Whatever confusion The Uprising’s chaotic marketing campaign might have caused, it does get one thing kind of right about the medieval revenge thriller. It’s not really a Robin Hood story until it suddenly is, thanks to an awkward coda tacked onto the end of its arduous retelling of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. It’s something like a studio note swathed in a vaguely green burlap cloak, and it’s ironically the biggest bummer within a tale that’s bleak enough as it is.
Writer-director Paul Greengrass is no stranger to gritty adaptations of harrowing true-life events: apart from his contributions to the Jason Bourne saga, it’s probably what he does best. His jolty handheld camerawork will never not court controversy, but for those pure of heart, it actually does add something to The Uprising that other, stuffier medieval epics (Robin Hood stories or no) often lack. There’s something gratifying, if bemusing, in the way his fly-on-the-wall cinematography clashes with the austere stylings here.
