3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Rebel Ridge

2024, Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room) -- Netflix

It would be an interesting study (to only you) to look back on all my posts where I ponder the type of movies I watch -- the guilty pleasures, the ones I feel I Should Watch, the ones I basically hate watch (shit I know will be shit and yet, there I go), the really good stuff that I never get around to watching (Parasite I [still don't] see you) and the transitions from a That Guy who started a blog stating he "was into movies and had something to say" to whatever This Guy is. And more likely, of late, the movies that will just sit square in the middle... genres I like but I don't expect much more than a familiar tune from, big old "meh" movies.

I am not sure where this movie lies. It is very very much the typical Straight To kind of movie with few Named Faces and a director with only one lauded title that I am aware of -- the absolutely emotionally chilling Green Room. But, almost immediately, I saw this was rather a passion project, crafted with such care as to not only present the formula as expected, but also fly in the face of it all.

The formula? First Blood -- a discharged military man is abused by local authorities and fights back. The difference? He doesn't kill a single fucking person. I was about half-way through the movie when I realized this was how it was going to play.

I also have to admit, I was somewhat triggered by the premise as it started -- another movie about black men in America at the mercy of an authority that sees them as fodder. It was just after Nov 6 that I started watching this movie, and while its not just black America that will be abused by the coming regime, its not going to get any better. Its that I tire of seeing it, but it makes me despondent, especially after the movie lays it out so well that the abuse heaped upon him is entirely legal. But after turning it off for a bit, I returned.

Terry Richmond, Marine vet, rides his bike into a small town in Louisiana when the cops literally knock him from his bike. He had his headphones in and didn't notice them tailing him. In his backpack is $36k in cash, which he is going to use to bail out his cousin and buy a truck to start a business. HIs cousin was caught on a misdemeanour but is in real danger, in prison, because he was a witness to a greater crime. The cops take the money on suspicion of... whatever. When Terry talks to a court clerk about the matter, she tells him quite frankly it would be over a year before he could legally get the money back, if he even could.

Rather than taking it lying down, he goes to the police station to report the money as stolen. Not sure why but for the fact he is a man used to standing up for himself. That leads him to confront police chief Sandy Burnne, which is ... not a good move. Despite the police chief appearing to act reasonable, and even telling Terry he will give him back the $10k to bail out his cousin, on Monday morning they transfer his cousin early. Terry's cousin is killed in holding.

I won't go through every plot detail but following the formula, the movie has the Bad Guys push Terry too far and he has to "take the law into his own hands". But he does so... without lethal force. Terry was not the cliche skilled killer who came back from overseas with a chip on his shoulder. In fact, he was never deployed. He was a close quarters combat expert who was seen more valuable on American soil training other soldiers. The corrupt police have a conspiracy in play manipulating the system so as to hide any transgressions they may perform, as they were already under the state's eye after getting caught in such behaviour years ago -- the movie assumes they have always been abusing suspects, and continue to do so. They now do everything in their ability to keep the police force running "legally" by hiding their own crimes in technicalities, no matter who it hurts.

The movie is thoughtful, in that it thinks on each situation it is dealing with and replaces spectacle with measure response. Terry doesn't come in guns blazing shooting every cop he sees until he has his revenge. He actually takes their "deal", which is disheartening in its own right, until they violate it by hurting the clerk who helped him. When he does fight back, it is just to guilt/force one of the force into helping him turn over evidence on all the dealings. Of course, it is a thriller and not a crime procedural or law potboiler, so there have to be stand-offs and action filled scenes. But they all have reasons for being instead of just blowing shit up for the sake of fireballs.

It was a surprisingly solid movie, definitely still in my genre-filler category, but thankfully, a bit risen above the usual fare.