In the opening moments of Paul Greengrass’ epic medieval drama, The Uprising, which brings to life England’s Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, a young King Richard II kneels before an altar, clutching a Rosary and praying fervently.
This sets a stark visual tone for a film saturated with Catholic imagery — from the radical preaching of John Ball to royal confessions and a momentous Corpus Christi procession. For the starving, desperate populace, this sacred feast day celebrating the Real Presence of Christ was not merely a liturgical tradition, but the precise moment they expected God to work a miracle on their behalf.
Instead, as tension boils over, the procession turns violent, leaving the Blessed Sacrament scattered in the dirt and shattering their expectations.
At the heart of this broken world is Andrew Garfield, who plays the humble Ploughman — a man driven to the brink after losing his family to the Black Death, facing ruin under heavy taxation, and watching girls being harmed in a most egregious, offensive way — who decides to take a stand.
