In repackaging a story as familiar as any ever told, the latest ”Robin Hood” (7 p.m. Monday, Fox-Ch. 32) seeks to set itself apart from the pack-the famous Errol Flynn version and the upcoming Kevin Costner feature film-by wrapping itself in historical accuracy and eye-catching visuals.
So we are given a Robin without his familiar green garb. We are introduced to a group of Merry Men who live not in trees but in caves. We do not encounter the notorious Sheriff of Nottingham but must take our villains in the form of a pair of Norman knights.
I`ve no complaints on these counts and can`t deny that this movie looks great. Elaborately detailed, it captures the muddy sumptuousness of 12th Century England. Using its $15 million budget well, the movie captivates.
It`s unfortunate that with so much mind paid to detail, no one bothered to be so attentive with the cast, for it is in the performances of the lead players that ”Robin Hood” misses the mark.
Patrick Bergin is dashingly handsome but lacks the ruggedness to make his Robin more appealing than a mannequin. He seems fairly familiar with bow and arrow but, when called upon to wield a broadsword, he exhibits a gee-look-at- me style that one might expect to find in a community theater costume drama.
As Maid Marian, Uma Thurman is a disaster. Pinched and sullen, she comes off bratty and lifeless.
The repartee between these two is ghastly. They often sound like a couple of half-sloshed singles at last call. ”You`re so handsome when you`re angry,” she says, not once but twice. She also says that Robin ”makes the bees buzz in my breast.”
More interesting are some of the supporting players: Jeroen Krabbe as Sir Roger Daguerre, Robin`s friend turned enemy; Jurgen Prochnow as Sir Miles Folcanet, Robin`s principal foe and Marian`s intended; and Jeff Nuttal as a gloriously goofy Friar Tuck.
`Brides`
7 p.m. Monday, ABC-Ch. 7
I wouldn`t want to be Kathy Giliberti`s mother tonight. After watching her obnoxiously intrusive behavior in this show, she may be too embarrassed to show her face in South Philadelphia.
Weddings can make anybody crazy, I suppose, and Mrs. Giliberti takes the cake in this one-hour special focusing on the trials and tribulations leading up to the weddings of two real American lasses: the working-class Kathy Giliberti of South Philly and former debutante Audrey Moffly of Greenwich, Conn.
It`s a blue-collar/blue-blood contrast, hosted by ”Designing Women`s”
Delta Burke, and a very cagey step in the networks` continuing struggle to find budget-saving ways to fill schedules.
But it`s fun to watch the two couples march toward the altar, through that familiar field of land mines: Which dress? What band? What sort of appetizers?
If Mrs. Giliberti comes off like a well-intentioned monster, it is Mr. Moffly who comes up with the best observation. Hearing that it will cost $30 an hour to have a man ”tent-sit” the reception tents outside the family manse, he says, ”At a wedding, a father`s job is to keep his mouth shut and his wallet open.”
`Beyond Hate`
10 p.m. Monday, PBS
In just one of the memorable comments in Bill Moyers` latest PBS venture, author and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel says, ”When the language fails, violence becomes the language.”
”Hate,” says Moyers, ”is as old as Cain and Abel.” Then he asks a question that is at the heart of this fascinating and frightening documentary: ”Is there something in us that loves to hate?”
It would certainly seem so as the show travels into past manifestations of hatred and into contemporary scenes such as the gang-ridden streets of Los Angeles; Jerusalem, ”where hate is the glue” that holds various factions in constant conflict; the trial of Tom Metzger, leader of the White Aryan Resistance in Portland, Ore.; a Brooklyn high school where youngsters grapple with their feelings; and an ”Anatomy of Hate” conference in Oslo, Norway, where such people as Jimmy Carter, Wiesel and Nelson Mandela explore the many faces and facets of hate.
Wiesel`s words pepper the program, which also explores domestic violence, homophobia and sports. Those words hold the 90 minutes together.
