Can Andrew Garfield make this historical movie shine through the mud?

I’ll hold my hands up and admit I wasn’t expecting much from this film when I saw the trailer, yet when I read this was about the Peasant’s Revolt in the 1300’s, and it was the basis for the Robin Hood myth, my interest peaked.

This film ran for a total of 2 hours, and by the time the credits rolled, I realised I could have watched it again! The film has it’s flaws as almost every film that’s ever made does, but this film, while not overly impressive on the VFX front, is impressive in it’s retelling of a historical event, and the characters from the history books are front and centre. In terms of flaws, there are some continuity issues but nothing like the severe and unforgivable continuity issues from the recent Alan Ritchson effort “Runner”.

The story is set in 1381 during a time where a very corrupt monarchy taxed the population with the Poll Tax. This led to societal breakdowns, and formed the basis of the revolt, where almost every community across England marched to London with the intent to be heard by the King. King Richard II, played by Woody Norman, is basically a crackpot king with Psychopathic tendencies. Jamie Bell plays the heretic priest John Ball, Cosmo Jarvis stars as Wat Tyler, the leader of the uprising, and Andrew Garfield as Ploughman, a fictitious character who forms the basis for the Robin Hood character.

The atmosphere of the film never relents. The visceral way of life back then is captured well on screen, and the beginning scenes where the soldiers are checking the young women of a settlement to see if they are of taxing age is particularly upsetting to watch.
The sets are spot on for the most part, with some scenes filmed in castle areas that are blatantly adorned with modern style gates. Small gripes given that the film was filmed not in the UK, but in Germany at Penzing Studios. This took me by surprise as I didn’t expect this to be filmed outside the UK.

As mentioned, some of the VFX are a bit sloppy, but thankfully these are short in number, and only really show towards the end of the film. The practical effects are good for the most part, but not particularly convincing in some areas where camera cuts are used to hide the fakery. Again, not a dealbreaker by any means.

The exposition in this film can be a bit muddled, where it uses modern day expressions, and then mixes some old world language in with it. This can be a bit confusing at times, and I’m not sure which direction the script was going in. It’s perfectly understandable for the most part, but does have it’s issues. It’s probably here that I have the biggest issue with this film.

Where this film shines, is at the very end of the film. It’s here we see the real origins of Ploughman becoming the fabled character Robin Hood, and it’s brilliantly done. Yet, you really do need to see all the film to understand how, why and what led Ploughman to become this legend of mythology. And yet throughout the entire runtime, the name Robin Hood is never once mentioned, implying that Ploughman is the real-world counterpart to Hood.

I really enjoyed this film, much more than I was expecting too. I also know this film won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but Paul Greengrass and Andrew Garfield have crafted a truly immersive film based on real events.

I give ‘The Uprising’…

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Until the next review…