Hugh Jackman's Logan-Style R-Rated Action Thriller Deserves Its Streaming Redemption On HBO Max

Hugh Jackman’s The Death of Robin Hood asks how much an outlaw’s reputation can excuse. Stories of stolen riches shared with the poor give Robin a defense before the film shows whom he has hurt. Casting Jackman makes that sympathy harder to shake. In Logan, his faltering attempts to protect Laura made a man with decades of bloodshed behind him worth caring about. Watching him play another wounded killer, it is tempting to start looking for someone he can save.

Director Michael Sarnoski makes Robin the one who needs saving in this reiteration. Introducing himself to Sister Brigid as Randolph, he accepts treatment for his wounds without explaining whose life she is saving. Brigid sees a stranger in pain, while the audience has already watched him inflict it. Jackman makes it easy to want her to help him, even as his silence becomes harder to excuse. As long as he remains Randolph, Robin can accept her care without having to explain what he has done. Telling her his name would mean risking the comfort he has found with her.

Robin has survived the violence, but he still cannot bring himself to explain it to the woman helping him recover. Jackman makes it hard to look away even when Robin can barely move, and that performance deserves more attention than The Death of Robin Hood's theatrical run brought it. On HBO Max, The Death of Robin Hood has another chance to find an audience.

Why Hugh Jackman's The Death Of Robin Hood Is A Streaming Success

The Death of Robin Hood displaced The Housemaid as HBO Max’s number-one movie in the United States within 24 hours of arriving, according to October 19 reporting from FlixPatrol. Jackman playing Robin Hood gives subscribers a recognizable name twice over. Seeing him battered and bloodied again, recalls to Logan, where drawing his claws no longer meant he could handle the men coming for him. Robin’s bow offers little more reassurance when Jackman looks like he can barely stand.

Director Michael Sarnoski gives the farmhouse attackers a reason to hate Robin. He has killed a boy from their family, and their retaliation leaves him fighting in the mud beside the burning house. Jackman makes it easy to fear for Robin, even when the family has every reason to want him dead. Surviving this fight will mean killing more of the people already mourning the boy he shot.

Why Didn't The Death Of Robin Hood Perform Better At The Box Office?

Hugh Jackman holding a bow suggests a different evening from Hugh Jackman recovering in a priory. The farmhouse sequence could sell a trailer full of blood and fire, but much of The Death of Robin Hood follows the wounded man left behind (via RSCL). Anyone buying a ticket for two hours of Jackman fighting would instead spend much of that time watching him accept care and avoid explaining why he needs it.

That was a difficult invitation on June 19, when Toy Story 5 opened to roughly $160 million domestically (via Forbes). Jackman’s film did not need to match Pixar to succeed, but its $2.9 million opening left little room for further losses. A 79% drop the following weekend meant it never built on that modest start (via TheNumbers).

Reception offered little help to overcome that hesitation. Its current Rotten Tomatoes scores stand at 69% from critics and 56% from verified audiences. Those figures cannot explain every unsold ticket, but they show how far the film was from winning people over unanimously. A roughly $9.9 million worldwide gross against a reported $20 million budget left Jackman’s unusual outlaw needing another audience (via BoxOfficeMojo).

Hugh Jackman Gives A Great Performance As Robin Hood

Robin shoots a boy to stop him warning his family. Later, he teaches Margaret to hunt. Jackman gives Margaret the patience Robin never offered the boy he shot. Watching him teach her makes it harder to excuse that killing as the act of a man who knows nothing but violence. He can be gentle with a child when he chooses to be.

Margaret also gets answers that Murray Bartlett’s Leper has to work for. With him, Jackman lets questions hang, leaving Bartlett to fill the silence. Teaching Margaret gives Robin something he wants to explain. WBUR noted the stillness of Jackman’s performance. After seeing how little he gives the Leper, watching him take time to teach Margaret feels unexpectedly generous.

Jackman is just as convincing, teaching Margaret as he is killing the boy. He lets Robin enjoy her company without playing the affection as an apology. It is possible to want more of their time together and still dread what she would think if she had seen him earlier.

This Is One Of The Most Interesting Takes On Robin Hood In Years

Robin Hood can mean Disney’s fox strolling through Sherwood with Little John, Errol Flynn arriving at Prince John’s banquet with a deer across his shoulders, or Kevin Costner firing a flaming arrow. Those versions differ in everything from appearance to humor, but each gives the audience an outlaw to cheer for. Sarnoski’s Robin has to listen to stories about that generous hero while knowing how little they resemble the life he actually led.

That gap between the man and the folklore gives Brigid something to challenge. Robin compares stories to a blade, blaming them for encouraging violence. She points out that a knife can also cut bread. Someone who hears about Robin feeding the hungry might choose to share their own food. Brigid sees value in that example, even if the man behind it never behaved so generously.

Robin eventually offers Margaret that same comfort, telling her that he and her father helped the meek. She gets to remember Little John as someone who protected people, while the audience remembers the people he hurt. Sarnoski told CinemaBlend that Robin comes to understand how stories can help others move forward. By the end of The Death of Robin Hood, Robin is telling the kind of story he once hated hearing about himself. Margaret gets a father she can remember with pride. The audience knows what he has left out to give her that.