Rebel Ridge is a new action thriller by Jeremy Saulnier that tells a rather tense story that takes place in the small town of Shelby Springs. The protagonist at the center of the movie is Terry Richmond played by Aaron Pierre that is against an unethical local police team led by Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson). While trying to post bail for his cousin using his earnings, he is arrested and robbed, which drives him to try to get his money back as well as try to fight injustice that has taken over the town.
Is Rebel Ridge a True Story?
As much as Rebel Ridge tells an interesting plot of a single individual standing up against a corrupt system, it is a work of fiction not based on real life Jeremy Saulnier who has a very detailed and rather dramatic approach to filmmaking applies elements of the action and Western movie genres to his screenplay. The storyline is similar to the action theme of an earlier Stallone film First Blood where an ex- marines renegade turned Vietnam War hero, behavioural complexities similar to Rambo becomes the focus of a man hunt involving a small police com Townsend.
Terry Richmond, the film’s protagonist, is also similar to the classic lone hero of Sergio Leone Dollars Trilogy. Saulnier had hoped that Terry would inhabit something closer to The Man with No Name character type, trying to hack his way through a bad situation like many of the Western ‘heroes’. ‘The main idea is that Terry rides a bike instead of a horse, and the less one knows about his background, the better,’ Saulnier added with a reference to the conventional concepts of the Western hero’s quest.
However, what is unique to Rebel Ridge is the attention to institutional corruption and gray areas of evenness. In contrast to this, what Saulnier has portrayed is how the systems they work within are complex in one way or the other and the effects that come with it on people. While it does not start with an action scene, the film establishes a well-grounded setting in which people struggle with their places within the tainted organizations.
Speaking to Polygon, Saulnier said that he wanted his game to be an action game with a twist, showing the social structure of institutions. It explained that here the main purpose was to create a standard American action movie with ideally more depth. This emphasis on minute aspects of institutional breakdowns with respect to the context of justice and reparations is characteristic of Saulnier’s works.
Corruption in the film is not just used as a backdrop but it is an event that the movie focuses on. This plot based on Saulnier’s personal feelings or interest in justice and what he has gone through. ”My research paved the avenue as much as the provocation of the revelation of how constitutional guarantees are not guaranteed in the least,” he disclosed. The film successfully establishes the notion that corruption is not only manifested through oppression but also with societal compliance and legal intimidation.
In Rebel Ridge, it starts with a man called Terry Richmond a spirited man who wakes up in a terrible position after being knocked down by a police car. Terry has got a lot of cash in form of bails and is on his way to buy the release of his cousin who is in jail. After the police headed by the rotten Chief of police Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) discover the money behind its truth, they take the money away and use the situation to their benefit.
When Terry fails to get the money he almost suffers from the corrupted police force back in his home town. He attempts to report the theft through the legal authorities, but his attempts are in vain. The film takes a deeper look at social issues such as corruption and racism, and portrays how the new system of policing hides injustice behind a liberal veneer.
Terry’s motivic arc turns into as much of a fight against the systemic rot of the small-town police as it is for his cousin’s liberty. Action sequences filled up the movie with some of them being well choreographed and showing tactical sharpness of Terry and his desire. As a former soldier, his experience is extremely helpful when he comes up with a strategy that will help to arrest the corrupt officers and recover the stolen cash.
It is a story of one’s journey as a person who is in the system receiving its numerous shortcomings and then contrasting it with the same system where they work trying to make sense of their existence. Not only this, but as Terry try to battle against all these odds, there are also presented the failings and cruelties of the system in front of which he is fighting. Finally, it’s Terry who doesn’t relent and the action that follows defines a thrilling story of the fight against the imperfect system.
Finally, it is worth to notice that Rebel Ridge is one of the best examples of modern thriller which is not only interesting to watch but also to think about. What unites action and Western films of the past with the contemporary problem of corruption, Saulnier forms a unique movie, which has both, timeless and timely motifs.
Hence, despite the fact that Rebel Ridge is an imaginary story, it represents a unique perspective on people’s frailty and social inequality. What will be received by the audiences when they will immerse themselves into this dark and edgy thriller is the story of an individual up against the systemic rot or the battle of one man against his corrupt system depending upon how one would want to look at the narrative.
Rebel Ridge Filming Locations: Is Samaritan a Real Hospital?
