I’m a big fan of, First Blood, The Sylvester Stallone film that came out in 1982 and spawned an entire action franchise and in my mind the action genre. Rebel Ridge is the fourth outing from Jeremy Saulnier. His first two films were horror thrillers and had a specific feel to them. They were very bloody and violent. This movie isn’t as graphic as those two films, but it’s pretty violent. It’s more about the message that resonated with me. Which was similar in tone to First Blood.

Terry (Aaron Pierre, Old) is an ex-Marine who worked at a Chinese Food Restaurant. He is on his way to a small town courthouse on his bicycle to bail his brother out of jail. On the way, he is hit by a police car while listening to music on his phone. He didn’t hear the officer asking him to stop. Once he gets up he is handcuffed and illegally searched by the, now two policemen. They take the 36 thousand dollars he was going to use to get his brother out of jail. This doesn’t sit well with the man and he uses his specific set of skills to try and get his money back and get his brother released. Things don’t turn out so well and this man reverts to his military training to help him move forward.

This story is one that is built in reality. With the problems that the police have in a lot of small towns throughout the United States, this is oh so familiar a situation. Small towns don’t have the funds to fight lawsuits by civilians who feel they were unjustly treated by the police. One lawsuit that goes the wrong way can cost them a lot more than you’d think. That’s the scenario here. One man’s bad treatment and tragedy is another man’s lawful search and seizure which helps his police department.  It’s a nasty cycle all the way around.

Saulnier must have known about a situation involving something like this. This felt like a personal story to him. He added his normal violence and blood but infused those into a genuine story of survival. I mentioned First Blood in my opening paragraph because it seemed like he channeled that great film for this story. Also, a stranger who gets in over his/ her head is a genre that has been done to death lately. Rarely are they as good as this film though. This is how you do the lone stranger genre to perfection.

Besides Pierre, there are a group of good supporting performances in this film. First being Don Johnson the corrupt police chief, he is as nasty as they come, but he’s pretty cool and collected considering the situation he’s involved in. Anna Sophia Robb, famous for The Bridge to Terabithia and Soul Surfer, plays a law clerk in the small town courthouse. She finds some information that implicates the police in a huge conspiracy and corruption as well as bad police behavior toward the citizens of the small Alabama town. Besides them, David Denman, James Cromwell, and Emery Cohen all have good turns in supporting roles. This is a good cast.

Aaron Pierre is a young British actor who’s been doing some good stuff lately in his career, the Underground Railroad from Barry Jenkins being his best so far until now.  In this movie, he is able to shine in a starring role. He is put in a difficult spot and as the saying goes “don’t put baby in a corner” is well used in this situation. He shows his acting skills and his action skills as well. This story mixes in a lot of different acting abilities that go hand in hand with a fantastic story that resonates. Pierre is just starting to hit his stride as an actor and I can’t wait to see where his career goes from here.

Rebel Ridge is a story I’m sure movie fans have seen all too often in other Lone Stranger films. This is an updated one that fits into an American theme of small towns losing funding for their police departments, and ex-military men and women trying to find their footing back home after they return from war overseas. This is a very resonating story no matter how you look at it. The cast is pretty good, but Pierre is the one that shines in this film. Saulnier has gotten back to what fans have come to know from him for good stories with terrific and bloody violent action. This is a return to form for him. I’m sure audiences on Netflix will enjoy it as much as they did Green Room and Blue Ruin.

Streaming on Netflix

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen