The Uprising Wastes a Good Class-Struggle Story
Instead of inspiring an awakening as filmmakers hope, The Uprising repeats tired liberal calls for “healing” and, when those disappoint, turns to fantasies of individual violence. The real 1381 English Peasants’ Revolt, however, still inspires us centuries later.
The Uprising gives us little chance to appreciate the radical and modern vision animating the rebels of the English Peasants’ Revolt. (Blumhouse Productions)
In 1381, more than a hundred thousand poor English people rose up demanding an end to serfdom. During the uprising, they killed a coterie of hated government officials, and, in turn, the fourteen-year-old King Richard II massacred thousands of them.
The best-remembered figure of the English Peasants’ Revolt is one of its leaders, John Ball, whose speeches and sermons captured the spirit of what would eventually, centuries later, develop into socialism. “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?” he famously asked, meaning that in the Garden of Eden, the Bible’s first people labored only for their own sustenance, with no concepts of lords and serfs.
As a socialist and fan of medieval period pieces, I was excited to see the new film The Uprising, which dramatizes the English Peasants’ Revolt and stars Andrew Garfield as a fed-up farmer-rebel. The subject matter has the makings of a thrilling class-struggle movie — and indeed, Garfield and director Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, two films in the Bourne trilogy, and Bloody Sunday) promoted the movie as a tale of resistance to oligarchy. As The Hollywood Reporter writes, “The Uprising feels strikingly of the moment. Modern-day oligarchs wield outsized influence over elections and self-enriching policies. Working people, meanwhile, continue to struggle with the rising cost of living.”
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.