Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) 4K UHD Limited Edition
Synopsis: A nobleman returns from the Crusades to find his father dead and a tyrant strangling the countryside. With an unlikely ally at his side and a forest full of outlaws at his back, he becomes the legend the people have been waiting for.
Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Morgan Freeman, Alan Rickman
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 143 / 155 minutes
Movie Review in Brief: Arrow Video’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves 4K UHD Limited Edition is the definitive release of Kevin Reynolds’ 1991 blockbuster. Both cuts in Dolby Vision, a feature-length doc, and Alan Rickman immortality. Shelf Worthy.
Review: A Summer Blockbuster That Defined a Year
It’s hard to overstate how big Kevin Costner was in 1991. Dances with Wolves had just won both Best Picture and Best Director for Costner and cleared a billion dollars (in 2026 money). Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves arrived six months later as the victory lap, finishing as the second-highest-grossing film of the year behind Terminator 2 and outperforming Cameron’s sequel in the UK and Ireland. Arrow Video’s new 4K release captures a release built around two cuts of a swashbuckling event film that defined a summer. And it holds up remarkably well even today.
The Film: Costner, Freeman, and Rickman Carry the Forest
Robin of Locksley (Costner) returns from the Crusades to find his father dead and his lands seized by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman, Die Hard). With Moorish companion Azeem (Morgan Freeman, Unforgiven) at his side, he joins Little John’s outlaws to feed the poor, rob the rich, and win Maid Marian (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, The Abyss). Christian Slater (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) drops into Will Scarlett territory after Johnny Depp passed on the role. Sean Connery cameos as King Richard, signing on for a single day’s work after the studio had initially floated, of all people, John Cleese for the part. Michael Kamen scores it all into legend.
Kevin Reynolds directs with the kind of muscular confidence that ’90s adventure filmmaking demanded. Costner’s accent has been mocked for thirty-five years, fairly so, and the production history of that decision is its own story: he hired a dialect coach, did it poorly, and the coach was fired. Rumor has it Costner kept slipping into the accent when arguing with Reynolds and dropping it when they agreed, which would explain the unevenness. His charm carries the role anyway, and his chemistry with Freeman supplies the film’s emotional core.
Rickman, however, is the reason this movie has a cultural footprint past 1991. He turned the role down twice before being told he could do whatever he wanted with it, then rewrote his own dialogue at a Pizza Hut with friends Ruby Wax and playwright Peter Barnes after deeming the script terrible. He ad-libbed “and cancel Christmas” and the cut-your-heart-out-with-a-spoon line on set, broke roughly ten swords during the duel with Costner, and won a BAFTA for his trouble. (Where was the Oscar nomination, I ask you?) Reynolds enabled the rewrites by quietly not telling the producers. Forty years on, Rickman’s performance still defines what a great villain can do to elevate a passable script. Richard E. Grant had been Costner’s original choice; Hudson Hawk reshoots took him out of contention. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role now.
The Disc: Both Cuts in Dolby Vision
Arrow’s 4K restorations of both the theatrical and extended cuts come from the original negative and run in Dolby Vision with HDR10 compatibility. The image is clean throughout, with Doug Milsome‘s autumnal Sherwood photography finally getting the glow that 35mm prints could only hint at. Aspect ratio holds at 1.85:1, region free. The extended cut runs about twelve minutes longer and adds material that gives Rickman’s Sheriff additional complexity. Both cuts benefit equally from the restoration work.
Audio comes in original uncompressed stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround. The 5.1 mix is the obvious pick. Kamen’s score, particularly the oft-musically quoted “Marian at the Waterfall” and the abduction-and-final-battle suite, fills the room without crowding the dialogue.
Extras: A Six-Part Making-Of and a Slane Castle Singalong
Two commentary tracks lead the notable extras. Costner and Reynolds talk craft and stories from the set. Freeman, Slater, Pen Densham, and John Watson cover the writing and development side. Here We Are Kings runs over an hour and walks through every step of the production, including Reynolds walking off the picture weeks before release after Costner and the producers locked editor Peter Boyle out of the cutting room and brought in studio fixer Stuart Baird. The doc is uncommonly candid about a famously messy collaboration that, against the odds, ended in reconciliation—Costner hired Reynolds back for Waterworld four years later. (Arrow already released the dynamite restoration of THAT infamous disaster years ago…and it’s a must-own)
Beyond that, Pierce Brosnan hosts an archival 1991 documentary that argues, in retrospect, that he probably should have played the role. Bryan Adams performs “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” live at Slane Castle—a song A&M executive Jerry Moss famously warned would end Adams’s career, before it spent fourteen weeks atop the Billboard charts and sixteen at number one in the UK and received an Oscar nomination. The full Michael Kamen score lives on the disc as isolated music cues. A reversible sleeve, two fold-out posters, six art cards, and a perfect-bound booklet round out the package.
Where It Lands
Shelf Worthy. A defining ’90s blockbuster gets its definitive disc, with both cuts restored, a feature-length making-of, and the kind of supplement package this film has been owed for thirty-five years.
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