RC2 finds herself in a crisis of conscience over the old Errol Flynn Robin Hood, which all the little Weedlets watched last night. (Great family fare. Our 4-yr-old boy, who loves weapons and "booming," went into giggling ecstasies each time someone unsheathed a sword. The best $2.35 we ever spent). RC2 was happy to discover that the movie isn't a class-envy paeon: "take from the rich, give to the poor." Actually, the problem is that Richard the Lionhearted is off on crusade (did he meet Legolas, there I wonder?), and his nasty brother John offs the appointed regent and sets the Norman and Saxon citizenry against one another. Robin Hood is a Saxon prince who defends his people against the injustices (especially vicious taxation) imposed upon them by John and his Normans. (John's right-hand man is Basil Rathbone. Has a more delicious and inimitable sneer ever been captured on film? You just love it when someone finally "booms" him.) So it's not a rich-v-poor movie, but an anti-corruption movie.
The movie is vaguely anti-Catholic in that the Normans are Catholic, and one of the big villains is the corrupt bishop. On the other hand --here is where RC2 finds her loyalties divided-- the Normans are French and what could be more right than rooting against the French?
