Plot hole: The Bishop in the film is performing the duties you would expect of someone in his position (giving mass, hearing confessions, performing weddings etc.) He has his own private chambers in the cathedral, refers to Robin as 'the boy I knew' and talks about hearing his Father's confession four months earlier; so he's been around for a while. The problem is the credits refer to him as the 'Bishop of Hereford'. No explanation is ever given for why the Bishop of a city 100 miles away is living and working in Nottingham rather than looking after his own diocese; or why the Bishop of Nottingham isn't around to look after his. (The Bishop of Hereford was an enemy of Robin Hood in the original ballads, and it's likely the filmmakers just gave that name to the Bishop in the film due to its familiarity, without thinking about the plot hole this creates).
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
2 reviews
Directed by: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Kevin Costner, Christian Slater, Alan Rickman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Brian Blessed, Michael McShane
Your rating
Average rating
(6 votes)
Great movie.
A very beautiful movie that should never be forgotten.
Guy of Gisbourne: Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?
Sheriff of Nottingham: Because it's dull, you twit! It'll hurt more!
Trivia: When the villagers are pushing the catapult to the castle so they can get Robin and Azeem inside, the person on the very right of the screen is wearing the same clothes as Will and has the same hair style, but it is definitely not Christian Slater. It is his stunt double.
Question: Mortianna is seen practicing some sort of magic, and in the extended addition we see the Sheriff "praying" (I think) in front of an upside-down crucifix. And he assures Mortianna that his true faith lies in the "old ways." I'm trying to figure out: Is this art Mortianna and the Sheriff practice supposed to be Devil worship? Black magic with no real base, that they just invented for the movie? A form of pre-Christian religion, e.g. something like the Druidic religions of pre-Roman Britain? For the life of me, I can't put my finger on it.
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Answer: The white robes, reference to "the old ways", and pentagram across the map when the Sheriff meets the Barons suggests per-Christian Druidism; the upside down crucifix certainly implies Devil-worship. These two spiritual paths are, by nature, mutually exclusive. In short, a fictional pseudo-witchcraft invented for the film, yes.