Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood finds its titular outlaw played by Hugh Jackman long past his prime, battle-scarred and gravely wounded after what he believed would be his final fight. Hunted by half of England for a lifetime of crime and bloodshed, he ends up in the hands of a mysterious woman who offers him something he hasn’t known in years: the possibility of salvation. Directed by Michael Sarnoski and starring the excellent Hugh Jackman, this A24 release also features two very good performances from Jodie Comer and Bill Skarsgård; it is not the Robin Hood you grew up with. It’s not the Disney animated classic, the Kevin Costner one, or even Mel Brooks’ Men in Tights. Not even close.
The Death of Robin Hood opens with jarring sequences that throw audiences into the chaos, and they might want to look away. It’s gruesome, early, dark, and dank in ways that feel almost suffocating. But once it finds its rhythm, the film settles into a more deliberate, meditative rhythm that suits the story better than any action-packed, big-budget retelling could. It is a bold re-imagining that doesn’t settle for spectacle but dwells in quiet, dialogue-free moments. There’s a persistent dread running underneath almost every scene, even the quieter ones. The score carries the mood appropriately, first with tension without ever doing so, then with uplift when other moments are more somber.
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Sarnoski’s direction and style reminded me of his 2021 debut drama Pig, with Nicolas Cage. You’ll recognize the characteristics almost immediately. A solitary man, isolated and in pain, searching for something like healing in the middle of a lot of woods and silence, shot in a way that makes the landscape feel like an extension of the brokenness that haunts him in the woods, trapped inside him as he leaves. This is the same filmmaker operating at a larger scale without losing what makes his work feel personal and uncommercial. The Northern Ireland landscapes are genuinely stunning and appropriately set the mood of dread better than any visual effects ever could.
What makes The Death of Robin Hood worth seeing is how confidently it subverts the myth. Jackman plays Robin as someone who has spent decades doing terrible things in the name of a legend that was mostly fiction. The film doesn’t let him off the hook for that, and it doesn’t let the audience off easy either. It’s demanding viewing. But it earns it. A genuinely unique retelling of a story told too many times.
