Between misleadingly advertizing promising a proto-Robin Hood foundation tale (more grime/more gore/more ‘realism’) and a strong back-wind from Peter Watkins’ monumental (and monumentally over-praised) ‘you-were-there’ LA COMMUNE (PARIS, 1871), Peter Greengrass’s downbeat take on Britain’s doomed 14th Century ‘Peasant Rebellion.’ equally crippled by an inadequate budget making do with Revell® model towns & river ships, never had a chance. A pity as the history is fascinating and little known outside the U.K. Basically a tale of overreach by the rich & titled, now underfunded after the Great Plague, and how they went back to pillage villages once too often, arousing revolt in the South and up to London; the Peasant Rebellion. Unsustainable, but not before churches were looted and upper-crusts killed, along with many innocents. Andrew Garfield is intensely touching as the bereaved farmer who becomes figurehead to the movement, but Greengrass can’t structure the chaos that outran the noble ideas.* Once we reach the final betrayal and epilogue (which finally brings in the Robin Hood angle), he’s lost touch with cast & audience. So, in an ironic twist, it’s King Richard II, switching sides & allegiances like a weather vane, who becomes (by default?) the guy we’re interested in. Barely 14 at the time (late puberty in those days, you wonder if his voice had even changed*), his assumption and use of his power over subjects and Council, the sudden growth as political/military strategist is the thru line Greengrass misses.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Richard II, ten when crowned, at his most impressive in his teens. Shakespeare’s RICHARD II focuses on later decline and dethronement. See this Richard in the opening segment of THE HOLLOW CROWN/’16. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-hollow-crown-2016.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Here spoken in modern Mid-Atlantic English at a time when Chaucer, later patronized by Richard II, was writing. (You still can't understand a word. Subtitles suggested.)
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