(Review originally written at 27 April 2005)
This movie is a real classic not in terms of greatness but more in terms of the entertainment value it has. The movie simply brings perfect swashbuckling entertainment and it is hard to believe at times that the movie was made in 1938, it still is great, spectacular and fun to watch these days.
The movie has a wonderful cast; Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains. Errol Flynn truly was THE biggest swashbuckler hero of all time, he fits every hero role he plays perfectly. Also Basil Rathbone was memorable in his role. He has got such a great charismatic look. Basil Rathbone is probably best known by most people as playing Sherlock Holmes in several movies.
The movie's setting is truly epic and has some great looking sets. Only troubling thing are the costumes. The colors of the costumes are so extremely bright that it almost looks ridicules. It's like they wanted to impress the audience by showing how bright they could bring colors to the big screen.
The musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is once more spectacular and memorable. He really was one of the greatest movie composers of all time! For this movie he received his second Academy Award. This movie further more received Acedemy Awards for its art direction and film editing. Truly the three right Oscar's that it deserved to win.
The action and sword-fights might look a bit simple and laughable at times but it still manages to impress at the right times. But seriously, why did they let the merry men keep on jumping on horses from tree's? It's almost like they put that stunt in every action scene the movie has.
The story is told in a good way and it doesn't waste any time on character introduction. We jump right into the action, without knowing exactly what Robin Hood's motivations are but still we immediately understand that he's the hero. Also the love story is handled nicely without ever getting over-the-top or unbelievable in any way.
Perfect fun entertainment, even for almost now 70 years later.
9/10
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This is one of my personal favorite movies of all time :)
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