I liked the cinematography -- this film was a visual feast, a joy to look at. The framing and movement of the camera in both quiet, emotional scenes and action scenes, nearly moved me to tears with its beauty. Virtually every frame of this film would be quite at home hanging in an art gallery, the visuals had an astoundingly beautiful, 'painterly' feel to them. Scott mentioned being influenced by Akira Kurosawa on the commentary track of the 'Gladiator' DVD, and as I feasted on the sumptuous visuals in this film, I thought, "…Kurosawa...", even though I've never seen any of his films before.
The dialogue was quite interesting, although some of it was lost on me, as my brain struggled to enter 'film-mode' and acclimatize to the various accents, at the beginning of the film. I watched Scott's two previous films, 'American Gangster' and 'Body of Lies', which were also scored by Marc Streitenfeld but, I don't recall hearing any score in the former and nothing jumped at me in the latter, but Streitenfeld knocked one out of the ball park here. I didn't understand why Scott kept hiring him, but I'm a convert now. In the action sequences the score was so beautifully rousing, I felt as though I was going to leap out of my chair and yell "Yes!" And in the dialogue scenes, for example, the scene where Marion (Cate Blanchett) takes Robin (Russell Crowe) on a tour of Walter Loxley's land on horseback, the score had a beautifully subtle, flowery and somewhat evasive melody, such that I thought I was going to levitate. The theme used in that scene, which quite annoyingly, isn't on the official release of the score, is a gem. Perhaps it's not an original composition, but whatever the reason, it's a gem.
The delectable Cate Blanchett had, to quote a remark by Ridley Scott, a "regal sexuality". I thought her character mirrored, on some level, that of Connie Nielsen in 'Gladiator'. The relationship between Walter (Max Von Sydow) and Robin (Russell Crowe), mirrored that of Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) and Maximus (Crowe) in 'Gladiator'. Seeing mutual admiration amongst men and the protagonist/hero interacting with a father-like figure has a certain je ne sais quoi. Not having had a father in my formative years, perhaps it's something I wish I'd had, but I digress. I wonder what these similarities with 'Gladiator' mean, if anything. Brian Helgeland is a force to be reckoned with, I haven't seen much of his work, but I've enjoyed what I've seen thus far. A Knight's Tale, Pay Back, Man On Fire and now this -- wow. A scribe-cum-director par excellence.
When I first heard that there was going to be a Robin Hood movie, I thought, "We don't need another Robin Hood movie, it's been done to death!", but this is definitely worth a look. It's vastly better than the one with Kevin Costner.
