Robin Hood Movies Ranked By Me, An Outlaw
9. Robin Hood, with Taron Egerton (2018, dir. Bathurst)
:(
8. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, with Kevin Costner (1991, dir. Reynolds)
Its fine. Suffers from casting Alan Rickman as the sheriff—Kevin can’t quite conjure up enough charisma to match him.
7. Robin Hood, with Jonas Armstrong (BBC One series, 2006–2009)
6.Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood with David Warbeck (1969, dir. Hough)
The editing is horrible and I wouldn’t change anything about it. It’s short (about 50 minutes) and feels like half of a longer movie—there’s a lot that’s set up but not resolved. It also goes hard on the Saxon vs. Norman Race War bullshit (get ready for a doozy of an opening narration). However, it’s one of the only adaptations I’ve seen that doesn’t give Robin a nobility or gentry background, it gets bonus points for being set in Barnsdale forest, and it does a nice job pointing out institutional pressures and complexities among its villains rather than just One Evil Guy With One Evil Friend.
5. Robin Hood: Men in Tights, with Cary Elwes (1993, dir. Brooks)
4. Robin Hood, with Patrick Bergin (1991, dir. Irvin)
This one was produced in the UK came out the same year as the Kevin Costner one, which is why you’ve never heard of it. Like most of the British projects on this list, it makes strong attempts at historical and legal accuracy, and the first half of the plot features one of my favorite medieval literary tropes: Two Men Spatting Over Petty Shit. That whole conflict gets dropped in the second half in favor of a Maid Marian plot, but it’s Uma Thurman so who’s complaining?
3. The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn (1938, dir. Curtiz and Keighley)
Everyone’s favorite and for good reason. Can’t be beat for sheer Technicolor joy, which is almost enough to make me forgive it for staring the “Saxon vs. Norman Race War nonsense” in the film tradition (the actual trope is at least as old as Scott’s Ivanhoe but to my knowledge this is the first film to lean on it).
2. Robin Hood, the animated fox one (1973, dir. Reitherman)
It’s probably the first Robin Hood movie you watched, you had a crush on fox Robin, and “The Phony King of England” is a banger. Avoids the deadly “Saxon vs. Norman Race War” trap, which earns it second place over Errol.
1. Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (1922, dir. Dwan)
A silent film, and SO much fun—all of the swashbuckling and shenanigans and a narrative that still feels fresh after 100 years.