Robin Hood, 1973

November 13 , 2022 | JAKE SANTIAGO-MELCHIORRE

The movie I chose was “Robin Hood” (1973), an animated, musical film. The film is about Robin Hood, a fox, and his bear friend, Little John. They live in Sherwood Forest and perform heroic deeds for the poor people, in this case animals (e.g., bunnies) of Nottingham, England, who were in extreme poverty. The film opens up with a musical introduction by a rooster, who is the narrator, introducing each character as the movie unfolds. A book opens and written words are seen displayed in a book. It explains how the ruler England, King Richard, a courageous lion, has to leave to fight a Holy Crusade. While this occurs, his brother, John, takes the seat of the throne illegally. Prince John, who is also a lion, is the major antagonist of the film. He has an evil, but cowardly personality. The film opens up with Little John asking Robin Hood, “Are we good guys or bad guys?”. Robin replies, “We never rob, just sort of borrow it from those who can afford it”. Just then, you hear marching and music in the background and the scene switches to the castle. Prince John is a sinister character. He is seen throughout the movie with his advisor, Sir Hiss, a snake. They are seen together on Tax Day saying how they will “Rob the poor to feed the rich”. They order the sheriff to take money from the poor by overtaxing the poor people of Nottingham.

This overtaxation leads to the starvation of the poor. Robin Hood decides that it’s his duty to take a stand and help these poor people, along with Little John. They both go on a quest to steal from the rich and give to the poor. A scene opens up as Robin Hood and Little John trick the Prince by disguising themselves as fortune tellers. While telling his fortune, Little John is able to steal the jewels from Prince John and the money that he stole from the poor. Once he realizes their trickery, Prince John makes Robin Hood a wanted man and offers a reward for his capture.

The main antagonist of the movie is the Sheriff of Nottingham, who is depicted as a wolf. Throughout the movie, the Sheriff of Nottingham makes every effort to catch Robin Hood and Little John, but never ends up actually capturing them. A new scene opens with Robin Hood gifting his hat and bow and arrow to a poor family's son, who is played by a bunny. The young bunny immediately goes outside to give the bow and arrow a try, when he accidentally shoots an arrow over the castle walls. In fear that he will get in trouble, he reluctantly enters the castle. Lady Marian, a vixen, emerges into the film seen with her Lady-in-waiting, Lady Kluck, while they are playing a game of Badminton. Immediately she is drawn to the hat that the child is wearing. It was just like the one Robin wore. Instantly memories of her love for Robin Hood return within seconds. Separately Robin ponders whether Lady Marian will return his affection after all the years that have passed. Soon after, Friar Tuck enters and tells Robin and Little John about an archery tournament. Top prize is a kiss from Lady Marian. This definitely gives Robin motivation to enter the contest.

Since Robin was a wanted man, he decides to disguise himself as a bird to enter in the contest. After Robin wins the contest, his disguise is uncovered. At this point in the movie, Prince John orders his men to execute Robin. While Lady Marian begs Prince John to spare his life, major conflict arises between Prince John’s men and Robin. Robin is able to escape unharmed. The scene changes and Robin and Lady Marian are seen together sharing a romantic moment and friends join them in the forest for a celebration. In an angry response to Robin Hood’s trickery, Prince John decides to increase the taxes and because of this, many of the townsfolk are jailed. This leads to the sheriff stealing from the church.

After the sheriff tries to steal from the church, Friar Tuck, who is a badger, chases him out and Prince John orders for his arrest and execution to lure Robin Hood in. To Prince John’s dismay, his plan doesn’t go as planned. Robin Hood, along with Little John, come to the rescue, freeing all the townspeople including Friar Tuck. In the midst of all this, Robin takes all of Prince John’s gold and with Little John's help, gives it all back to the poor. Following the burglary, havoc emerges while they’re trying to escape. During this, the sheriff is on the hunt for Robin and during a mishap with a fiery torch, the castle is set on fire. At this point in the movie, it appears that Robin is dead, but to everyone’s surprise he’s not. The burning of the castle makes Prince John go crazy. King Richard emerges into the film again and charges Prince John, Hiss, and the sheriff to hard labor. The movie ends happily ever after, with Robin marrying Lady Marian, and King Richard excusing Robin from all his wrong doings. A theme throughout the movie is that in certain situations at first glance, committing an unethical act may not always be as unethical as it seems, if the outcome brings benefit to others.

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that dictates right from wrong based solely on the result or outcome. Jeremy Bentham invented this theory in 1748. According to this theory, an action is neither bad nor good. It is the result or outcome that determines if the action is good. Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism, which also decides if an action is good or bad based on the outcome of a situation. Utilitarians believe in order to make things better in life, one should only surround themselves with positive, good things and decrease or avoid the amount of bad things in their lives. One must only focus on fostering happiness for the good of the situation. Utilitarianism focuses primarily on a choice that produces the best outcome for the greater good. For example, someone lies to get medicine to save a life. If the outcome brings more benefit to the person, then it’s good. Although in the example lying is immoral, if lying produces a better outcome, such as saving a life, then the action is good.

There are two types of utilitarianism: act and rule. Act utilitarianism doesn't examine if a person followed rules before the action took place. It focuses only on the result and if it makes people happy. Its main goal is to focus on how to magnify happiness. Rule utilitarianism focuses on the outcome after following the rules and how to magnify happiness through time.

There are connections between the actions of Robin Hood and utilitarianism. The big debate is whether Robin Hood was a hero or a criminal. Robin had stolen from the rich and given to the poor, however in reality Robin Hood was stealing back what the prince stole from the poor. In connection to utilitarianism, he was undoing the wrongs of the prince and how he inflicted big taxation on stealing land, food, and money. He spreads happiness to the less fortunate and therefore his actions are good and the outcome is good. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that the act of stealing made more people happy than unhappy, which is utilitarianism's main goal. Robin Hood is also trying to provide justice to those who suffer. The act of stealing money may make Prince John furious, but in turn makes the poor people grateful and relieved, which makes this a good action. Toward the end of the movie, Robin Hood once again breaks into the castle, disguises himself as a guard, and steals the keys from the sheriff to free the townspeople and Friar Tuck. A utilitarian would view this as positive, because of the result, which was freeing the townspeople and Friar Tuck, making it morally good.

We need to be careful when examining the actions within the consequentialism theory. The reason behind that is because it’s hard to measure how good a result is. This is a criticism that utilitarianism receives. It is very hard to count or measure the amount of happiness a person has or is exhibiting. When we make ethical decisions in our daily life, we should consider this and other factors to make appropriate actions with the best results. This movie has a moral paradox because even though the act (i.e., stealing) is not a moral and ethical choice, Robin Hood and Disney glorifies stealing because the outcome is good. Robin Hood uses his utilitarian view and sees his stealing as a risk he has to take in order to give the poor people more benefits. Also, was he really stealing if he was giving back what the prince stole?

Another part of the movie was geared toward symbolism. Symbolism between the characters and the animals and events that took place were very apparent. This symbolism shed light on many of the stereotypes our society has. To start, a fox was chosen for Robin Hood because foxes are known as crafty, sly, and tactical, which describes Robin Hood’s characteristics. For example, his tactical side is seen when he disguises himself as a fortune teller. The next character, Lady Marian, was also a fox, in particular a vixen. In one scene in the movie, thay have her playing Badminton in the garden. This shows her rank in society. Typically people in the higher classes played sports, such as Badminton. This revealed that Lady Marian belonged to high society. Moving along to King Richard, a lion was chosen for this character because they are courageous and represent a true king. Also, he represents a powerful animal in the jungle which is why a lion was the right choice for this character. For Prince John, a lion was also chosen. However the difference here is how the lion was represented. Prince John is depicted as a cowardly lion. He is seen sucking his thumb in the film and wearing a crown that is significantly bigger. The crown appears this way to symbolize that he had big shoes to fill and that he is not right for the position. Next is the Sheriff of Nottingham. A wolf was chosen because they tend to be intimidating and scary, which is appropriate for this movie since he was the one that collected the tax. You will also notice that the guards of the castle are all rhinoceros, which is fitting since they represent strength. You will notice that Prince John is heard yelling, “charge” to them which is appropriate since rhinos are known to charge when attacking. Lastly, Hiss is shown as a snake. This brings a religious connection to the story of Adam and Eve and how the snake tries to tempt them to eat the apples. In this film he is seen whispering into Prince John’s ear just as the snake is thought to have whispered in Eve’s ear.

This film illustrates some moral and ethical aspects of our actions that one wouldn’t automatically think of when viewing the tale of Robin Hood. Some may debate this, however Robin Hood was a moral character with good intentions. He only wanted the best outcome for the people of Nottingham. The combination of viewing him as a utilitarian and the symbolism of each character made this animated film full of unexpected revelations. It was also interesting to see how Disney used different traits of the characters that emphasized morals and ethics and how they tied into the utilitarianism theory.

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