is surprisingly in fact far superior to Robin, and more than a match for Robin. More agile and resistant, the Sheriff begins dominating Robin in the fight. Eventually the Sheriff has the wounded Robin at his mercy and demands his surrender. Refusing, Robin manages to kill the Sheriff with the last of his strength. Led by Sir Ranulf, the soldiers attack and scatter Robin's ragtag band, many of whom are captured or killed. Little John swiftly kills Sir Ranulf. Then he and Marian take Robin to her abbey, where she keeps her medicine.
Robin believes he will recover to win future battles. Little John stands guard outside while Marian tends to Robin's wounds. Marian prepares a draft and takes a drink of it herself before giving it to Robin. He drinks the medicine and notes that the pain has gone away and his legs have gone numb. Then, realizing that she has poisoned them both, he cries out for Little John. However, he comes to understand that Marian has acted out of love because he would never be the same man again. She tells him:
I love you. More than all you know. I love you more than children. More than fields I've planted with my hands. I love you more than morning prayers or peace or food to eat. I love you more than sunlight, more than flesh or joy, or one more day. I love you...more than God.
Robin and Marian try to touch each other's hands as Little John crashes through the door and weeps at Robin's bedside. Robin asks Little John for his bow and shoots an arrow from his deathbed through the open window, and tells him to bury them both where it lands. The arrow soars out of the window into the distance, while decaying apples next to the same window are seen.

Tags: tragedy, violence, action, murder, historical fiction

Review:
Audiences brought up on "The Adventures of Robin Hood" simply could not accept seeing these two beautiful star-crossed lovers ravaged by time, even if they were portrayed by the likes of Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn.However like the Flynn film, "Robin and Marian" boasts a superb cast.
When Marian asks Robin why he followed Richard during all the years of terrible carnage, Connery sums up his life with a simplicity that is breathtaking; "He was my King..." The film is wonderfully elegiac and the melancholic sense of time irretrievably lost is heartrending.
I would take one of these any day than a bad remake like Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.Sean Connery is great as a weary Robing Hood back from the crusades who suddenly is rejeunivated when he meets up with Marian and the Sheriff of Nottingham.Robert Shaw is as usual, perfect in his role as the sheriff.
You love to hate him.Nicol Williamson is a very good Little John, who is Robin's constant companion.Richard Harris is perfect as malevolent King Richard.Of course only Audrey Hepburn's Marian could play opposite Connery's Robin without coming off as slight.
The supporting cast is a virtual Who's Who of fine British character actors of the time, but Robert Shaw stands out as the most menacing Sheriff Of Nottingham on film.There is much in this film that is immensely touching, especially when Robin and Marian start resuming their romance which supposedly ended 18 years previously.
The film picks up the Robin Hood legend some twenty years after with Robin and his sidekick Little John return to their old Sherwood Forest embittered by King Richard, by the Crusades and their sickening brutality They're informed by former friends Friar Tuck and Will that the lovely Maid Marian now lives nearby, where she has become the abbess And the sheriff is as powerful as ever and rules the country Marian greets Robin's return with mixed feelings, and tells him that, in the passed two decades, she worked hard studying herbs and medicines, and she loves her life and she won't give it up Of course, after the return of Robin, Marian could not imagine herself living in the world again, or even wanting to But after he rescues her from his long time enemy, the Sheriff of Nottingham, who tries to arrest her on religious grounds, the two become lovers once again As Robin, Connery is a little bit in love with death He flirts, he teases, he challenges his strong enemy to a single combat to the death...
Sherwood forest 20 years later , Robin Hood (Sean Connery , he was the oldest actor to play him up to that point) along with Little John (Nicol Williamson) , aging none too gracefully , return exhausted from the Crusades , a land of mud and grime .
However, after his close friend, actor Roy Kinnear died during the shooting , Lester seemed to lose heart with the movie-making business , he has not directed another film.Other versions about this famous personage are the followings : ¨Robin Hood price of thieves (1991) ¨ by Kevin Reynolds with Kevin Costner , Alan Rickman and Morgan Freenan , the same year was exhibited ¨Robin Hood¨ by John Irvin with Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman but was a flop though the critics considered best adaptation .
It's a shame, because ROBIN AND MARIAN manages to open up the legend in fascinating ways while still showing a great deal of affection for Robin Hood and the heroic vision that so many, both in the 13th century and today, need to believe in.Still, great jobs by Connery, Hepburn (truly the template for a beautiful mature woman), Williamson, Shaw, Holm, Barker, Elliot, Harris and the rest of the actors.
Robin Hood (played in a straightforward manner by Sean Connery) is still battling the Sheriff of Nottingham, and he's loved again by Maid Marian, who has since become an abbess.
Robert Shaw plays the Sheriff in a vile-spewing manner, with death to all; he's well cast, and his final battle with Connery (his nemesis in "From Russia with Love") is staged for a rousing effect, yet by this point the movie has pretty much imploded.
In fact that part of the story is where we begin with Sean Connery and Nicol Williamson as Robin Hood and Little John with Richard I after he died of blood poisoning from a wound taken besieging a castle.Remember the bloodthirsty Anthony Hopkins as Prince Richard in The Lion in Winter?
Harris gives a remarkable performance, the best in the film.Anyway after his death in the French part of the Plantagenet empire, Connery and Williamson return and find Audrey Hepburn as Maid Marian having taken the vows.
Their love now has the maturity of an old couple, and there is no denying there is real chemistry between Connery and Hepburn, which allows the characters to rise above the material.The Sheriff is played by Robert Shaw, resuming his adversarial role against Connery that commenced in the 1963 Bond film "From Russia with Love." Shaw is grim, but sympathetic, as the Sheriff of Nottingham, and is the best Sheriff of any Robin Hood film."Robin and Marian" is a fun film.
This is about as gruesome as the filmmakers could get considering the PG rating (this was before PG-13 was created).Unlike the most recent Hollywood Robin Hood film, this one doesn't pretend so much to be historically accurate, so I won't complain about historical inaccuracies such as Kings Richard and John speaking English, rather than French, or Robin Hood speaking in a thick Scottish accent.Movie connections: Sean Connery would go on to play King Richard in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," as well as appear with Ian Holm in "Time Bandits"--another film with the Robin Hood character.
Audrey and Sean and good, and you will like them as they are the sole positive thing about this film, but the ending is so incredibly WRONG both for the part of Marian and for the Story as a whole that it ends on a note so BAD that what little good is sadly wiped away.I give it a 5, and that is begrudgingly for the few decent moments..
Robin returns from the Crusades to England after King Richard's death just in time to see the Sheriff of Nottingham come to arrest Marian.
I was about to say that you'd never in a million years get a Hollywood Studio today to make a movie about Robin Hood, Little John and Maid Marian in late middle age, twenty years after their youthful adventures, but then I thought, "Oh, no, you'd still sell it - it's got Sean Connery attached!" Not far short of thirty years on, he has scarcely changed in the interim and could easily take the same part at the age of 73.
In the scene when he first meets Robin after the latter's return from the wars, he makes it clear that he has to take Marian, but he says, "God go with you."  Nowadays, it's almost shocking to see Robin almost casually killing the guards who have been sent to attack him, but then Shaw's Sheriff views the dead bodies and gives them their due as soldiers: "Take up their limbs and bury them."  Shaw does most of his acting with his eyes, and you can see the whole life of regret, valueless death and his own lost advancement, in them.The love story is beautifully handled, but it has to be said that the chief and most memorable relationship in the movie is that between Robin and Little John.The opening of the movie is something else that would never survive a modern cut: an entire sequence set at the time of the crusades with an incredible cameo by Richard Harris as his namesake, the Lionheart, along with other British stalwarts like Esmond Knight, Bill Maynard and Peter Butterworth.
Check this out for a cast :Sean Connery - Scotland's greatest ever movie star Audrey Hepburn - An iconic actress Nicol Williamson - Many critics choice as Scotland's greatest ever actorRobert Shaw - Perhaps one of cinema's most overlooked actors when it comes to playing convincing bad guys Richard Harris - Another screen legend Ian Holm - In an early screen role .
If I remember correctly this is something that spoiled his collabarition with Connery in CUBA , another movie that mixes action and romance with slight off beat humour Having pointed out these criticisms there's nothing much else wrong with ROBIN AND MARION , it's just that when you've got a bunch of butch men in a forest who dabble in swordplay in 2004 you're instantly reminded in some small way of a certain film trilogy that was released at the turn of the century which does spoil the positive aspects of this movie when watching it today .
Put Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Richard Harris, Ian Holme, Robert Shaw, Nicol Williamson, and Denholm Elliott together in a film about Robin Hood and you've got a winner, right?
I love Richard Lester's films - I love Audrey Hepburn - I like Sean Connery,Nicol Williamson, Ronnie Barker, Denholm Elliott, Robert Shaw and Richard Harris.
I'm not going to say that this is exactly the type of movie that I constantly want to see, but when I get the chance to watch a movie with famous actors like Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw and Richard Harris, I'll certainly not let it pass without watching it.As I already said in the previous paragraph, this movie tells the story of Robin Hood and Lady Marian.
Robin Hood is an old man when he returns with his best friend Little John to England after the crusades and Marian has become a nun.
Sean Connery is a very worthy Robin Hood, Audrey Hepburn did an excellent job with her role as Maid Marian and Robert Shaw was very nice to watch as the Sheriff of Nothingham.As a conclusion I would like to add that all the fans of the Robin Hood movies who aren't afraid to see their hero as an old man, should give this movie a try.
Aging Robin Hood (Sean Connery) and Little John (Nicol Williamson) return home to England after twenty years fighting in the Crusades.
Robin Hood (Sean Connery) and Little John (Nicol Williamson) are searching for a treasure for King Richard the Lionheart (Richard Harris).
Connery and Hepburn are outstanding in this wonderful telling of the last days of Robin Hood and his final Showdown with the disillusioned Sheriff of Nottingham (brilliantly played by Robert Shaw in one of his last roles.) Richard Harris is memorable in the opening scenes as the dying and driven King Richard Coer de Lion,finally an acurate portrayal of the bloodthirsty king!
Despite its stellar cast, this is clearly a product of 1970s film-making, when even a tale of the legendary childhood hero has to have a gritty, realistic approach with a downbeat ending.Younger viewers are saying things like "if you liked the Kevin Costner version, you won't like this." They ought to start their point of reference with the 1938 classic starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains instead, because that is the definitive version of the Robin Hood legend and this film in no way is a fitting sequel to that sort of storytelling.Instead of calling itself ROBIN AND MARIAN, deceptively luring lovers of the old legend to see the film, it should have been titled something more appropriately dealing with two bittersweet, faded lovers who bear no resemblance to the legendary outlaw and his lady love.
And the supporting cast are particularly fine: Robert Shaw is the Sheriff, battling Connery again years on from From Russia with Love; Nicol Williamson is an imposing Little John; Denholm Elliott and Ronnie Barker make up the Merry Men; Richard Harris is Richard the Lionheart; Ian Holm Prince John, and there's a brief but wonderful cameo from Peter Butterworth in the opening scenes.The action scenes are over the top and rather silly, as in THE THREE MUSKETEERS, but the script is better.
The characters are the same but the great catch here is that they're middle aged now and almost powerless, starting to lose strength and many other skills, and even becoming more philosophical and having more ethical feelings.Sean Connery plays an middle aged Robin Hood who after 20 years fighting in the Crusades and the death of the insane King (Richard Harris) decides, along with his friend Little John (Nicol Williamson) to return to the forest of Sherwood to rejoin Lady Marian (Audrey Hepburn) and marry with her.
The last picture is one of the most beautiful ideas of the cinema of the seventies.Richard Lester ,a director the Beatles' lovers know well,found the perfect way to tell his audience that legendary hearts are still living ,their hearts are still beating.It was Audrey Hepburn's comeback (almost 10 years after the suspenseful "wait until dark" which earned her an AA nomination) and we can consider it her swansong ,unless the disastrous " Bloodline" and the five-minute presence in Spielberg's "Always" count.And it is a wonderful swansong:Audrey Hepburn is no longer the young maid portrayed by Olivia De Havilland in Curtiz's classic ;she has become a nun .The same goes for Connery's Robin who is no longer a dashing Errol Flynn but a faded jaded hero.Both actors are superb but they are matched every step of the way by Robert Shaw as the sheriff.Richard Lester had renewed the hackneyed subject of Dumas' three musketeers ;he did the same for Robin Hood..
Connery is an ageing Robin, returning to England from the crusades with all-weather companion Little John (Williamson) in toe, ready to re-kindle his romance with Marian (Hepburn) now living as a nun.
Connery is superb as a perpetually immature Robin; Hepburn lovely and believable as the nun by default; Williamson brilliant in one of his finest roles and worth seeing if only for the line "If I'd not met you..."; Shaw shines as the Sheriff; while Ian Holm raises the quality of any film.
One of the best love films ever made, with two of the best and good-looking actor and actress in the history of cinema, Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn.
Very good film -- interesting love story about Robin Hood and Maid Marian in their later (for the time, anyway) years.
Even if you aren't a fan of Robin Hood movies or are just burnt out on them, I encourage you to see Robin and Marian (1976), simply to see the elegance of the beautiful graceful Audrey Hepburn and the charasmatic noble Sean Connery work together..
This movie provides an opportunity to view what it would be like seeing Robin Hood and the love of his life - Maid Marian toward the end of their lives.
Richard Harris is energetic in the role of Richard, and it is interesting to see a darker portrayal of the character.Sean Connery plays Robin Hood, now past his prime and trying to return to his old life.
Almost every Robin Hood movie ends with Richard the Lionheart returning to England and Robin the hero, set to live happily ever after with Maid Marian.
Aging Robin Hood returns back to Sherwood from the Crusades.Lady Marian, the woman Robin once loved and still does, has become an abbess.He wants to win back her love.The Sheriff of Nottingham is causing some trouble again.He wants to arrest Marian on religious grounds.Robin and Marian (1976) is a really nice Robin Hood adventure from Richard Lester.To see Sean Connery as Robin Hood and Audrey Hepburn as Marian really makes this movie worthwhile.Other actors also do their jobs very well.Robert Shaw is the Sheriff of Nottingham.Richard Harris plays Richard the Lionheart.Nicol Williamson plays Little John.Denholm Elliott is Will Scarlett.Friar Tuck is played by Ronnie Barker.Kenneth Haigh plays Sir Ranulf.Ian Holm plays the part of King John while Victoria Abril is Queen Isabella.In this movie both the romance and the adventure works.What this movie offers is not some puppy love of a couple of teenagers, but mature love of two people who have lived a little.The battle scene between Robin and the Sheriff is really something.The ending is...quite shocking.It's the kind of ending some people like and some people hate.I myself have a little mixed feelings on that.It's not really the ending I wanted to see, but I can accept it.Maybe it had to end that way, who knows..
Everyone is at the top of their game in the movie; Sean Connery at his wry, world-weary most heroic - Audrey Hepburn as the only woman on earth capable of being loved by such a figure; Robert Shaw, Nicole Williamson, and Richard Harris -- all wonderful in terrifically drawn characters.There's a beautiful, elegiac score by John Barry.
Of course, the storyline is obvious: Robin Hood (Sean Connery) fights with the Sheriff of Nottingham (Robert Shaw) to win back Maid Marian (Audrey Hepburn) and live happily ever after.
Sean Connery is excellent as the ageing hero Robin, a type of character that he would later revisit in the unofficial Bond film "Never Say Never Again", while Audrey Hepburn delivers a charming and wonderfully understated performance as Marian.
The storyline is very strong and the supporting cast is excellent, particularly Robert Shaw as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Richard Harris as Richard the Lionheart (who is depicted much more realistically than in any other Robin Hood film that I've seen) and Nicol Williamson as Little John.
The real focus of the film kicks in once the two return to England, after the death of King Richard.The movie's real strength, I think, is in its actors -- the thing is packed to the rim with fine actors the likes of Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Richard Harris, Denholm Elliot, Ronnie Barker, Robert Shaw, and more.
Basically this is set 20 years after most other versions of the story, Robin Hood (Sir Sean Connery) and all other merry men, including Little John (The Wind in the Willows' Nicol Williamson), Will Scarlett (Denholm Elliott ) and Friar Tuck (Ronnie Barker) are ageing, and have returned from the Crusades.