Why does Robin Hood keep coming back
canada goose black friday sale Robin and his Merry Men may canada goose outlet online uk be mythical creatures, the stuff of bawdy, beer canada goose outlet in montreal spilling folk tales from about 1228 onwards, but they are the most sympathised with outlaws in history. canada goose black friday sale
Best known for stealing from the rich and giving canada goose outlet online store to the canada goose outlet official poor, Robin (depicted by some as a commoner, and others as the dispossessed Earl of Huntingdon) and his Merry Men (a group of “three score”, or 60, outlawed yeomen, according to an early source) have become symbols of justice against greed and tyranny.
Although mentioned in documents in the 13th and 14th Centuries, it is in handwritten, ballad style narratives of the 15th and 16th Centuries that he really takes shape.
canada goose clearance sale In these, most of what we recognise as the stuff of Robin Hood’s legend is already in place his affection for the lower orders, his brilliance as an archer, his suspicion canada goose outlet of clerics and sheriffs, his special respect for women (although Maid Marian, Robin’s well known love interest, does not appear in stories until later in the 16th Century). canada goose clearance sale
A heady mix of camaraderie, rebellion, rich bashing, living in the open air and a “will they/won’t they?” canada goose outlet london romance, it’s hardly surprising the story remains such powerful fictional fare, particularly on the silver screen.
buy canada goose jacket cheap The story received its first screen canada goose parka outlet treatment in 1912 with a silent version, followed, variously, by Errol Flynn’s technicolour romp, Disney’s anthropomorphic foxes, Mel Brooks’ comic take on the men in tights, and Kevin Costner’s po faced Robin whose thunder was comprehensively stolen by Alan Rickman’s scenery chewing Sheriff of Nottingham. buy canada goose jacket cheap
Now the wheels of the publicity machine are turning for the latest take, with newly released photos of Russell Crowe playing the green clad hero for Ridley Scott.
canada goose According to reports, it will be a gritty, historically accurate affair no men in tights, no wistful conversations around open fires, just an armour wearing, lightly bearded Crowe launching bow and arrow attacks on his ruthless enemies. canada goose
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The appeal of the story to Hollywood as an action romp, good v evil affair, is clear. But might there be more to it than that? Was Robin Hood also a proto socialist figure, even a very early one man version of the welfare state, whose theft from the rich and provision to the poor encapsulates a deeper human desire for equality?
Might that explain why, at a time of recession and widespread criticism of “greedy bankers”, it’s expected that we will lap up another film?
At the same time, the BBC’s Robin Hood is now in its third series.
canada goose coats And just as the new President of the United States has been renamed “Barack Robin Hood” by a leading American economist for his various bailout initiatives, the UK’s Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph depict Alistair Darling as the folk hero after he hiked the top tax rate in Wednesday’s budget. canada goose coats
“Robin Hood’s appeal arises from primal desires for justice and equity,” he says. “And though medieval in origins, this is a fantasy broad and deep enough to possess the imaginations of people in almost all times and places.”
uk canada goose outlet It’s telling that the legend really sky rocketed in the 16th and 17th Centuries an era of the “earliest capitalist enterprises”, says Prof Hahn amongst ordinary people who found new economic systems alien and oppressive. uk canada goose outlet
Canada Goose Outlet “Today, connecting Robin Hood to bailouts or demands for pay cuts [for the rich] draws upon the same suspicions and unease that his earliest readers and listeners felt about economic systems which, in far canada goose outlet store uk exceeding any common sense experience, seemed out of control, oppressive and threatening.”But name checking Robin Hood in debates about policy whether on social justice, welfare, tax rates or bailouts misses the essentially anarchic character of his legend. Canada Goose Outlet
“In the best retellings, Robin Hood almost always represents the opposite of ‘policy’ or rationalising our financial behaviour,” says Prof Hahn. Instead, it captures the low horizons gripping canada goose outlet edmonton us in this economic downturn.
canada goose factory sale “Characters like Robin Hood have existed across culture and history, fulfilling a need for the helpless and hopeless to believe that someone is on their side.” canada goose factory sale
Yet today’s Robin Hood style attack on bankers and fat cats is problematic, he says, because it can shut down serious debate about the recession, and super simplify issues in terms of “good” and “evil”.
Dr Julian Luxford, an expert on medieval writing at the University of St Andrews, also sounds a note of caution on the legend of Robin Hood. He recently caused a media storm www.canadagoosejacketsforcheap.com when he uncovered a document, from the 1460s or 1470s, which described a Robin Hood who “infested Sherwood” with “continuous robberies” suggesting he was not always so popular.
“Lack of provable historical status makes Robin Hood particularly malleable,” says Dr Luxford, “And different ages and canada goose outlet parka interests have fashioned their own Robin Hoods accordingly”.
Indeed, he points out that, even as Barack Obama and Russell Crowe play heroic Robin Hood roles, “a new novel, casting Robin as a brutal murderer, is soon to emerge”.