As I mentioned in my The Death of Robin Hood review (see June '26 post) and insinuated in my MGM+ Robin Hood review (see January '26 post), I reside in NJ, a sovereignty where "taxation without representation" is the hip, cool thing, except for those who suffer under it. Any story, allegorical or factual, that captures the unjust practice interests me.
Writer/director Paul Greengrass (known for his Bourne contributions) has created one such stirring example, a back-story inspiration to the Robin Hood legend, fashioned along the lines of Ron Howard's Moby Dick precursor, In the Heart of the Sea.
It's called The Uprising and depicts diligent folks bled dry by a self-proclaimed, "benign" regime, led by adolescent King Richard II's council, which harms more than it helps (like certain high-ranking, NJ pundits who defame kings, while behaving like the worst possible monarchs).
Andrew Garfield portrays the protagonist, "(the) Ploughman" (no other name is attributed), who triggers his tax-wrought neighbors to shout "Enough is enough!" in downtrodden 1381. To complicate the rebellion, the Black Death has left a mournful stain among the commoners, making it hard for the poor "deplorables" to take their stand, but by golly, they do, going so far as to inundate London to unveil their angry petition to young Richard. However, there are times when the rebels grow so incensed that they emulate their oppressors, and with this comes a profound warning: In the fight for what's right, one mustn't ever lose sight of one's virtue.
Even with this warning staked, The Uprising works as an unaffected, underdog fable, packed with cloak-and-dagger segues and rough-edged battles forged to please action fans. There also comes a point when the Ploughman appears in full, "merry" gear, conveying how action legends are born. (With this, there's room for a sequel, I'd imagine, if box-office and creative conditions should permit.)
Garfield is outstanding in the lead, dispatching his compassionate, from-the-gut style, as he did in Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge and Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man set, not to mention Jon Watt's Spider-man: No Way Home. He makes the Ploughman's fight not only the character's communal pledge, but the viewer's, and that resonates a hundredfold when driving home the yarn's empathetic declaration.
The rest of the cast is tiptop, too, and includes Cosmo (Shogun) Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jamie Bell, Jonny Lee Miller, Sky Yang, Stanley Townsend, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Katherine Waterson and Woody Norman as the anguished but reticent, kid-holding-the-fateful-cards Richard, among other cultivated and impactful performers. They each help fortify the period with grimy gleam and thus accentuate its doleful yet brave heart.
By the time the end credits roll, it doesn't matter if one perceives The Uprising as an official, Robin Hood adaptation. The movie works on its own, because it inspires those in the present to fight to keep what's theirs. Now, if only NJ's disingenuous magistrates would take note. It's not so far-fetched that an uprising could plague them someday, if they so choose not to change their covetous ways.🏹
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