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From Rambo to Reacher and Now Netflix’s ‘Rebel Ridge’ [1]
['Keith Roysdon', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar']
Date: 2024-09-19
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, a newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, retrospectives, recommendations, and more. You can join the mailing list at the bottom of this article to receive future editions in your inbox.
To entertain their fellows gathered around a fire, early man probably told stories about a stranger who wanders into a settlement and challenges the status quo, defying the unjust leadership of the tribe, punching some bullies, and righting some wrongs before moving on down the road.
Today’s versions of small-town conflict are not new stories, obviously, and in the modern day we’ve seen it told in everything from “First Blood,” author David Morrell’s 1972 novel (adapted into the Rambo films) to Lee Child’s long-running “Reacher” novels, made into their own movies and a streaming TV series.
I’d say that “Rebel Ridge,” director Jeremy Saulnier’s new film for Netflix, is among the best tellings of that story.
An official trailer for ‘Rebel Ridge’ (2024) (via Netflix on YouTube).
New In Town
When we were watching “Rebel Ridge,” my wife noted that the story felt even more authentic because at the heart of its plot was the concern that the town of Shelby Springs, where much of the action takes place, was in such financial peril that it was in danger of becoming insolvent and being absorbed into the larger township (don’t think this is some documentary look at small-town finances, though). To preserve the town and their gravy train, the bad guys will lie, cheat, steal, and murder.
Into this mess comes Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre, incredibly charismatic and restrained), who has ridden his bike to town with $36,000, including money borrowed from the owner of a Chinese restaurant in another town. Terry plans to bail his cousin out of jail, buy a pickup truck and get the hell out of Dodge – er, Shelby Springs.
That’s before Terry runs into the police department under the command of Chief Sandy Burnne (played by Don Johnson).
Terry is soft-spoken and polite, although he’s wry and doesn’t take any guff. His background is one of the film’s most intriguing mysteries and ensures that Burnne’s cops get more than they bargain for even before one of the climactic conflicts, in a remote spot, the titular Rebel Ridge.
Don Johnson and Aaron Pierre in ‘Rebel Ridge’ (2024) (Credit: Netflix via IMDb).
First Blood
The parallels to “First Blood” and the Reacher books are strong – a former soldier doesn’t go looking for trouble but deals with it when it confronts him in an isolated spot on the map – but director Saulnier, who also wrote the screenplay, puts his own stamp on the tale.
Morrell’s “First Blood” novel was very much rooted in its time. The character Rambo was a homeless Vietnam vet wracked by PTSD. The book’s Rambo is a much more violent character than the version played by Sylvester Stallone in the 1982 film and the four sequels – or a 1986 animated series that turned Rambo into a G.I. Joe-style character. Morrell’s Rambo is a grittier character who meets a fate that didn’t exactly leave him available for a series of hit movies.
Many readers of modern-day fiction know Jack Reacher, the central figure in 28 novels by author Lee Child (lately joined in the writing by his brother, Andrew). Reacher is a nearly flawless figure in modern thriller fiction, in part because he’s so ultra-competent and because his stories – in most of the books, anyway – follow a simple path for a series to take: Reacher, a former U.S. Army Military Police Corps major, wanders from town to town, sometimes walking, sometimes hitchhiking, sometimes by bus. Usually carrying only a means to access his bank account (like a debit card) and a toothbrush, Reacher seems to want to be anonymous as he drifts across the United States. Inevitably, when Reacher comes to a town, trouble finds him. It usually takes the form of a person who needs help or a small-town bully who victimizes others.
In “Rebel Ridge,” Terry Richmond is far from aimless like Reacher and far from damaged like Rambo. He’s got a clear purpose in getting his cousin out of jail.
What he also has is another layer of character that Rambo and Reacher don’t have: Terry is a Black man.
Rising Tension
If you were curious if there are overtones of racial conflict to “Rebel Ridge,” you could start with the title, which refers not only to a place where some of the action happens, but also the ostensibly Southern placement of the town of Shelby Springs, a fictional wide spot in the road.
The movie very deftly introduces the racist attitudes of Johnson’s police chief and his posse without resorting to Klan-type cliches. It begins when the cops (firstly David Denman, familiar from “The Office” and the Buffy-verse) accost Terry, knocking him off his bike and accusing him of running from police even though he had earbuds in and couldn’t hear them behind him. They seize his money through the civil forfeiture process, a weighty example of a system that is often stacked against Black men.
To be sure, there’s also a huge personality conflict here by way of how the police chief played by Johnson is written. That’s what makes it so damn satisfying when Terry baits the chief, at first offering to forget the seizure of much of his money if he can just bail out his cousin.
Pierre is one of those actors who is so compelling even in quiet moments – and maybe especially so. The entire cast, including AnnaSophia Robb as Terry’s best ally and James Cromwell as a corrupt judge, is first-rate. They wisely follow Pierre’s practice – and no doubt the direction of Saulnier – by playing their parts as low-key as possible. That in turn makes Johnson’s moderately heightened portrayal of villainy work perfectly. Aaron Pierre in ‘Rebel Ridge’ (2024) (Credit: Netflix via IMDb).
“Rebel Ridge” made me want to go back and watch “Dead Bang,” a 1989 thriller directed by John Frankenheimer that starred Johnson as another kind of cop: a Los Angeles detective who, while investigating a murder, comes across the crimes of the Aryan Nation white supremacist group. I’m hoping it holds up, but I’m pretty certain it won’t be the propulsive equal of “Rebel Ridge.”
In the meantime, I can imagine another small-town visit from Terry Richmond. “Rebel Ridge 2” anyone?
Rebel Ridge is currently streaming on Netflix.
Keith Roysdon is a Tennessee writer of fiction, news, and pop culture. He was a newspaper reporter and editor in Indiana for 40 years, beginning in high school, winning more than 30 first-place state and national journalism awards. He’s co-author of four award-winning true crime books. His novel “Seven Angels,” a crime story set in a small Tennessee town, won the 2021 Hugh Holton Award for Best Unpublished Novel from Mystery Writers of America Midwest. His short fiction has been published by Punk Noir, Shotgun Honey, Cowboy Jamboree Press, and Slaughterhouse Press.
This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
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