New Man in the Hood: Robin Hood, that is
A boy running through the woods, a naked teen girl sits up in bed, alert, and pulls the sheet to her chest (much like the Vanity Fair Miley Cyrus photo shoot), scores of helmeted men ride through the woods, then emerge from the sea, and finally the thumping music changes and we hear a fierce and horrible cry that comes from the mouth of Russel Crowe. Nope, not Gladiator 2. Watch on. Then comes the montage of arrow shooting, head slicing, body stabbing violence. He’s the “Hero Behind the Outlaw” the screen says. And in case you didn’t see an dhear that fearsome scream 10 seconds ago, they’ll bring it to you again as Crow rides his horse furiously forward, sword poised to kill. “Rise and rise again…til llamas become lions.” Llamas? Did I hear correctly? Okay, can you guess what movie this was a trailer for? That beloved story of old, that folk hero – Robin Hood. He took from the rich and gave to the poor, right? And he had a gang of merry men? They don’t look so merry anymore.
This 60 second trailer has in it just about every problematic theme we talk about in PB. There is one man, chosen. (He’s not much of a team player). He’s almost God-like (rise and rise again.) He must do violence to be good. (What an awful message.) Every hero must be a superhero, over the top. (Of course he is the strongest, angriest.) And his violence is okay because it’s justified (the bad guys, presumably the “rich”, are hurting the people, although the trailer doesn’t show “the people” or the “poor” – kind of boring we guess. It’s hard to be action-packed when you’re hungry.) And there’s a woman who waits for him (Cate Blanchett is Maid Marian, why, oh why!?)
It’s just a trailer, but we’re guessing that any possible message about poverty and greed and fairness and well, socialism, is pushed aside for tons of footage of head rolling, blood dripping violence. The only moral that seems to exist in action films today seems to be about justifying violence. And the only kind of hero film that can be made today (save for the slacker dude anti-hero hero) is the violent hero.