![]() The film’s conclusion in which Rickman and Costner duel once the latter arrives to rescue Maid Marian ( Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) is actually the least interesting part of the film. Viewers brave enough to explore the 155-minute extended cut released in 2009 will discover even more snappy lines from the Sheriff that were initially left on the cutting room floor. The amount of new dialogue was significant enough that it sparked friction within the production, with Costner famously asking for Rickman’s role to be diminished, as he feared his title character was being overshadowed in his own movie. ![]() Rickman said that director Kevin Reynolds was the only person who knew about his additions to the script, allowing his co-stars to react authentically. Rickman can only hilariously react to his own incompetence, driving him to make more outrageous threats like his assertion that he’ll cut out Robin’s heart with a spoon (a detail that he extends for several more jokes). The Sheriff dispatches forces to Robin’s family home in Locksley Castle, and then the next moment his supply lines are raided. It’s structured so that watching Rickman conceive of a strategy should add tension to the scenes of Robin gaining allies, but they end up playing for laughs as the Sheriff watches all of his tactics crumble. The Sheriff and Robin don’t actually trade blows until the film’s final moments, so for the most part, Rickman is left on his own in Nottingham Castle concocting villainous schemes. “They love him for it?” His confusion is priceless. “Robin Hood steals money from my pocket, forcing me to hurt the public,” he proclaims. It’s hilarious watching the Sheriff attempt to explain Robin Hood’s appeal, ponderously musing as to how he’s disrupted his operation of Nottingham. It wasn’t just that Rickman was playing for camp, but he pointed out the tired mythology. Many of the Sheriff’s best threats and put-downs came from Rickman directly, including the famous retort “Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas!” After he famously lamented to his friends in the theater circuit that the screenplay was terrible, Rickman decided to liven it up by adding in his own lines to spice up the material. Unsurprisingly, Rickman had a lot to do with the dialogue itself. A threat like “I will personally remove your lying tongue” delivered to Will Scarlett ( Christian Slater) may have initially been written to be menacing, but Rickman’s delivery makes it comically over-the-top. Instead of trying to force a tragic backstory or hint at any underlying motivations beyond pure evil, Rickman chews the scenery with a droll energy. This was completely necessary, as there’s not much depth to the one-dimensional character. Rickman wasn’t given a whole lot to work with, so he played everything to the extreme, taking pleasure in each venomous threat and not ever attempting to be a real person. The Sheriff wants to bring the hooded hero to justice, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves doesn’t deviate from any of the core tropes of the story. The Sheriff of Nottingham had appeared in virtually every Robin Hood adaptation since the timeless 1938 classic The Adventures of Robin Hood, and it’s not exactly a complex role. Rickman added something new to a role that had been depicted countless times before, lampooning the tired nature of the story with a brilliantly self-aware performance. Kevin Costner was famously ridiculed for his lack of an English accent, but Alan Rickman’s wildly eccentric take on the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham drew praise from even the film’s most scathing critics. ![]() 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is best remembered for two of its performances.
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