Warner (Morgan Creek Productions)
Star Kevin Costner, then at the prime of his career, made headlines when he refused to wear tights, thus making no concessions to the requirement of the genre, the costume period piece. (Costner reportedly thought it was not “masculine”).
While looking decent and moving athletically, Costner is nonetheless barely passable in the role that Errol Flynn had made memorable in the 1938 “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” his performance hampered by an unconvincing and inconsistent British accent.
The rest of the cats is better: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (in the Olivia De Havilland part) as Maid Marian, Morgan Freeman as a Moorish sidekick, and best of all, Alan Rickman, in an over-the-top performance that steals every scene he is in as the Sheriff of Nottingham.
The movie is directed in a pedestrian way by Costner’s friend, Kevin Reynolds, who several years later, would direct the star in another disastrous production.
Sean Connery makes a nice cameo as King Richard at the end of the film.
The supporting cast includes the very American Christian Slater, Brian Blessed, and Jack Wild, who you may remember received a supporting Oscar nomination for playing the title role in the Carol Reed’s Oscar-winning musical, “Oliver!”
The Oscar-nominated song has nothing to with the plot; it simplay plays to the end credits.
Oscar Nominations
Song: “Everything I Do, “I Do It for You,’ music by Michael Kamen, lyrics by Bryan Adams and Robert John Lange.
Oscar Awards: None
Oscar Context
The Best Song winner was the title song from Disney animated feature, “Beauty and the Beast,” composed by Howard Ashman and Ala Menken.
