Susan Granger’s review of “Rebel Ridge” (Netflix/Bonneville Pictures)
“Rebel Ridge” begins as Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is riding his bicycle on a deserted stretch of Louisiana highway, intently listening to Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast.”
With music blocking the sound of a police car behind him, Terry’s rear-ended and left sprawled on the concrete. Determined to search the backpack that Terry is wearing, the cop summons backup.
Politely explaining that he’s on his way to nearby Shelby Springs, toting $36,000 to post bail for his incarcerated cousin and then to buy a truck, Terry is persistently harassed and his cash confiscated under suspicion of a drug connection.
That’s illegal. Terry knows it but the cops (David Danman, Emory Cohen) don’t care. After all, he’s a Black man and they’re obviously accustomed not only to racial profiling but also to acting with impunity in this backwoods town.
Quietly simmering with anger, Terry tries to defuse the conflict with diplomatic Southern civility, verbally sparring with bullying Police Chief Burnne (Don Johnson), only to discover widespread corruption throughout the precinct.
(Meanwhile, a police search on Wikipedia reveals that Terry’s not only an ex-Marine but that he ran the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, meaning he’s a self-defense expert.)
Determined to file the paperwork necessary to free his cousin from jail before he’s transferred to a state prison where his life is endangered, Terry is befriended by Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb)
Summer works for the county clerk; she was previously cowed by the town’s power players and is desperately trying to regain custody of her child. She understands all about police entitlement and ‘asset forfeiture,’ which makes her increasingly vulnerable to the avarice-prone men around her.
Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier (“Green Room”) keeps the tension taut, basing the title of the film on the field where the final confrontation occurs. Problem is: the ‘survivalist’ protagonist and action/thriller plot are all too familiar, harking back to Tom Laughlin’s “Billy Jack” (1971) and Ted Kotcheff’s “First Blood” (1982), introducing Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Rebel Ridge” is a slow-burning yet satisfying 6, streaming on Netflix.
