For as long as I can remember, I’ve been captivated by the legends of Robin Hood. There are many reasons. I got to visit Sherwood at a young age, and it no doubt sprouted a plethora of adventures in my boyish imagination. He was a roguish, if good-natured, hero who faced off against the malevolent forces of the aristocracy with his friends and fought for the little guy. I’ve never tired of it.

Richard Lester has given us a great deal as moviegoers, and one of his most interesting forays was his string of Three Musketeers films during the 1970s. He continued in this trend with Robin and Marian. However, what’s immediately apparent is how it’s set apart from its Lincoln Green-clad brethren.

This tale is far more grounded in reality, and I must admit it initially made me uncomfortable. If you’ll pardon me, I felt the very same way with The Last Jedi and its tearing down of Star Wars’ accepted mythos. This iteration demystified the material and felt a bit unfamiliar compared to what I come to expect out of the milieu from Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner, or even Disney.

It’s as if this new decade has given the license for a more tangible world away from the annals of folklore. There’s the grime and the dirt you might find in Monty Python and The Holy Grail, much less in an opulent Technicolor confection of yore.

Sean Connery comes back from the Crusades as a much more mature and jaded Robin Hood in the service of an especially ornery King Richard (Richard Harris). He’s gray and balding, the shadow of the great hero we read about in our storybooks. But then again, perhaps those were all tall tales to begin with. It makes sense, but such a pragmatic thought rarely crosses our minds in youth.

Still, faithful Little John (Nicol Williamson) looks like a normal man, not some stout yeoman, and Will Scarlett, well, he’s portrayed by Denholm Elliot, hardly a strapping young buck. Of course, we realize that, and yet part of the allure of these stories is that we can watch them being lived out in front of us as fact.  Over time, as I came to accept what this movie was doing, a new kind of appreciation arose because there is a fresh vision at work.

Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn are introduced together on screen as the titular couple. She accepted his prolonged absence and took up a role as a woman of a cloth. When he returns with his regrets, she doesn’t feel the need to take him back because she’s moved on. She hasn’t been waiting around for her knight in shining armor. That is the stuff of fairy tales.

Robert Shaw more than fits the narrative as a surprisingly aloof Sheriff of Nottingham who seems content and resigned to the way things are. There are young upstarts in his service who want to eradicate the returning Robin Hood, but he knows all too well how such an undertaking will end.

He also knows that if he brings his regiments to the edge of Sherwood, Robin will feel compelled to meet them. He’s not one to resist such an invitation. They know each other well. You get a sense that if times were different, the two men could sit down together and share an ale to talk about all their war stories. Alas, King Richard is gone, and his brother Prince John (Ian Holm) is in power. He’s as impudent and awful as you remember him, though we only get a sniff.

Robin and the Sheriff face off not as bitter adversaries but as tacit opponents on opposite sides. They feel compelled to certain codes of conduct with a kind of grim inevitability. They hack away at each other in the ugliest duel you can imagine where the swords and chainmail feel authentically heavy, and the blood coagulates in ghastly wounds. It’s a David and Goliath battle, but not in the way you might expect. Instead, whoever wins between the two of them will win the war for their sides. Nothing more.

It’s not some grand adventure, and instead we watch our ailing protagonist take stock of his life and try to reinvigorate the lost love he regrets most of all. If there was nothing else to take away from the picture, we must at the very least dwell on the chemistry of the two stars. This alone is able to cover up any perceived reservations with the movie.

What we get is ultimately a tragic love story taking some creative license with one of Robin Hood’s final myths. Somehow it sears through us and still stays in line with everything propagated by the movie thus far. Don’t expect a rousing denouement but a resolution staying in line with the somber regret and self-reflection coursing through the entire picture. Part of me rails against this literalization of my folk heroes even as it provides a reality check and a way to reinterpret the tall tales. For me, the picture’s saving grace must be Audrey Hepburn and Sean Connery in that order.

She was absent from films for almost 10 years on her own terms, taking care of her family. And yet she returned in this picture with the same radiance, regal strength, and geniality that captured all our imaginations. I would say that time has been kinder to Robin and Marian than most, with the way it chooses to capture the Robin Hood archetype, and its cast is superb.

3.5/5 Stars