NEW YORK (OSV News) — In 1381, one of the more unusual occurrences in Medieval history took place when a massive rebellion broke out among English serfs, temporarily threatening the established order of society. The events surrounding this attempt at revolution are chronicled in the grim and slaughter-filled dramatization “The Uprising” (Focus).
Writer-director Paul Greengrass’ recounting of what has come to be known as the Peasants’ Revolt is more an action movie than a study of the past. And his film involves an ambivalent treatment of Catholicism that, combined with the movie’s interludes of intensely graphic bloodletting, restricts its appropriate audience.
A bleak picture
Our entree into the bleak world of the 14th century is provided by a fictional protagonist who simply calls himself Ploughman (Andrew Garfield). A downtrodden farmer, Ploughman is still mourning the demise of his wife and children who, like 30 to 60% of the population of Europe as a whole, had succumbed to the Black Death some years previously.
Fed up with the oppression to which he and his fellow members of the feudal underclass have been repeatedly subjected, including excessive taxation, Ploughman sparks a riot by assailing a soldier and, having gained the backing of his rural community, inadvertently becomes a leader of the insurrection that follows. This draws him into a world of complicated politics.
England’s king, Richard II (Woody Norman), is a mentally fragile teenager who mostly avoids matters of state. As a result, his realm is ruled by the clique of noblemen who make up his council of advisors, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Sudbury (Stephen Dillane).
The rebels are thus able to claim loyalty to their sovereign even as they seek to overthrow those who govern in his name. Richard, for his part, seems to waver between accommodation and the mailed fist.
Ploughman and the two real-life chieftains of the insurgency with whom the script has him partner — military veteran Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis) and John Ball (Jamie Bell), a priest suspected of heresy — are initially united. But differences over both their ultimate purpose and the means they should use to achieve it gradually divide them.
Irreverent depictions
While the anger of the mob was certainly directed, in part, at high-ranking, sometimes corrupt clergymen, here the objects of their wrath include friars who presumably would have taken a vow of poverty. In a climactic scene, moreover, the Blessed Sacrament is profaned in a way that very few people living at the time would have witnessed with anything other than dread.
Amid the turmoil, Ploughman befriends a plucky young woman named Alyce (Thomasin McKenzie). She turns out to be an ex-nun with a lurid backstory.
In sum, although an anonymous village priest (Donal Finn) who appears early on is shown to champion the cause of his lowly parishioners, the portrayal of the Church is, on the whole, a negative one. Add to that the unsparing realism with which the numerous armed clashes are depicted and even grown-ups will want to approach this retrospective with caution.
The film contains complex religious issues, gory scenes of combat and other violence, including numerous gruesome sights, sexually abusive behavior and mature references, including to rape. The OSV News classification is L — limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
John Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on X @JohnMulderig1.
