The Uprising

The Uprising is not your usual historical drama.

Paul Greengrass’ typically handheld, constantly moving camera style creates an urgency, propulsion and queasiness to this take on the 1381 Peasant Revolt that thrusts you into the action.

It really is all go across its two-hour runtime with all of the difficult-to-understand accents, itchy looking clothing, mud, gore and general murkiness you’d expect of England in this time.

As Andrew Garfield’s fictional Ploughman (or, maybe, Robin Hood which really didn’t need to be part of this otherwise largely true tale) and other common folk march on London to petition to King Richard II we become part of their journey.

Whilst this general ‘no nonsense’ forward motion is welcome it does somewhat fast forward a little quickly through proceedings and we don’t get huge character depth or much historical background on what we’re seeing.

Likewise, the queasy camera movement and splashes of violence make the film stand out but won’t be to all tastes.

Garfield is excellent in the lead role and ably supported by a great cast (Woody Norman is equally great as the young King) but, as aforementioned, some of the script can be hard to understand due to some of the accents and the filming style.

So it’s an interesting, different and well-made historical film depicting a time period and subject rarely seen before.

It keeps itself deliberately away from feeling like any sort of ‘epic’ which is to be admired but also, naturally, loses some replay value and feels somewhat lightweight because of it.

One for any history fans who like the ‘print the legend’ style and want a rough Game of Thrones lean to their films.

The Uprising could also, somewhat strangely, be the best Robin Hood film as well if you do want to give it that attachment.

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