THE UPRISING – Review by T.J. Callahan
The Uprising: No Kings
Everything old is new again. History continually repeats itself. After watching the grand spectacle of the Peasant Revolt of 1381 in England, humans have not learned a thing from our evil past.
Blending real historical events with fictional folklore, The Uprising opens after the Black Plague swept across Europe and killed half the population of England. The Kingdom needs money and the corrupt court that advises the adolescent Richard II decides to levy a tax so brutal on the commoners that all they can do is rebel. Paraphrasing Popeye, it’s all they can stands, they can stands no more.
Andrew Garfield is The Ploughman, an intuitive widower clinging to his identity and the leader of The Uprising. He had a dream and organized a march on London to protest deplorable living conditions and class struggles hoping all will be well after “the poison of wealth” is removed. Boy, was he wrong.
Written and directed by Paul Greengrass (Jason Bourne, Captain Phillips), The Uprising also stars Jamie Bell as a priest, Thomasin McKenzie as Alice who is an amalgam of several women protestors, Woody Norman as the used and abused Boy King and Katherine Waterston as the Queen and not heard Countess.
The Uprising is a film about power of all kinds that will make you cheer and squirm. Heads will roll, literally. It’s meant for the big screen.The final 30 minutes of this two hour peasant revolt is a revoltingly gory, action-packed skirmish of betrayal, deceit and revenge…with such attention to
detail Garfield probably smelled revolting.
My husband Ricky gives The Uprising two 👀s open. It absorbs up to a blood and mud splattered 7 out of 10 on the TeejFlixometer. If you like to sit close to the screen, bring a towel.
