Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Aaron Pierre, Don Johnson, AnnaSophia Robb, James Badge Dale, James Cromwell
The creators of the hit '80s show Miami Vice seized on the
idea of civil asset forfeiture, a process that allows US law enforcement
bodies to seize the property of any citizen they suspect is involved in
illegal activity. This allowed Don Johnson's vice detective Sonny
Crockett to drive around Miami in sportscars while clad in flash threads
and Rolexes. An alternate title for the show might have been "Civil Asset
Forfeiture: Fuck Yeah!"
Four decades later and Johnson is still sporting a badge and seizing
assets, but writer/director Jeremy Saulnier's
Rebel Ridge is no celebration of CAF, rather a damning
indictment of a process that will have viewers asking "how is this
legal?"
Rising British star Aaron Pierre plays Terry, an ex-marine who was
about to buy a truck and go into the boat-hauling business with his young
cousin Elliott (Steve Zissis) before the latter was arrested in a
small town on a charge of possessing marijuana. Elliott had once given
evidence against a gang leader, so Terry is all too aware that his cousin
won't last long behind bars. With $10,000 to post bail and another $26,000
to pay for a truck, Terry cycles into the small town in question with the
aim of getting Elliott bailed before he's imprisoned. Terry has barely made it past the town boundary before he's knocked off his
bike by the cops, who seize his bag of cash, claiming they suspect him of
being involved in drug dealing due to his cousin's arrest.
That Terry literally rides into town is an acknowledgment on
Rebel Ridge's part that this is a western in modern garb. Terry is the classic strong
and silent hero who finds himself making an enemy of the town sheriff, and
Johnson's Chief Sandy is the stock shit-eating sheriff who has been getting
away with his misdeeds for so long he's developed an arrogance about his
crookedness. In AnnaSophia Robb's sympathetic courthouse clerk we
have a variation of the sensitive schoolmarm who takes pity on our hero.
Throw into the mix a crooked judge and an array of loathsome deputies, and
the stage is set for a proper showdown.
Terry is no John Rambo though, and certainly no John Wick. Saulnier plays
around with the cliché of the ex-marine by making Terry something of a
pacifist whose military role was teaching self-defence, and unlike the usual
protagonists of movies of this ilk, he has no actual combat record.
Conversely, Chief Sandy and his deputies have seen action, which gives them
what quickly becomes a false sense of security.
By modern standards, Rebel Ridge is relatively low on action.
It has more in common with classic westerns in how it spends most of its
running time indulging in a slow burn pissing contest between its hero and
villain before the climactic shootout, which doesn't go down here as you
might expect.
Making Terry African-American adds an extra element of tension. Knowing his
skin colour causes itchy trigger fingers among cops, Terry is forced to
choose his words wisely, to ensure he addresses Chief Sandy as "sir," even
if he has to bite his tongue while doing so. Had
Rebel Ridge been made 50 years ago Terry would have been
played by Fred Williamson and every white cop would have met a violent
demise, but in the current climate Hollywood is unwilling to risk upsetting
a white audience by allowing a black audience to indulge in such fantasy.
That's probably not the sort of movie Saulnier would make even if he could
though, and it's the restraint that makes Rebel Ridge stand
out as more sophisticated than the average revenge thriller. We may not get
to see a black hero mowing down scores of racists to a funky soundtrack, but
there are moments here that feel quietly revolutionary as Terry uses his
brains rather than his brawn to belittle the baccy-chewin' white sheriff.
Pierre looks every inch the action hero but for Terry, de-escalation is the
name of the game, until it's no longer possible. He's more Jack Reacher than
John Wick, and the brief blasts of action we get here are realistic and
well-mounted, and all the more impactful for it. Similarly, the dialogue is
colourful without being showy.
If I have a quibble with Rebel Ridge it's that its initial
critique of America's legal system is tempered by how it goes out of its way
to ensure we know the villains are a specific handful of crooked cops
manipulating the system, rather than the system itself. It's perhaps a sign
of how spineless modern Hollywood has become when it comes to criticising
institutional corruption, of how we're continually told it's just a few bad
apples rather than a rotten orchard. That said, the defining image
of Rebel Ridge is of a beleaguered black man and an
abused woman failing to muster anger and instead turning to resignation
regarding their place in the system.
Rebel Ridge is on Netflix from
September 6th.
