Mud, smoke and the daily struggle to survive give The Uprising a powerful opening. Paul Greengrass begins his medieval drama in a world where ordinary people are hungry, fearful and pushed too far. When one farmer finally refuses to stay silent, the film quickly finds its pulse. For a while, it feels less like a costume spectacle than a story with real anger behind it.
The revolt has texture, fury and a remarkable leading performance; the legend wrapped around it is the film’s undoing.
Movie at a Glance
- In cinemas: Now playing in the US; in UK cinemas from 11 September 2026
- Director and writer: Paul Greengrass
- Cast: Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell, Stephen Dillane, Tom Hollander, Cosmo Jarvis, Thomasin McKenzie, Jonny Lee Miller, Woody Norman and Katherine Waterston
- Runtime: 128 minutes
- Certificate: R in the US; UK classification advises strong violence, injury detail and sexual assault
- Genre: Historical action drama
Viewer Match
- Best for: Viewers who like historical drama at its grittiest, and who respond to Greengrass’s urgent, close-quarters filmmaking.
- Maybe skip if: You want a clean Robin Hood adventure or a consistently measured historical epic.
- Mood and pace: Bleak, physical and increasingly turbulent; patient at first, then driven by confrontation.
- Cinema or streaming? Cinema gives the battle scenes and soundscape their necessary weight, though the film’s strongest moments are intimate rather than merely loud.
- Spoiler level: Spoiler-free.
A revolt you can feel in your bones
Greengrass understands that history becomes immediate when it is felt through bodies. Fields are waterlogged, rooms are airless and public punishment carries an ugly ceremonial force. The camera stays close enough to catch the fear behind a glance, while the sound design turns boots, hooves and chanting voices into a rising menace. It is not pretty, and it should not be. This is a film about people whose lives have been made small suddenly discovering the dangerous scale of their collective anger.
Andrew Garfield is the reason that charge lands. He gives the fictional Ploughman a watchful, exhausted humanity, resisting the temptation to play him as a born icon. By placing this ordinary farmer at the centre of the revolt, the film gives a huge historical moment a human scale. His performance finds the gap between private bewilderment and public resolve, making every step towards leadership feel earned. Around him, Jamie Bell brings a stern, lived-in conviction, while Stephen Dillane and Tom Hollander lend the machinery of authority its cold, brittle edge. Cosmo Jarvis cuts through with a fierce, unsettled presence as Wat Tyler.
When the myth takes the field
The Uprising is at its best when it trusts the Peasants’ Revolt to be dramatic enough on its own. The screenplay’s early passages make a persuasive case for the film as an angry, tactile account of class violence and the price of speaking back to a crown. Greengrass stages collective action with real force: not as a tidy march towards righteousness, but as a frightening, unstable mass of hope, rage and desperation.
Then the film starts reaching for a larger legend, and its hard-won conviction wobbles. The pivot towards Robin Hood mythology does not deepen the material; it makes the story feel as though it has been asked to become a different movie halfway through. Instead of sharpening the tragedy of real people confronting entrenched power, the device softens the film into origin-story business. The result is not disastrous, but it is frustrating precisely because so much of the surrounding craft is alert, muscular and alive.
Greengrass still directs the action with bruising clarity. The battles are chaotic without becoming incomprehensible, and the production design gives medieval England a convincing sense of mud-stained permanence. Yet the final act cannot quite decide whether it wants the ache of history or the lift of folklore. That indecision leaves a film with genuine fire feeling oddly compromised when it should be most unforgettable.
Spoiler-Free Verdict
- Performances: 8/10
- Direction: 7/10
- Screenplay: 5/10
- Score: 7/10
- Cinematography: 8/10
- Entertainment Value: 7/10
- Overall: 6.5/10
★★★½ / 5 — Stream It
A fierce, superbly performed historical drama that loses some of its authority by forcing a mythic afterthought onto a story already rich with consequence.
Watch the Official Trailer
Focus Features’ official trailer captures the film’s mud-soaked scale and the human stakes behind its rebellion.
Official Film Clip: His Plan
This authorised clip offers a concise, spoiler-light glimpse of the pressure building inside the rebellion.
Has The Uprising won you over as a historical drama, or does its brush with legend pull you out of the story? Share your spoiler-free verdict below.