"The Uprising," a new film from director Paul Greengrass starring Andrew Garfield, has opened in Russian cinemas as part of a wider release that began on September 10, 2026. It is one of two films this year to reimagine the legend of Robin Hood, alongside Michael Sarnoski's "The Death of Robin Hood," starring Hugh Jackman. Film critic Pavel Voronkov reviewed both for Gazeta.Ru.
"The Uprising" premiered in Los Angeles on September 2, 2026, before its wider US and Russian release on September 10. It runs 128 minutes and also stars Cosmo Jarvis, Jamie Bell, Thomasin McKenzie, Woody Norman, Katherine Waterston, Sky Yang, Tom Hollander, Stephen Dillane, Stanley Townsend, Jonny Lee Miller and Donal Finn.
A revolt against a boy king
The film is set in England in 1381, after the Black Death has killed half the population while the state strangles the survivors with taxes to fund what historians would later call the Hundred Years' War. Among the discontented peasants is a sad young man, played by Garfield, whose spontaneous act of defiance sets off a long-brewing uprising against the 14-year-old King Richard II, played by Woody Norman.
According to Voronkov, the young king seems more troubled by nightmares about demons than by the state of his country, leaving his council, played by Tom Hollander, Stephen Dillane and others, to effectively rule in his place. Under the veteran Wat Tyler, played by Cosmo Jarvis, and the preacher John Ball, played by Jamie Bell, the rebels march on London demanding an end to serfdom, lower taxes and punishment for corrupt officials.
A hidden Robin Hood marketing gambit
Voronkov noted that Greengrass never advertises that he has made a Robin Hood film, which is why a surprise namedrop by the US distributor Focus Features three weeks before the premiere struck many as a marketing gimmick, prompting the film's English distributors to distance themselves from it. The explicit title "The Hood" was reportedly dropped at some point, he wrote, but the character's green hooded tunic remains a clear nod.
Garfield's character is presented simply as a ploughman who never shoots a bow or robs the rich, which Voronkov linked to history: John Ball, one of the real leaders of the 1381 revolt, often quoted William Langland's contemporary poem "Piers Plowman" in his speeches, a work that contains the earliest surviving reference to ballads about Robin Hood. In Voronkov's view, the film fuses two literary figures tied to ideas of equality without taking any liberties.
Blumhouse's political horror streak
Wat Tyler's rebellion is a landmark event in the history of the left, and Voronkov wrote that Greengrass, as director and screenwriter, does not shy away from that politics. He described the film as sustaining real tension over whether it will settle into the standard Hollywood message that injustice is regrettable but should be protested politely, with the first hour moving in that direction before a second half in which serious atrocities occur. By the closing credits, Voronkov wrote, it becomes clear why horror studio Blumhouse, founded by Jason Blum, is involved: the film's message is that power belongs to the people, and that power arrives packaged in fear.
Hugh Jackman's outlaw in exile
The second film, "The Death of Robin Hood," premiered in New York on June 10, 2026, and was released on June 12 for streaming, running 122 minutes. It is set in England in 1247 and follows a retired Robin Hood, played by Hugh Jackman, hiding from the world in bleak moorlands, where he is periodically tracked down by relatives of people he once killed. According to the film, this Robin Hood was not a noble outlaw but a ruthless and unprincipled bandit, so the stream of people seeking revenge never stops, and all of them fail.
Voronkov wrote that the character no longer knows where his legendary reputation came from, since truth, fiction, his own biography and popular rumor have become hopelessly tangled in his memory. He wants nothing from life except the right kind of death, a chance that arrives when his former henchman Little John, played by Bill Skarsgård, asks for help with a doomed job. Robin Hood agrees and nearly succeeds, before ending up under the care of a compassionate prioress named Bridget, played by Jodie Comer, inside a peaceful monastery, where he gets a second chance. The film also stars Faith Delaney, Murray Bartlett, Noah Jupe, Clive Russell and Jade Croot.
From a 17th-century ballad to Unforgiven
Where "The Uprising" draws on "Piers Plowman," Voronkov wrote that "The Death of Robin Hood" inverts the 17th-century English ballad of the same name, turning it into a medieval version of Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven." He compared director Michael Sarnoski's approach, following his films "Pig" with Nicolas Cage and "A Quiet Place: Day One," to David Lowery's reworking of Arthurian legend in "The Green Knight" and Christopher Nolan's political reframing of Homer in "The Odyssey," noting the irony that Jackman turned down a role in Nolan's film only to take on what Voronkov called one of the best performances of his career here.
Voronkov also wrote that the unfiltered violence on screen, shot on 35mm film by cinematographer Pat Scola with calm, deliberate framing, recalled the bleak tone of Robert Eggers' "The Northman," based on the Scandinavian legend that inspired Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
A quiet box office and a fallen oak
Voronkov called making a gripping film with the spoiler already in its title a difficult task, and wrote that Sarnoski pulled it off, even though audiences largely ignored the film in theaters. He described it as a poignant tale about the contradictions of a world where even the darkest events can lead to something good, and where mercy matters more than truth.
Voronkov noted a coincidence: the day before the film's worldwide release, news broke that the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, the tree under which Robin Hood is said to have hidden from the Sheriff of Nottingham, had died. The tree was estimated to be between 800 and 1,200 years old. If it was looking for the right death, Voronkov wrote, it appears to have found one.
