Ridley Scott's 'Robin Hood' opens Cannes Film Festival

The epic drama, playing outside the competition, narrates the story of how the legend of Robin Hood began.The British helmer, who is on bed rest after undergoing a knee surgery, missed the red carpet of the movie on the famous French Riviera, which was attended by film's cast Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchette.

Scott and his screen writer, Brian Helgeland, have written a complex story to create the legend.The story begins when Robin Hood is ungraciously outlawed by the king of England, flush from a victory from the invading French forces that Robin Longstride helped win, the myth begins with him taking refuge in Sherwood Forest with his merry men and wife Marion.
The film lends itself to sequels, though how Robin Longstride eventually became Robin Hood, whose stories of robbing the rich to pay the poor has inspired generations,is not even myth. The plot has been put together with considerable care, though there are moments when the narrative appears a bit hotchpotch.

King Richard the Lion Heart is returning to England from the Crusade with his unhappy and unpaid army when he is killed in a siege. Ultimately, it falls upon the army's ace archer, Longstride, to carry the dead king's crown home and the sword of a dying English nobleman to his blind old father in Nottingham. There Longstride meets the nobleman's widow, Marion.

Thereafter 'Robin Hood' runs very much like a Bollywood movie with impersonations, blossoming of romance between Longstride and Marion, songs and dances, sword fights and the vanquishing of the arch villain by Longstride.

However, unlike an average Bollywood work, the film is high on production values and performances. Beautifully shot and superbly edited, the movie scores on one more crucial area. Crowe rarely smiles, but is compelling as the man who would become Robin Hood while Blanchett as Marion is tempestuous and essays the part with suitable fire.