Sometimes legends play better than fact. And sometimes one legend plays better than another. For all the excitement brought initially by Rob Roy, Braveheart, and Gladiator, these movies don’t hold up to that key metric that makes something a classic or not–rewatchability. Yet how many times can you sit through another viewing of Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Brian Blessed taking on Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves? Maybe it’s the addition of comedy, maybe it’s the quality of the performances, maybe it’s Peter Cetera singing, but that movie holds up 35 years later.
The subject of the next entry in the historical fiction genre most probably know from Bugs Bunny and Gioachino Rossini’s memorable overture, which was also the theme to the 1940s-1950s The Lone Ranger series. That’s the story of Swiss legend William Tell shooting an apple off his son’s head with a bow and arrow. Adapted and directed by Nick Hamm, William Tell arrived in UK theaters this past month and is expected to have a theatrical release in the U.S. in April. Despite supporting roles filled by top Brit talent Ben Kingsley and Jonathan Pryce, as well as Willow and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ Ellie Bamber and the Cornetto Trilogy and Prometheus’s Rafe Spall, its biggest challenge is relative unknowns in the lead roles. That’s Claes Bang (The Northman) as William Tell, plus Connor Swindells (Scoop), Golshifteh Farahani (Extraction), Jonah Hauer-King (The Little Mermaid), and Amar Chadha-Patel (Willow). But in its trailer the cinematography by Jamie Ramsay (District 9) sure looks like those 1990s medieval legend movies.
Check out this trailer for William Tell:
Look for William Tell in theaters in limited release in April 2025 in the U.S. with streaming options to follow. It’s currently in theaters in the UK and opens in Australia today.
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
