Paul Greengrass on 'The Uprising' and a career shaped by protest
Paul Greengrass discusses his new film 'The Uprising' and how his earlier works, from 'Bloody Sunday' to the Bourne films, reflect their times.
Filmmaker Paul Greengrass is returning to familiar thematic ground with his latest directorial effort, 'The Uprising,' a historical drama about the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England. The film, starring Andrew Garfield, follows peasants who marched on London to protest oppressive taxes, and is scheduled for a September 11 theatrical release.
Greengrass, who began his career as a journalist before moving into documentaries, sees a direct line between this new project and the film that first brought him widespread recognition. His 2002 film 'Bloody Sunday' dramatized a deadly 1972 protest march in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. He notes that both films are, at their core, about marches and the volatile intersection of public dissent and state power.
The 71-year-old director recently reflected on his body of work, tracing how his aesthetic evolved. He described his early style as rooted in British social realist documentary traditions, characterized by handheld cameras and zoom lenses. He admits that while he once considered this approach old-fashioned, it became a defining feature of his most commercially successful projects.
Greengrass suggests that his entries in the Bourne franchise, specifically 'The Bourne Supremacy' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum,' captured a specific cultural moment. He believes those films authentically channeled the widespread mistrust and anxiety prevalent in the West during the post-Iraq War years.
His filmography also includes 'Captain Phillips,' starring Tom Hanks, and the more lyrical 'News of the World.' Greengrass explains that the latter, set in 19th-century Texas, held autobiographical resonance for him, reflecting on the solitary nature of storytelling. He wrote 'The Uprising' during the pandemic, finding surprising parallels between the medieval revolt and a modern world grappling with oligarchic power and systemic rage. He cites Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator' as an inspiration for the film's scale, though he is quick to note his own distinct sensibility shapes the final product.