1991’sRobin Hood: Prince of Thievesis best remembered for two of its performances.Kevin Costnerwas famously ridiculed for his lack of an English accent, butAlan Rickman’s wildly eccentric take on the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham drew praise from even the film’s most scathing critics. Rickman added something new to a role that had been depicted countless times before, lampooning the tired nature of the story with a brilliantly self-aware performance.
The Sheriff of Nottingham has appeared in virtuallyevery Robin Hood adaptationsince the timeless 1938 classicThe Adventures of Robin Hood, and it’s not exactly a complex role. The Sheriff wants to bring the hooded hero to justice, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves doesn’t deviate from any of the core tropes of the story. Rickman wasn’t given a whole lot to work with, so he played everything to the extreme, taking pleasure in each venomous threat and not ever attempting to be a real person. This was completely necessary, as there’s not much depth to the one-dimensional character. Instead of trying to force a tragic backstory or hint at any underlying motivations beyond pure evil, Rickman chews the scenery with droll energy. A threat like “I will personally remove your lying tongue” delivered to Will Scarlett (Christian Slater) may have initially been written to be menacing, but Rickman’s delivery makes it comically over-the-top.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Robin Hood decides to fight back as an outlaw when faced with the tyranny of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Alan Rickman Added Lines for ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’
Unsurprisingly, Alan Rickman had a lot to do with the dialogue itself. AfterRickman famously lamented to his friends in the theater circuitthat the screenplay was terrible, Rickman decided to liven it up by adding his own lines to spice up the material.Many of the Sheriff’s best threatsand put-downs came from Rickman directly, including the famous retort “Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas!”
It wasn’t just that Rickman was playing for camp, but he pointed out the tired mythology. It’s hilarious watching the Sheriff attempt to explain Robin Hood’s appeal, ponderously musing as to how he’s disrupted his operation of Nottingham. “Robin Hood steals money from my pocket, forcing me to hurt the public,” he proclaims. “They love him for it?” His confusion is priceless.
The Sheriff and Robin don’t actually trade blows until the film’s final moments, so for the most part, Rickman is left on his own in Nottingham Castle concocting villainous schemes. It’s structured so that watching Rickman conceive of a strategy should add tension to the scenes of Robin gaining allies, but they end up playing for laughs as the Sheriff watches all of his tactics crumble. The Sheriff dispatches forces to Robin’s family home in Locksley Castle, and then the next moment his supply lines are raided. Rickman can only hilariously react to his own incompetence, driving him to make more outrageous threats like his assertion that he’ll cut out Robin’s heart with a spoon (a detail that he extends for several more jokes).
Alan Rickman’s Co-Stars Weren’t Aware That He Was Adding to the Script
Alan Rickman said that directorKevin Reynoldswas the only person who knew about his additions to the script, allowing his co-stars to react authentically. The amount of new dialogue was significant enough that it sparked friction within the production, with Costner famously asking for Rickman’s role to be diminished, as he feared his title character wasbeing overshadowed in his own movie. Viewers brave enough to explore the 155-minute extended cut released in 2009 will discover even more snappy lines from the Sheriff that were initially left on the cutting room floor.
The film’s conclusion in which Rickman and Costner duel once the latter arrives to rescue Maid Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) is the least interesting part of the film. At this point, the rescue and subsequent battle for Nottingham Castle can only play out as expected, and Rickman has to engage in the actual story and not be left to his own devices. He’s a fairly impressive swordsman and the sword fight is fun, but it lacks the energy of the standalone moments save forhis gloriously hammy death.
Alan Rickman Made ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’ a Better Movie
Inserting a satirical character within a film that played everything else completely straight ended up being more successful than an outright parody.Mel Brooks’ 1993 filmRobin Hood: Men in Tightsprimarily targetedPrince of Thieves, but other than recognizing some of the chief complaints it contained very few clever jokes. There’s not much new to say about a story most viewers know by heart, and prolonging that doesn’t justify an entirely comedic reimagining. Rickman created contrast within the film itself, and it’s hard to watch any of the overlong sequences of Costner andMorgan Freeman’s Azeem Edin Bashir Al Bakir trudging through the English landscape without yearning for the energy of the Sheriff scenes.
Just asErrol Flynncreated a gold standard that later Robin Hood actors would desperately try to emulate, subsequent attempts at depicting the Sheriff were caught in Rickman’s shadow.Ridley Scott’s 2010Robin Hoodwas initially conceived of as a reimagining from the Sheriff’s perspective, but the eventual film reverted to a more familiar take withMatthew Macfaydenin the role. The 2018Robin Hoodtries to exist in the mold of a superhero origin story, andBen Mendelsohn’s performance awkwardly attempts to combine a tragic backstory referencing childhood abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church with more exaggerated hamminess inspired by Rickman’s interpretation. Even if it’s the most interesting thing in the film, it feels stale considering how similar the role is to Mendelsohn’s performances inRogue One: A Star Wars StoryandReady Player One.
Robin Hood ranks alongside Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and the Three Musketeers as one of the most frequently adapted fictional stories, and since it exists in the public domain, there will be more Robin Hood movies coming, as Disney announced recently that a reimagining ofthe 1973 animated filmwas in the works at Disney+. While future adaptations may attempt to create distinguishing factors, Alan Rickman’s creativity was the last time the story felt fresh. Rickman has given a lot of great performances in classic films and it’s just as remarkable that he was able to save a bad one.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thievesis available to buy on Prime Video in the U.S.
