Hear, hear!

People always cry about American actors doing bad accents but Brits, Irish and others also do terrible American accents.

I think at this point in time the nobility at least (Robin, Marian, Richard, Sherriff, etc.) would have spoken old or middle French.
The issue is perhaps not so much the lack of historical accuracy, but that a very English hero, Robin Hood, is played by an American actor, and a very mediocre performance it is too. It would be courteous to allow the British people to represent their own legends, but that doesn't sell movie tickets. Costner was a big star at the time; that's why he got the role.

Agreed, Dracula came out a year after this and those accents were dreadful. Lucy in Particular.
I can live with Costner's accent just fine.

And, even if Costner did speak with a British accent, somebody would come on here and comment on how bad it was.

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See below. That said, Robin Hood wasn't actually real.
There is real life
and then there are movies!

Awesome story of your memories of summer of 1991 going to see those two terrific film,
T2
and
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
.
I salute you for serving your Country (I'm italian).

There's been much ado about accents in this film. In particular, people from the UK taking issue with an American, with a flat American accent, portraying and English hero. Let's be clear I never took issue with oh say black hawk down, for instance. With mostly Engish and other foreign actors with very bad Anerican accents portraying American Rangers. And yes, I can tell when a Brit is trying to sound American, it sticks out like a sore thumb. The movie doesn't try to be historic or anything other than a little action and adventure and some laughs. For me it reminds of that summer I came back from the Gulf when I was in the Marines. Me and my buddies going to see T2 (Terminator 2) and Robin Hood prince of thieves. It was a just a good time and still is

God no kidding. Thank you! Jesus, it's just a fun movie, not trying to be historically accurate.

^^^that is hilarious^^^
The other guys make good points regarding true accuracy vs uniformity. People need to loosen up, it's &$@ Kevin Costner movie with a theme song performed by Bryan Adams

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Yes, fine, everyone can be said to have some accent. Stop complaining about a lack of modern
British
accents, you know what I mean.
You don't see Italian people upset that every Roman emperor ever depicted on film speaks like he graduated from Cambridge. And if you ever saw their hair back then, they were pretty ugly, a lot of tonsures, awful bowlcuts, and (if Olivier's Richard III was accurate) plenty of mullets. That might be more accurate than anyone wants to admit.
If the filmmakers had been more accurate with accents or hair, people would be making fun of Kevin Costner for having long greasy hair with lice and speaking broken English with a French accent. I'm surprised someone hasn't complained yet because he is a Crusades survivor and he isn't depicted with PTSD.

"lack of accents"???
I hope you're not implying that Americans don't have their own variety of "accents". If anything it is the
presence
of a particularly inappropriate
American
accent that spoils this movie more than anything. Costner's mid-west nasally twang is hard to ignore and thoroughly unconvincing for the role. He (and his fluffy mullet) are in the movie because it was box office candy back then.

Or maybe Iowa

Robin Hood sounds like he's from Ohio.
Utah! Get me two.

All good points.
I think what really bothers people about this isn't the lack of accent authenticity, but the lack of accent uniformity. Of course regional and class differences would account for some distinctions, but the accents here are all over the place, and it's tough to create that suspension of disbelief when characters from the same general region sound so very different. Robin Hood sounds like he's from Ohio. The Sheriff from London. I don't even know what Morgan Freeman was attempting and I don't think he did either (I know he's not supposed to be English, but just saying).

A journey into the realm of the obscure:
http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/