Why Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Was the Greatest Action Movie of My Great Black Childhood

There’s no shortage of media I remember fondly for their bond to my childhood – video games that were actually repetitive, old lyrics I now know to be terrible, movies that adult-me would find insufferable – all tinted through the rose-colored lens of nostalgia. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is not one of them. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves we got right. From inspiring speeches to astoundingly progressive racial commentary – both blatant and some surprisingly subtle –it wasn’t just an empty 90s action movie; it had some of the best dialogue in an action film, with a cult following of millennials and Generation X’ers to whom its lines are iconic. I thought him a generic Black sidekick at first, but no, Azeem was nothing of the sort. In fact, it’s a movie almost entirely memorable through its assortment of the most hype and hilarious quotes. Prince of Thieves was English folklore, mixed with history, mixed with one of the best representations of Blackness in a white-led, Eurocentric film. Among non-Black mainstream movies, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves had the most memorable pro-Black representations of my childhood. And it started and ended with Azeem, the Great One. Played by Morgan Freeman, Azeem met Robin of Lockley in a Jerusalem prison where they were cutting the hands off thieves. First off, you might think this was young-Morgan Freeman, and relatively speaking you would be correct, because he’s 300 now. He wasn’t really young then, though – Robin Hood premiered in 1991 …