Rated TV-MA, 131 minutes
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Aaron Pierre, Don Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, David Denman, James Cromwell, and Emory Cohen
You love bands when they’re playing hard
You want more and you want it fast
They put you down, they say I’m wrong
– Rebel Rebel (David Bowie)
No stranger to crafting tales of good vs. evil, writer-director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room) is back to his bag of tricks with Rebel Ridge. In the weeks following Netflix dropping it onto its platform, I keep thinking about the story. Not just how it plays out but how both the protagonist and antagonists are not wrong for doing what they have to do.
Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is minding his own business while riding his bike with Iron Maiden in his headphones blaring. A patrol car trailing behind announces its presence. Terry doesn’t react to the warning and is knocked off his bike. The following interaction is a bad situation turned worse. Terry is in possession of a sizable amount of bail money to spring his cousin out of jail before the cousin gets sent to a prison nearby. Cops see it as easy money: a bonus for a job well done. Actually, the legal term is civil asset forfeiture. The government (in this case a small, backwoods police force) can seize and keep or sell property alleged to be involved in a crime. Seeing Terry is an African American male with more than $20,000 in his possession they figure him for a drug dealer on a ten-speed.
Terry shows measured calm in spite of this blatantly shady but legal practice. The patrolmen take him for a guy who won’t fight back. But Terry is an ex-marine. Once a marine, always a marine – regardless of the time or place. Terry does make an ally in his judicial pursuit, but everything i there in the opening scene. One against several. If you weren’t already curious where the story was going, by the end of the prologue you will be at full attention.
Jeremy Saulnier gives the viewer just enough of a jolt to be furious in a this-isn’t-right kind of way. The good vs. evil construct is in place, but the story moves beyond trashy revenge tale trappings as it injects social commentary to the injustice unfolding. To hear Saulnier describe his film, it is “First Blood meets Michael Clayton.” I’ll go a step further and label it a civil actioner. At its core, though, Rebel Ridge is a western. Terry’s bike is his trusty stead, and he moseys into Shelby Springs, Louisiana, a town that might as well be located between the towns of Bad Luck and Trouble.
Money flows through the Shelby Springs police department into the town. The weapons and contraband seized keep the department operational when the state government cuts its funding. Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) shares with Terry this information as rational credence. Granted, the exchange is done long after our hero marine fails to get his money back legally in trying to file a police report. Sandy is an old-timer police chief without proper support. For him, civil asset forfeiture is a legal loophole to ensure his staff gets deserving pay. This reasoning may help Sandy sleep easier at night, but the lies we tell ourselves can only remain true for so long.
Stuck in a legal quagmire with no expediency, Terry transforms his measured calm into a tactical response full of chokeholds and acronyms as he battles corruption. Saulnier is smart in holding his cards close, letting the stakes continue to climb before laying a winning hand of satisfying action. The lead-up as Chief Burnne first underestimates the marine – since Terry didn’t deploy overseas – gives us a taste of his skillset. It turns out Terry was a MCMAP instructor while enlisted. Short for Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, he specializes in unarmed close-range combat. The initial standoff between the two is all about fluidity and spatial relations. Then Saulnier goes aboveboard when Terry takes on the entire force. Just a pure masterclass in shooting and editing action. Intense and straightforward, and you never get lost in what is occurring.
Rebel Ridge is a simple slow-burn genre thriller that stands out because of Saulnier’s ability to balance artistry with societal issues. Racism and police corruption are topical, and I admire how Saulnier can take escapist entertainment and take it seriously.
For a project that had to weather several setbacks, including having to start over after its lead actor bolted, Rebel Ridge seems like a fiasco turned fantastic. Saulnier landing Aaron Pierre was a stroke of good fortune as the actor’s charisma makes us believe Terry as a man who walks tall regardless of the odds. Believe you me, Pierre’s stock as a leading man is only going to grow.
Aside from a saggy second act that is more procedural in trying to obtain evidence of ongoing police corruption – and having a generic-sounding title that feels it will get lost in the Netflix algorithm and mistaken for Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Rebel Ridge can be forgiven. The first hour is about as perfect as you can get for this type of movie. The middle section and abrupt conclusion are minor deterrents for what is another stellar feature from Jeremy Saulnier.
Grade: B+
