‘Rebel Ridge’ REVIEW: An enthralling one-man revolution
‘Rebel Ridge’ REVIEW: An enthralling one-man revolution
Aaron Pierre in Rebel Ridge | Still courtesy of Netflix
Rebel Ridge is not the film that you think it is, and it is all the better for it.
The film immediately hooks the audiences with a riveting opening scene: former Marine Terry Richmond (in a star-making lead performance by Aaron Pierre) is cycling through a near-empty road in the American South with Iron Maiden blasting loudly in his ears. The song is so loud that he doesn’t hear a police car approaching behind him, which then rams him at the back of his bike and causes him to topple down the pavement. Terry is then held at gunpoint by the cops and threatened with tasers even though he is already being handcuffed at this point. He reluctantly has his personal belongings searched; there, the cops finds $36,000 cash inside a duffel bag.
In this scene, Terry, coming out of initial shock and rage from the fall, keeps his cool and calmly answers the officers’ questions: he explains that the cash will be used to buy a truck and bail his cousin out. He informs them that the money is legitimate, mentioning his previous employer, from whom he received the money, and also showing the truck that he will be buying.
However, the cops raise their eyebrows upon knowing that his cousin was charged for drug possession and confiscate the money anyway. Terry tries to protest, but he has to compromise. At the end, he is let go by the cops and is even offered medical assistance for the scrapes he has gotten from being rammed off his bike (which he politely declines out of frustration).
Terry got out of that ordeal by being cooperative and levelheaded throughout this whole ordeal with the police. But at what cost?
Terry (Aaron Pierre) secretly talking to Summer (AnnaSophia Robb) in Rebel Ridge | Still courtesy of Netflix
From then on, the film holds the tension from the opening scene to its entire runtime considerably well. Terry heads straight to the town hall and tries getting his money back through the town’s legal system. The Judge’s assistant, Summer McBride (played by AnnaSophia Robb), provides some helpful info. Unfortunately, Terry discovers through Summer that the actions of the cops confiscating his money are, in fact, legal under civil asset forfeiture, but he could still request for the money back. However, that would take at least a year, and Terry’s cousin — a snitch who is scheduled to be transferred to a state prison in the next few days — doesn't have the luxury of time.
Desperate, Terry tries his luck at the town’s police station and attempts to report the inciting incident. As everyone would expect, this turns out to be anything but fruitful, as the cops who got his money are also in this precinct, and the police chief (played by a superbly intimidating Don Johnson) has the entire town under his grip. Again, Terry keeps his cool throughout this tense exchange, but everyone could see the raging pot within him, confidently contained through a sturdy and relaxed demeanor — the fiery smoke only radiating from his piercing gaze.
What follows are Terry’s attempts to stage a one-man revolution against the town’s justice system after unearthing evidence of corruption when he is trying to find ways to bail his cousin out. It’s safe to say without spoiling any further that Rebel Ridge is a huge surprise to me; what initially started as a modern take on Stallone’s First Blood became this blend of conspiracy thriller and neo-western elements that made the film feel fresh and intriguing despite its familiar premise.
Terry being held at gunpoint by the crooked cops in Rebel Ridge | Still courtesy of Netflix
Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier often puts his spin on familiar premises. His breakout film, Blue Ruin, is a straightforward revenge story, except the protagonist is out of his element, often incompetent and overwhelmed by his own inner turmoil. And in Green Room (2015), a punk rock band is forced to battle against a gang of neo-nazis after the former witnessed a murder committed by the latter, which is, again, a simple story, but the tension comes from how ill-equipped and impulsive everyone is in life-and-death scenarios.
Saulnier’s films are always frustrating in that regard, but in a compelling way. As viewers, we are often in a relaxed state of mind where we can arrive at the right decisions for the characters on screen, and we roar and agonize when the characters fail to do the same. But we seldom consider that these characters are in a panicked “fight-or-flight” mindset that we, as everyday people, don’t regularly find ourselves to be in. Saulnier is interested in exploring those psyches, as opposed to traditional heroic bad-assery that we often see in works of fiction. He’s often trying to capture the grotesque messiness and the uncinematic sloppiness of realistic human violence.
In Rebel Ridge, I was worried when I saw the trailer, thinking that Saulnier had lost his voice and that it would be one of those forgettable action films that Netflix releases every few months. The trailer makes the film seem like it’s going to be fast-paced, but in actuality, Rebel Ridge is still very much a Saulnier film with its elaborate pacing and a character-driven narrative that is grounded in his sense of realism.
Terry and Summer on a stealth mission in Rebel Ridge | Still courtesy of Netflix
Not only was Saulnier thoughtful in defining each of his characters so that audiences can understand their motivations, but he was also able to give the town its own adequate development, setting the stage for us eventually discovering why such problems exist in its legal system. Sure, Saulnier had to drive the narrative through some shortcuts for the film to arrive at its abrupt but debatably appropriate conclusion, but I’m still enamored by its urgent and intricate plotting.
Furthermore, it’s also interesting to note that despite this having sporadic action scenes and being Saulnier’s least violent film to date, Rebel Ridge remained a gripping thriller where the threats of violence have as much nail-biting tension as its eruption. Through immersive camerawork and shot composition, car crashes are destructive; a stealth mission in the dark looks as if the characters just step into an otherworldly dimension; and simple stunt work such as Aaron Pierre climbing up a bridge in a single crane shot feel impressive.
Terry firing smoke grenades during a shootout | Still courtesy of Netflix
And interestingly enough, the film also had Saulnier handle a highly-skilled individual for a protagonist in Terry, in contrast to the inexperienced leads in his previous films. Surely, audiences expected Terry to go guns blazing against the crooked cops. Except Saulnier had other things in mind.
Using lethal force to fight the power won’t do Terry any favors; instead, it would be an instant death sentence for him as a black man confronting the police. Plus, how was picking out the bad apples for good supposed to change anything when the rotten tree that bore them would remain standing? What he needed was a spark to burn it all down, but without any casualties.
Here, Saulnier created an admirable, semi-pacifist protagonist in Terry, who would rather think smart and dig up his adversaries’ dirt than face them head-on. It’s refreshing to have an action movie hero who would try his damndest not to use his particular set of skills against his opponents, and only utilize less-lethal tactics whenever he got too close. And honestly, I don’t think the character would be this fascinating without actor Aaron Pierre, whose solid physique, dry-witted charms and understated ability to communicate a hidden vulnerability added the necessary dimensions to Terry.
The agitated police chief (Don Johnson) grabbing the revolver in his holster while Terry remains calm and composed in Rebel Ridge | Still courtesy of Netflix
Early in the film’s exhilarating first act, Terry and the police chief talk about de-escalation during armed conflicts. They explained that people in the force were encouraged to utilize de-escalation tactics to avoid fatalities. In the climax, Terry brought the topic up once again. Maybe he didn’t have to fight these cops as people around him were getting hurt. “So I was thinking, what if we just walk away? But I was like, nah…” That entire exchange illustrated the ultimate crux of Rebel Ridge.
Terry was aware that he’s not above the law, and acting drastically without thinking the repercussions would only pour fuel to the fire. And whatever combat skills he learned also had no match to the system, especially when the forces who were guarding it would abuse the laws against him and do anything in mind — legal or not — to keep that system intact. But Terry also knew that things had to change, because if nobody dared to do anything to extinguish the raging fire, then more people would be engulfed by its flames.
Rebel Ridge is now streaming on Netflix.
