The Princess of Thieves Film Review

This offering from the Wonderful World of Disney takes a few liberties with both history and the Robin Hood legend. Which I guess is ok but it seems to me that if the main audience is children you should stick as closely to the history part as you can. Most of America is history illiterate as it is. No point in adding to it. Ignoring that, this is a fairly mundane but pleasantly genial addition to the Robin Hood legend though he plays second fiddle to his daughter. Yup, he and Marian finally got it on and she had a daughter. And what a daughter. Played by Keira Knightley a year before she sort of hit it big with Bend it Like Beckham. Her immaculate facial bone structure is in place along with the gaggle of teeth that would scare off a shark. I can't say watching this that I would have seen star potential but she is lovely.

She is Gwyn the daughter that Robin Hood always leaves behind when he goes off to fight the Crusades with Richard the Lionhearted. They screw with the timeline of the legend though. Robin has come home again a man in his middle years, Richard is dying abroad and yet the Sheriff of Nottingham still rules the castle. And John is the Regent. In all the films the Sheriff is defeated and Robin gets his lands back. The Sheriff is given the nasty performance that Malcolm McDowell is so good at with his sneers and maniacal glint. King Richard has sent his illegitimate son Philip to England and named him the heir to the throne. John and the Sheriff aim to kill him. Robin aims to protect him. His daughter wants to help. Dad says no. She says yes and cuts her hair and disguises herself as a male.

Robin and Will Scarlett are captured and put in the Tower of London and so it is up to Gwyn and the man she meets wandering in the woods who says he is the valet of Philip but in fact is Philip (Stephen Moyer) to get them out. Now this is where history takes a beating. According to this Philip marches in on his own, declares who he is and takes the crown off of John's head while the crowd cheers. Nice ending. Totally false of course. There was in fact a Philip who was Richard's son - Philip of Cognac which has a nice ring to it - but he never became King or tried and likely died in his early 20s which is sad. There are only a few references to him in the historical writings of the time. So, if anyone ever asks you who succeeded King John, don't answer Philip - that was of course his son Henry III.