Robin and Marian

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: March 12, 1976

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

73	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Robert Marsh

James Goldman's script is razor-sharp, treating all characters, major and minor, with intelligence and compassion. The movie is shot in subdued hues, making the film more of a motion painting than picture. It is quite simply a film that must be seen -- and once seen, treasured. [29 Jul 1994, p.21]

Steve Daly

The social satire gets precious at times, but Connery (sans hairpiece!) and Hepburn (swathed for the first hour in a nun’s wimple) bring a fervid depth of feeling to their characters’ rekindled courtship. Read full review

Keith Phipps

Robin And Marian would merely be an exercise in theory if the actors didn't make it breathe. Their scenes together a combination of easy humor and wistful grace notes, Connery and Hepburn find an easy rapport, playing something between legendary lovers and an old married couple. Read full review

Ted Mahar

The film is whimsical and satirical but not totally a comedy. Despite the occasional Monty Python-esque jab at romantic history, the story of the central lovers is also poignant, a chronicle of bad choices and missed opportunities. [25 Jun 1999]

Dave Kehr

Deep down inside, a very good film. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

It's one of those rare movies, like King Hu's Touch of Zen, that handles its historical imagery so cleanly, and contains its pretensions so solidly within sure characterisation and plotting, that it is often sublimely expressive. Read full review

The GuardianPaul Howlett

Sean Connery's weary Robin returns from the crusades to confront Robert Shaw's Sheriff Of Nottingham once more, but despite their heroic final duel, it's Connery's scenes with Audrey Hepburn's Marion that make the magic. [03 Jun 2006, p.53]

The Observer (UK)Philip French

Charming, elegiac tragicomedy, scripted by playwright James Goldman, about being middle-aged in the Middle Ages. [03 Jan 2010, p.22]

Marjorie Baumgarten

If nothing else, the performances of Connery and Hepburn are welcome delights. Read full review

Roger Ebert

This is a movie about the end of youth and high romance, about death and the possibility of simple human compassion. Read full review

John Hartl

Connery's Robin and Audrey Hepburn's Marian are so appealing - and physically and temperamentally so right - that they gloss over the fact that Goldman's script tends to be coy and anachronistic. [09 Aug 1991, p.23]

Vincent Canby

Robin and Marian is a hybrid movie, one that seems embarrassed by feelings; yet it works best when it admits those feelings, when it plays them straight. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Taken as a whole, Robin and Marian is a spotty picture that's sometimes satirical, a trifle pretentious, occasionally exciting. Read full review

EmpireIan Nathan

Sedate and contemplative character piece but low on thrills. Read full review

Pauline Kael

Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn are wittily matched, and their dark-brown eyes are full of life, but the pictures's revisionist approach to legends results in a series of trivializing attitudes and whimsical poses.

Staff (Not Credited)

Robin and Marian is a disappointing and embarrassing film: disappointing, because Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, the brilliant Robert Shaw, Richard Harris and a screenplay by James Goldman ought to add up to something even in the face of Richard Lester's flat direction; embarrassing, because the incompatible blend of tongue-in-cheek comedy, adventure and romance gives the Robin Hood-revisited film the grace and energy of a geriatrics' discotheque. Read full review