Can ‘The Uprising’ Bring Medieval Rebellion to Life in an Age of Modern Populism?

It is perhaps surprising that it has taken several centuries for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to be given the stirring cinematic treatment that it deserves, but now Paul Greengrass’s historical drama film “The Uprising” is sending it into the multiplexes in all its muddy, gory glory.It may not be a coincidence that “The Uprising” is released in American cinemas on the eve of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Just as he made perhaps the greatest film about the September 11 attacks to date with his spare and shocking “United 93,” so Mr. Greengrass has reached back to the events of the Peasants’ Revolt, when Wat Tyler led a gang of disaffected rebels from Canterbury to London to take arms against Richard II and demand social and political reforms which, if they had been accepted, might have led to a wholly different relationship between monarchy, aristocracy, and the so-called “peasant class” in Britain, who were essentially the wholly owned vassals of the local nobility.It is impossible to know for certain what the repercussions would have been if the Peasants’ Revolt had succeeded; there were times during its progress that it looked as it might have done. Tyler and his men seized and executed several unpopular dignitaries, including Archbishop Sudbury and Sir Robert Hales, the Lord High Treasurer, and gave the king a list of demands that included the general abolition of serfdom, the summary execution of officials who they blamed for the poor state of the country, and an amnesty for all men involved in the uprising.While Richard II initially appeared to be receptive to these demands — given that he might have been torn to pieces if he had refused, he was wise to do so — it swiftly became clear that he had no intention of acceding to them, and was instead playing for time while forces loyal to the throne could be raised. Tyler himself was killed on 15 June 1381 and the rebellion soon began to fall apart afterwards, although the king wisely upheld the amnesty that he had promised, albeit with the exception of the execution of the ringleaders. Chief amongst these was a priest, John Ball, who was seen as the intellectual and moral center of the revolt, preaching a subversive gospel to the rebels that asked “When Adam delved and Eve span, who then was the gentleman?”“The Uprising” stars Andrew Garfield as an anonymous ploughman who, after already losing his family to the plague, is being beset by ever-increasing tax demands from uncaring bureaucrats until he loses his temper, strikes out and begins leading a rebellion, along with Wat Tyler and other similarly disaffected serfs. The picture has an impressive cast including Thomasin McKenzie, Stephen Dillane and Jamie Bell, as well as the great Tom Hollander as Hales. Focus Features, who are distributing the film, might well be worried that the subject matter will not play as effectively in America as it will do in Britain — a recent marketing panic saw the subtitle “The Rise of Robin Hood” added, and then removed, from the title, though references to the hero of Sherwood Forest are still scattered across some of its promotional advertising.However, Messrs. Garfield and Greengrass are confident that their themes are sufficiently universal to be as relevant to middle America in 2026 as they were to the Middle Ages. In a recent interview with Deadline, Mr. Greengrass, who also wrote the film’s screenplay, suggested that “It was never the purpose to make a documentary about the Peasants’ Revolt or a history lesson. What was in my mind was I wanted to make a big historical epic because that’s a genre that I’d never worked in.”Citing the (helpfully Oscar-winning) likes of “Braveheart,” “Gladiator,” and “Spartacus” as his forbears, the director suggested that it was an epochal time in world events because, “For the first time in history, ordinary folk began to feel that what they felt about the unfairness of the world mattered. And that feeling never went away, it stayed there in the stories they told about outlaws.” This, for him, resonates particularly strongly with America right now and its recent monarchy-themed anti-Trump protests: “What did the American Revolution become? America threw off the king. No kings. We’ll live in our own republic, just exactly like the Ploughman says at the end. These events that are so unknown in America actually are foundational really, historians would argue.”Andrew Garfield and Paul Greengrass attend the Los Angeles premiere of ‘The Uprising’ on September 2, 2026. Via Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty ImagesIf Mr. Greengrass is a combination of scholar, historian and diplomat, then it is his leading man who is a passionate advocate for the film’s subversive message. Mr. Garfield, who has skillfully moved on from his “Spider-Man” days to become an actor of stature, stated in a recent Q & A for “The Uprising” that “I hope there’s some awakening that people feel, that they feel that their own, that we all feel like our own struggles are being reflected in the struggles of these characters from a distant time and place, and that it could be directive. And I hope that if any billionaires watch it, they’re scared shitless.”He also suggested that the film will resonate differently, and unpredictably, with a range of audiences. “One of the things that’s cool about this film is that it’s a bit of a Rorschach Test,” he added. “A lot of differently politically aligned people will go, ‘Oh, it’s me!’ We get into really dicey territory — and to not see the [British far-right activist] Tommy Robinson stuff as anything but despicable is just ignorant — but I’m sure a bunch of people will look at this film and go, ‘England first! What about us?’ It’ll be very interesting in that regard.”“The Uprising” team are relaxed about the “Robin Hood” confusion. Mr. Greengrass’s original screenplay was titled “The Hood.” The film was never intended as a straightforward Robin Hood origin story — there is no Maid Marian, no Sheriff of Nottingham, and no Sherwood Forest — but the director says it draws on a shared cultural understanding of the legend. “The [Robin Hood] ballads all postdate the Peasants’ Revolt and were wildly popular and continued to resonate and echo down,” Mr. Greengrass said. “Why? Because at a time when people felt that the world was unjust, telling stories about an outlaw who stood up against power when they themselves felt powerless, that kept the dream alive. That’s where the legend of Robin Hood began and why it began.”Garfield has echoed this sentiment, claiming that while he is “three weeks sober from social media” and therefore missed the kerfuffle around the film’s short-lived subtitle, he also believes that “The Robin Hood aspect is more of an emergent energy and archetype within our story” rather than a literal presentation of the bow-twanging hero. However, he acknowledges that films need to be marketed, and that “We’re in a time of chaos. There’s no formula to getting people to see a film.” If this means, therefore, that a gritty, uncompromising historical picture about an important but, in this country, lesser-known event has to be marketed around a universally recognized character, then so be it.It remains to be seen whether “The Uprising” manages to rise up at the box office or if it is defeated by other, less complex pictures. Few would suggest, for all its many strengths, that Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is anything so overtly political, and its vagueness in such matters may be one reason why it is now one of the highest-grossing films of all time — a level that, for all its achievements, “The Uprising” seems unlikely to match. Yet in an age when protest on both left and right has led to civil disturbance and a growing sense that society is not properly functioning in any way, it may well end up being the most resonant and relevant film of the year.Or as Mr. Garfield — who will soon be seen playing another contentious figure, Open AI founder Sam Altman in the film “Artificial,” — bracingly states, “There’s an obsession that we have right now with ascending above all of our issues and even going to another fucking planet to do it. That’s going to solve nothing.”

Can ‘The Uprising’ Bring Medieval Rebellion to Life in an Age of Modern Populism?

Can ‘The Uprising’ Bring Medieval Rebellion to Life in an Age of Modern Populism?

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