- Robin Hood gets therapized.
What can we learn about unity with people
who are different from us
from this film that everybody trashes on,
and I freaking love?
Let's check it out.
(bright band music) (crowd cheers)
I'm Jonathan Decker, licensed therapist,
co-founder of Mended Light,
and right outta the gate, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"
came out in 1991, and has been bashed ever since
for Kevin Costner's American accent
that drifts into terrible British and back into American.
- Fighting amongst ourselves.
- He's been bashed for his mullet,
he's been bashed for a lot of things.
I don't care.
I saw it at 10 years old,
and it's not even nostalgia goggles.
I watch this today and I think
it's a fantastic piece of entertainment.
It's got romance, it's got action, it's got drama.
It's got comedy, the musical score is amazing,
but what I love most is that in the era of "Lethal Weapon"
and "48 Hours," they turn this into an interracial
like buddy cop comedy.
(gentle, twinkling music)
- How did your uneducated kind ever take Jerusalem?
- Without anybody even really noticing.
So here's the setup.
Robin of Locksley, played by Kevin Costner,
he goes to Jerusalem to fight in the Crusades.
He's locked in a prison.
He saves the life of a Moor, or a Muslim,
played by Morgan Freeman, who says,
I now have a life debt, I will stay with you
until I have saved your life.
And right outta the gate, there's tension
and there's friction because these men
are of different races, they're of different nationalities,
and the biggest plot point here
is they're of different religions.
(bright, triumphant music)
- I'm home. (laughs)
- You are strange, Christian.
- And so what starts off as a bickering,
you know, Robin doesn't want Azeem around.
He wants him to go home and to go be with his family.
Don't follow me back to England.
That's just annoying.
- Now I beg you to free yourself of your vow.
Return with the boat.
I know how it feels to be so far
from your home and family.
(inspirational music)
- Because I love them so much,
I cannot dishonor them.
- And Azeem isn't having any of it,
because his honor is at stake.
And then Robin calls on him to save his life,
like almost immediately, but Azeem is praying.
It's his prayer time for Muslims,
so Robin's thinking, this guy's worthless.
Like, and I don't want him following me around.
But over time, Azeem proves that this whole
man of honor thing isn't a shtick, it isn't an act.
It's for real, and time and time again,
he is Robin's friend when Robin needs him.
Time and time again, he displays his quality
and his support.
At a time where Christians were going
to Jerusalem to try and take it back
and convert the Muslims by force, and the Muslims had,
the Christians were their sworn blood enemies,
these two men start to see a shared common humanity,
to the point where we have this great scene
by the fire, where no one of the Merry Men
accepts Azeem because he's a Black Muslim.
And Robin says.
- Has English hospitality changed so much
in six years that a friend of mine
is not welcome at this table?
- But he's a savage, sire.
- That he is.
But no more than you or I.
And don't call me sire.
- So now, here we have Azeem, he's in Sherwood Forest,
they've been robbing from the rich
and giving to the poor, and they're hiding out
from the Sheriff of Nottingham,
played by Alan Rickman, who, even people
who don't like this movie,
agree Alan Rickman is fantastic.
But that's neither here nor there.
And the first person to approach Azeem as a person,
not as a devil or as an enemy, and this exchange happens.
(bright music)
(knife scraping)
(bright music continues)
- Salaam, little one.
- Did God paint you?
- Did God paint me? (chuckles)
For certain.
- Why?
- Because Allah loves wondrous variety.
- Did God paint you?
For certain. Why?
Because Allah loves wondrous variety.
I'm not Muslim, I'm a member of a Christian faith,
but I decided, everyone's talking about Islam
and everyone's talking about Muslims,
and everyone's talking about what's going on
in the other side of the world, and I thought,
a lot of us don't even really know what we're talking about.
If I polled my friends and family who are talking
about these subjects, how many of them have actually
read the Quran, and so, I decided to read the Quran.
Even though I found that there were certain things
that I didn't share, didn't line up with my beliefs,
there's so many things in that book
that we have in common, so many beautiful teachings.
You know, similar prophets, similar stories,
similar, there's so much overlap there.
And the thing that surprised me the most
is how respectful the Quran is about Jews and Christians,
treating them as fellow children of God.
And so there are bridges to be built.
You know, when we're looking at getting along
with people that are different from us,
it's very helpful to see what do we have in common.
We all want love, we all want safety,
we all want belonging, we all want a rich,
meaningful life, and in this case,
she says, did God paint you?
She doesn't say Allah, but he knows they're the same,
and he says, "For certain."
And they connect over a shared meaning that they have,
which is the belief in the Divine, right?
And there are some similarities there.
And where everyone else sees him as cursed or ugly,
she sees him as painted by the hand of God.
And I love when we can look at people who are different
from us and instead of saying, oh, that's frightening
or that's wrong or that's foreign, we can say,
wondrous variety, right?
I love that phrase, that variety is wondrous.
So Little John's wife is going to have a baby.
Now this is medieval times.
They're in a hut in the middle of Sherwood Forest,
and no one there's especially qualified to help her.
So Azeem lends his services to help birth the baby,
and you'll see that Friar Tuck,
the most prominent Christian in the camp,
is not having it.
He is, well, let's just watch what happens.
(crowd yells)
- [Woman] Stop it. She's dying.
- Oh, she's dying. (Fanny moans)
(Fanny gasps)
- Fanny, your baby has not turned.
It cannot be born without help.
- He is a devil seed, sent to lead us astray.
Don't listen to him, he will kill her!
- If you do not listen to me,
she will certainly die, and the child.
- [Fanny] No!
- He's the devil's seed, sent to lead us astray.
- The good friar's done all he can.
(Fanny pants)
I suggest you let the Moor try.
- Let the Moor try.
The Muslim, our sworn enemies, let him try.
- So be it.
- Then be it on your head, I warned you.
(tense music) (Fanny pants)
- Marian? - Yes?
- Get me needle, thread, water.
And pray. - Yes.
Come with me, come, John.
(Fanny cries out)
- And I love how Azeem is-
- What are you going to do?
(Fanny coughs)
(Fanny groans)
- I have seen it many times.
With horses.
(Jonathan laughs)
- With horses? (Jonathan laughs)
- So Azeem's only birthed horses.
- Lie down, yes. (Fanny cries out)
- I love how Azeem just swats away
all the prejudice and says, I have a task at hand.
I'm gonna save her life.
- Give me your arms. (Fanny pants)
- It will be all right.
- And to these people who have treated him
so poorly, he just shows compassion and kindness,
which is an example to all of us, honestly.
(Fanny cries out)
- I tell you, John, the barbarian is killing her.
- [Fanny] No!
No!
- No, Father, no! - Get out of the way, boy.
(baby cries)
- Side note, major props that this baby
doesn't come out clean and smiling like most movie babies.
It's not quite as dirty as a newborn baby,
but like, it's slimy and it's got an umbilical cord.
Like it's, I appreciated the realism.
Even though 10 year old me was like, gah!
Thank heavens they didn't show the amniotic sac.
This would've been rated R.
(gentle, hopeful music)
- You truly are a great one.
- 'Cause his name means great one,
and Robin teased him about it earlier.
- My son! (crowd cheers)
Look at that lovely little laddie.
Isn't he wonderful?
- This is such a dad thing to do.
I'll take him now.
And then this moment, I love.
(joyful medieval music)
- Today, the Lord has taught me a fine lesson,
that though I may think I'm godly,
I know I am not worldly.
Please, please.
(chuckles) Now come, my barbarian friend.
(Jonathan laughs) For you and I open
a barrel together and do our best
to save each other's souls.
- Alas, I am not permitted.
- Well, fine, then.
You talk, I'll drink.
- (laughs) So Friar Tuck's particular branch
of Christianity doesn't forbid drinking,
so he drinks a lot.
But I love that moment when Friar Tuck sees
who Azeem really is and extends his hand to him
and says, please, I'm not worldly, I don't understand
your people or your culture.
Come with me, let's get to know each other better.
Now granted, it should not have taken
Azeem saving Fanny's life for everyone
to be like, oh, I guess he's all right,
and saving the baby.
And we shouldn't wait until the people that we see
as the other, the people that we fear,
the people that we don't understand,
we shouldn't wait until they do this extraordinary thing
to say, oh, okay, I guess maybe you're all right.
The responsibility lies with us.
Are there evil people in the world? Yeah.
Are there people who are trying to do harm? Yeah.
They come in all colors, they come in all races,
they come in all religions.
We do so much good when we extend love
and try to understand instead of trying to be understood.
The therapy that I would recommend for this group of people
from this moment on, if I were in Sherwood Forest
wearing tights, I would do group therapy, honestly.
I would do group therapy where I let them all
share their story, share their experience,
share their perspective, and I would teach them
some healthy conflict resolution skills
so they're not just talking past each other
or insulting each other.
And this is the moment to act.
A cool thing about therapy is when the system is upset,
it the most flexible and changeable, meaning,
the system is interactions between people,
and when something big happens, something happens
to shake it loose, it can be traumatic,
or it can be something big and happy.
That's when people are most open to hearing new ideas
or seeing things from the perspective of others.
This is a really cool movie.
Azeem is badass, I dare say.
I think he's a fantastic addition.
I love the diversity, I love the story.
It had a big impact on me at 10 years old.
So if you haven't watched "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,"
take my recommendation, enjoy it with all its flaws,
'cause the fact is, if this was medieval England,
no one would be speaking with modern British accents
anyway, so it's all inaccurate.
We're not going for accuracy.
We're going for flaming arrows
shot into the heads of ax bearers.
Like this movie is dope, and you should check it out.
So I love pop culture, I love breaking it down.
I love how it illustrates what real relationships look like
in a truncated form, or how they can often get
it very much wrong, and we can tear that apart, too.
So I wanna invite you to check out
the Gets Therapized playlist, where I go into movies
and TV shows and music and song lyrics
and all sorts of stuff, and we break it down,
and look at things that can give us meaning
and direction in our lives.
If you like what we're doing here at Mended Light,
our whole purpose is to help you overcome trauma,
overcome grief, to help you through your hardest times,
and to help you build healthy connections.
Please like, subscribe, click the bell.
What do you think of "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"?
Or what do you think about how we
can overcome our prejudices?
Sound off in the comments below,
and please, as always, share it with your friends.
I'm Jonathan Decker, with Mended Light,
and I'll see you next time.
(bright band music)
And here comes the playlist.
That whole thing is just sitting there,
waiting for you to tickle it.
Tickle it and nuzzle it and love on it.
Or maybe just watch it, you know,
whatever you feel like doing.