Popular Culture Review Vol. 3, No. 2, August 1992 | Page 43

Robin Hood*s
Pervading Faith
This paper was planned as an overview o f the characteristics
of American life today as they are hinted at in the reviews of the
sunrunertinte 1991 release Robin Hood; Prince of Thieves.
A film designed around such a popular legend and built itself
to be rewardingly popular, 1 hypothesized, could well cause
thoughtful viewers to compare and contrast the types of lives lived in
the middle ages and today. The ideas they developed might well
throw light on the culture in which we live, or at least on the nature
of that culture as it is perceived by movie critics. For want of a better
suggestion from me, the organizers of this conference called my talk
"Critics on Robin Hood."
But, now that 1 have read the reviews appearing in 23 of the
newspapers serving about half of the largest metropolitan areas in
the country, I find that my hopeful hypothesis was invalid. The
critics do not throw much light on American culture today, though
what they d^ write does address broad cultural considerations.
Other than the elements on which reviewers are expected to
comment, most of their articles do address another reality; most often
they call the film "politically correct." Bonnie Britton in T he
Indianapolis Star writes that the scriptwriters have "made some
politically correct revisions, creating a black sidekick of the
nobleman and turning Maid Marian into a feisty feminist." Candice
Russell in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel agrees that Marian's
"feisty feminist character is another departure that seems like a
concession to the perceived sensibilities of the audience." Daniel
Neman in The Richmond News Leader declaims, "This Robin Hood is
decidedly a man for the '90s, and not the 1190s. Maid Marian is feisty
and liberated; she is a dagger-packin' mama. Also, Robin makes
friends with a Moor named Azeem, played by dignified Morgan
Freeman. Azeem is a good and brave man, even though he is of a
different color and religion, and his people are far ahead of white
Europeans in matters of science and technology. Along with
everything else, this movie is politically correct." In the Charlotte
Observer Lawrence Toppman writes, "The introspective hero is
accompanied by a sage black healer . . . a no-nonsense, independent