Reception
Critics gave the film mixed reviews. Roger Ebert praised Freeman's performance as well as Rickman's, but ultimately decried the film as a whole, giving it two stars and stating, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a murky, unfocused, violent, and depressing version of the classic story...The most depressing thing about the movie is that children will attend it expecting to have a good time." The New York Times gave the film a less than glowing review. The Los Angeles Times found the movie unsatisfactory as well. Costner was criticised for not attempting an English accent, even though Alan Rickman, himself, said (in a contemporaneous interview on Arsenio Hall's talk show) that 20th-century colloquial American was a lot closer to 12th-century Anglo-Saxon than modern British English.
On the DVD commentary for ITV's Robin of Sherwood television series, which ran from 1983 to 1986, writer and creator Richard Carpenter explains that the stunt co-ordinator from the Robin of Sherwood series, Terry Walsh, was hired on to do stunt work for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. While on set, Walsh noticed that there was a Saracen assassin character named Nasir in the film. That character was a creation of Carpenter and is exclusive to the Robin of Sherwood series. Once the creators of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves realized there was potential copyright infringement, they changed the character's name from Nasir to Azeem. Carpenter also explains that Costner and others involved in the film have admitted to watching Robin of Sherwood as inspiration for their film.
Media studies professor Jack Shaheen included the film among his "Best" list in his book Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People, praising the portrayal of Azeem as a heroic, learned, and noble man.
Read more about this topic: Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)
“To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)