“The Uprising” is inspired by the historic events of a battle that gave birth to the legend of Robin Hood. In the film, a farmer essentially becomes a superhero and helps to guide a faith-filled rebellion against the tyranny of King Richard II.
Award-winning filmmaker Paul Greengrass wrote and directed the epic production. He shared with CBN News’ Studio 5 how this story compares to the history that was taught to him as a child in the United Kingdom.
“It’s the same story. I think what was amazing to me was when I sat down to write it was how contemporary it all felt. It’s not distant history at all. It really felt like our tomorrow, a world divided between the rich oligarchs and the rest of us, ragingly angry at a system that’s rigged against us. That all felt pretty contemporary. And then it’s also, I wanted to make a big historical epic like Gladiator or Braveheart, one of those kind of movies, because I love those movies and I’d never ever tried to make one. So you need a grand spectacle, you need history to turn, you need intimate characters like Andrew’s character and Thomason’s character. You need some kind of a love story in the middle of it. And characters whose destinies you get caught up in; you want the march to succeed.”
Andrew Garfield stars as the Ploughman, a nameless farmer at the center of the story. Garfield described how he brought out the courage in his character and the difficulty of the role.
Garfield said, “I think we find these characters at the beginning of the story kind of worn down to a nub of their humanity, and there’s a kind of despair and anguish and agony that gives them a path towards very, very courageous acts because it’s acts of survival, not just for their bodies and for their ability to breathe in and out, but to have a life that has some form of meaning and some form of dignity. And it’s like the soul is crying out for justice, and it feels like a calling. It doesn’t feel conscious. It feels physical and visceral. And obviously what Paul does so brilliantly in all his films is he gets to that visceral core humanity that animates people, the animating spirit of what it is to be a person. He gets right down to the kind of raw nature of it. So I think all of these characters have that as their motor.”
Garfield also told Studio 5 how difficult it was physically portraying this role.
“Yeah, it was hard, but I think it was hard for all of us and everyone in the crew. But in that sense of you feel like you’re doing God’s work. It’s like you’re at the wheel of you’re pushing something forward that feels righteous,” he continued.
“It’s like being on a march for something that you really believe in. It’s like you go home at the end of every day and you’re knackered and you can’t wait for your head to hit the pillow, but you’re invigorated. It’s like a tiredness that’s also very invigorated. And it’s that feeling of a kind of all-for-one, one-for-all thing. It’s a community pushing towards something great, serving something greater than themselves. What those people on the march were doing, but what we on the movie were doing as well. There was not a lot of ego involved. It felt like a real kind of community effort. So yeah, it was a beautiful feeling.”
Thomasin McKenzie plays the complex role of Alyce.
“I would describe her as someone who has been deeply, deeply betrayed and cast aside, and her one purpose in life is to seek justice for how she’s been treated. She’s angry and really, really motivated to do good and to seek change,” she told CBN News’ Studio 5.
“There was a lot of marching and a lot of shouting and charging. But I think what I think of when I think of making this film was the incredible effort from the cast and from the crew, but also from the background actors. They really, I don’t know, they were a huge, huge part of this film and did fantastic, fantastic work. And I really leant on them, I think, when it came to who Alyce was.”
“The Uprising” deals with elements of violence due to war, but shares elements of faith. Greengrass shared with CBN News’ Studio 5 why this was important in the film.
He said, “Really, really important because for the people of the 14th century, justice was something that came from God and injustice was something created by man. And in a way, I think there’s something of that today. I think we all look around and go, well, why is the world as it is? Because it’s certainly not right. And you kind of know it’s being created by us, and somehow we’ve got to get in touch with something a little bigger than ourselves if we’re going to move the world in a better way, I think.”
“Every film is a small miracle because it all has to come together and everyone has to come together. And this was no different. I mean, this was even more so maybe because it’s hard to get films made and you have to sort of stick with it. But I was very, very lucky to have Andrew and Thomason and all the other actors want to come and take part because if that hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t have a movie. So it did feel, I have to say, a bit miraculous as an experience that it just happened and we ended up in a muddy field marching around making a lot of noise and charging each other. And Thomason’s right, those amazing, supporting artists who kind of surrounded us all and made it all feel real. So it was a really miraculous experience to be absolutely honest.”
“The Uprising” is now playing in theaters nationwide.
You can find a movie review from MovieGuide here.
