The Death of Robin Hood is not an action movie, and it’s not the redemption story the title might lead you to expect. It’s a film about what a story is — and about how the version of events each of us carries in our head becomes a kind of private universe. It’s deeply philosophical and deeply meta. Go in wanting swordfights and a triumphant outlaw and you’ll be let down. Go in wanting something to chew on and it delivers.
A Philosophical Story
This isn’t a movie about redemption so much as a movie about what redemption even means — what it means to act, to seek forgiveness, and then to actually receive it. An aging, gravely wounded Robin Hood spends the film reckoning with a lifetime of violence, and the script cares far more about the meaning of that reckoning than about the events themselves.
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The Legend and the Man
One of the film’s quietest, smartest ideas is how it treats Robin’s own legend. People tell Robin stories about himself — that he beheaded this famous man, that he did that famous deed — and he flatly denies them. Those things never happened. And yet, in the same breath, he admits he’s killed more people than he can remember, some in exactly the manner the legends describe. Even within his own lifetime, the myth has outgrown the man. The stories people tell about Robin Hood have become truer to them than the truth ever was.
That’s the engine of the film: what lives in our heads is its own universe, and it doesn’t always match reality. We see it again when a single piece of information upends how one character understands another. The remarkable part is the film’s answer to what actually changed in that moment — not the man, not anything he’d done, but the story. Same person; different universe.
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It’s worth watching with that lens turned on yourself. We all do this — assemble a person out of the story we’ve built about them, then mistake the story for the person. The movie never lectures you about it, but it leaves the door wide open.
The Performances
Every actor here is excellent. Hugh Jackman carries the film through a wide emotional range, and it’s a pleasure to watch him work this far outside his usual heroic register. My one real complaint is with the writing, not the acting: Robin is never given a single beat of levity. Even the most brooding person laughs sometimes, and what makes them laugh — someone else’s misfortune, the absurd, their own foibles — tells you who they are. Denying Robin even one such moment leaves a small but real hole in the character. Jodie Comer is very good as well, though her role only gives her room to truly emote in a scene or two; I wanted more of her.
I’ll add one honest reservation. Given how deep the story goes, the purpose of Little John was lost on me. He’s logistically crucial — he’s the reason Robin reaches the island at all — but his character lives almost entirely in the first thirty minutes, and I suspect there’s more to him that didn’t quite translate. That may be a shortcoming of the film, or it may be mine for not catching it.
And not to be overlooked, Faith Delaney, as Little Margaret, might have had the most challenging role outside of Jackman’s, and she lands it perfectly. That speaks volumes of the talent the actress has and the director helping express that talent.
A Land Apart
The look of the film does a lot of quiet work. The mainland is dark and storm-soaked; the island, by contrast, is bright and clear, presented as a place of subtle magic and healing. It isn’t some far-off, otherworldly realm — it’s a long boat ride across a channel, close enough to see from shore — and yet it’s unmistakably a land apart. I won’t pretend I fully decoded what the island represents, but the film makes you feel its difference long before you can name it.
One thing to watch for: early on, a little girl learns to shoot a bow and arrow. Keep that thread in mind. It pays off, and there’s real meaning in where it lands.
The Recommendation
I’d recommend watching this one at home when it streams. Not because it isn’t good enough to see in a theater, but because it offers so much to think about that you’ll want to pause, sit with the ideas, and talk them over with whoever’s watching with you. At least, that’s what I wish I’d been able to do.
Grade: A
About The Peetimes: Read a synopsis of first 3 minutes of this movie.
There are no extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of The Death of Robin Hood.
| Rated: | (R) Strong Bloody Violence |
| Genres: | Drama, Thriller |
| USA release date: | 2026-06-18 |
| Movie length: | |
| Starring: | |
| Director: | Michael Sarnoski |
| Writer(s): | Michael Sarnoski |
| Language: | en |
| Country: | US |
Plot
Grappling with his past after a life of crime and murder, Robin Hood finds himself gravely injured after a battle he thought would be his last. In the hands of a mysterious woman, he is offered a chance at salvation.
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