Michael Sarnowski’s follow-up to his masterpiece Pig is an amazing character study studying the deconstruction of myth and legend with an all-time performance from Hugh Jackman
THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD (2026)
★★★★ & 1/2 ★ OF ★★★★★ stars
Michael Sarnowski is an incredible filmmaker. His films, first Pig now The Death of Robin Hood, really explore the deconstruction of myths, legends and folklore. How a person can become more than they are in the minds of others and how the person who wields that identity can use it like a weapon for the beenfit of themselves or detriment of others. It’s very fitting that his latest film here looks at a heroic archetype like Robin Hood, a character who takes from the rich and gives to the poor, and how that mantle can become a curse, so those involced with it create other characters to help chip away at the power of the legends they originally helped shape.
Hugh Jackman here plays the outlaw Robin here, at the end of his days hiding in the mountains. Members of the families Robin took the lives of back in his day now come to hunt him down for blood debts to avenge their kin. His former compatriot Little John, now living under the assumed name Thomas, asks for Robin’s help to save his wife from another former victim’s family seeking vengeance and in the doing, he is grievously wounded. Little John leaves him across the sea at an abbey run by Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) a woman who has built a life trying to save others to make something from an unspoken tragedy that destroyed her life. She helps Robin, now calling himself Randolph, heal – despite begging her in his pain to let him die. As time goes on, he starts to heal and become a member of the community, learning how to pick fruits and trees from a leper on the island. But one dau, Thomas’ daughter arrives and behind her, a member of the family that killed his wife looking for blood vengeance. Robin has to decide – will he kill for this community and help lead it, or continue being the outlaw that draws death and suffering behind him.
It’s ironic that Hugh Jackman is the titular lead in this, as this film explores some of the same themes as LOGAN, the burden of others believing in your legend and the albatross around your neck it can be when all you want to do is be left alone to waste away and die. Jackman’s performance in this is incredibly moving; especially as your learn more and more about who he is and how he came to be who he is now. It shares similarities to films like UNFVORGIVEN and SHANE, with Robin a drifter looking for peace but becomes involved in a scenario where he can do good but where his past could make things worse for everyone involved. The movie is not only beautifully written and acted, but shot. It’s a beautiful meditation on life and how the crosses we bear and the lives we cross have an impact far beyond ourselves. Redemption can be found for our sins, but its exacts a heavy toll on one and those that they love and all we can hope for is to leave thinsg better than we found them and overcome the burdens and walls and myths we build so that our lives matter beyond what we told stories of.
THE DEATH OF ROBIN HOOD is one of the most moving big screen meditations on life and the cost of living. Seek it out and you won’t be disappointed.
—
VIDEO REVIEW