REVIEW: The Death Of Robin Hood grimly gets there in the end

Robin Hood, it turns out, really wasn’t terribly nice. Forget the Merry Men bit. Forget the tales of cheerily robbing the rich to give to the poor.

He was, in fact – or at least according to director Michael Sarnoski in this grimly forbidding new take on the legend – a murderous brigand who took whatever he wanted but only ever for himself.

Even worse, he slaughtered anyone who crossed his path. Why, he’s got his very own personal graveyard starting to sprawl nicely out in the wildnerness where he is spending his final years in a state of grumpy exhaustion.

But suddenly, worn out and spiritually lost, he starts to grow just the glimmer of a conscience.

Dressed more like a character out of The Lord of The Rings and in dire need of a bath, he teams up with his old mate Little John for one last bit of right-minded butchery – an attack which leaves Robin Hood himself seriously injured, the point at which Little John carts him off to an island priory for a bit of long-overdue R & R.

It’s a grim and dark opening half an hour, relentlessly violent with barely a word audible – a nightmare world of muttering and slaughter.

But all that slowly changes once Robin regains consciousness on the island, waking up in the presence of the supremely humane prioress (Jodie Comer). And that’s when the film finally gets going, telling a beautiful tale of redemption and forgiveness, their fates intersecting, their pasts converging.

Finally Robin starts to sense something higher. Hugh Jackman gives us a gruff and brutal Robin Hood divorced from all our notions of the legend, but slowly he shows something breaking through – even as the past threatens to resurface.

A film which started with ghastly violence drifts towards gentleness, kindness and grace. You’d never actually say it is gripping, but it’s certainly interesting and thought-provoking – a look at the possibility of salvation where it is least deserved.