‘Rebel Ridge’ and Narrative Trickery
The cops in Rebel Ridge are bastards, but they’re not cartoons.
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I’m not exactly a defund-the-police type, but I’ve never had a positive interaction with police1. Like, ever. Every time I’ve had to deal with a cop their attitude has ranged from apathetic to suspicious to bullying, always tinged with the knowledge that if you pushed back you’d find yourself in a heap of shit. Just about anyone who has been pulled over on the highway or had an off-duty cop flash their badge to intimidate you somewhere knows that feeling: The cops can fuck you up any time they want, and their worst case scenario is typically a mild rebuke2.
The Asshole Cop is a pretty standard character trope in fiction (for mysterious reasons), but also an overused one, and one that is rarely employed with any nuance. Asshole Cops in fiction are usually depicted as leering, incompetent beings of pure evil. I get it; if you’ve ever experienced an Asshole Cop, you likely burn with the smoldering urge to make them look as petty and evil as possible. But it’s not particularly good writing. It can make for effective villainry, sure, but it’s not exactly subtle.
Reading the logline of Rebel Ridge, written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, you might expect to see all of those clumsy tropes stacked together. The summary reads like a very slight update on Rambo: First Blood3. A former marine, Terry, (Aaron Pierre), is on his way to the small town of Shelby Springs to bail his cousin out of jail, riding his bike with $36,000 in cash in his bag4. He’s detained by local cops, who employ civil forfeiture laws to take his cash5. This leads to a chain reaction of bad things for Terry and Mike, eventually leading Terry to team up with a local woman, Summer (AnnaSophia Robb), to wreak terrible vengeance on the corrupt cops6.
It’s a premise ripe for a lot of flat, lazy Asshole Cop characters. But Saulnier manages to find real nuance and subtlety in his depiction of the police here—they are absolutely, 100% bastards. But they are bastards in a very, very real way. And then he goes and pulls a nice narrative trick.
I’m Gonna Put My Hands In Your Pockets
The Inciting Incident of the story is that initial confrontation with two officers from the Shelby Springs Police Department, Officers Evan Marston (David Denman) and Steve Lann (Emory Cohen). This is staged masterfully: Terry being knocked off his bike by the cops because he can’t hear their sirens (he’s wearing headphones) immediately accentuates the power dynamic: He’s a lone figure on a bike, the cops have two decked-out cruisers and are almost ludicrously over-equipped (for reasons that soon become clear)7.
But what really sets the tone is the way the police interact with Terry. They are businesslike. Many stories make the mistake of depicting their Asshole Authority Figures as evidently corrupt, but Marston and Lann go by the book. Their aggressions, aside from the naked theft of Terry’s money (a practice wholly unethical yet totally legal) are micro in size8. They speak in that bland Cop Speak we all know: Brisk, impatient, neutral. Marston narrates everything he does, and appears to even respect Terry’s refusal of a search, opting instead to apply time pressure (there is a 2-hour wait for a K9 unit) to get Terry to acquiesce. As long as Terry obeys orders and doesn’t cause a fuss—as long as he goes along with the bruising of his rights and the legal theft of his property—there’s no reason for this to end the way so many encounters with the police do9.
That restraint pays dividends. First, it makes Terry’s job of exacting revenge and getting his money back more challenging, because they don’t stupidly give him an easy mistake to exploit. And second, it allows Saulnier to play a neat trick by disguising who Serpico is.
Serpico, in the story, is code for one of the cops who is trying to assist Summer. Summer won’t tell Terry which cop is the sympathetic turncoat, but Terry (and the audience) is allowed to assume it is the one Black member of the force, Officer Sims (Zsane Jhe), due to her race and the fact that in a later confrontation between Terry and the cops she is willing to help him walk away unharmed (plus the fact that the other, white, Shelby Springs cops treat her with what’s best described as affectionate disdain)10. But when the final violence breaks out between Terry and the cops, it turns out that Sims isn’t Serpico. Officer Marston is.
Sandy Burnne is a Great Character Name
It’s at the point of this reveal that you realize that Officer Marston, while notably not exactly a noble hero, has never been depicted actually doing anything illegal, and has been kind of absent from a lot of the ACAB shenanigans going on11. While Officer Lann and Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) are shown many times doing extremely illegal and murderous things in the company of other officers, we never actually see Marston being directly involved. Saulnier is careful to show us Marston here and there, and when he does appear with Chief Burnne, he is there to help convince Terry to take a deal and leave town, which implies he is part of the Really Bad Stuff. When he’s revealed as the Least Worst Cop in Shelby Springs, you suddenly realize he’s always acted with what passes for restraint in those parts12.
It’s subtle. Marston is totally down with civil forfeiture abuse and isn’t exactly a defender of civil rights. But the first scene establishes everything you need to know about him: He’s professional, he doesn’t escalate unless he has to, and he does the paperwork—a key feature for a cop buried in a corrupt department that spends a lot of energy erasing evidence. When Terry refuses a search of his bag, he doesn’t simply ignore him or invent an excuse to do so anyway, he follows procedure and radios for the K9 unit13. He’s not exactly a friendly presence, but he does nothing overtly aggressive. By keeping Martson off screen but showing us blurry white cops in the background of scenes, Saulnier invites us to assume it’s Marston, setting up his reveal nicely14.
Plus of course, all the cops in this movie are pretty terrible, so it’s easy to assume Marston is just slightly more jovial about it. It also goes to show that writers are lying liars who lie and you really shouldn’t trust them, because the best of us will totally deceive you just so we can get a two-second oh shit! reaction out of you15.
NEXT WEEK: I Saw the TV Glow and FOFU
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To be fair, I once spent several years driving a 1978 Chevy Nova with an inspection sticker that had expired in the previous decade, so the irritation of the statie who pulled me over was probably justified that one time.
Or my personal favorite, the administrative leave where they essentially get a paid vacation until everyone forgets all about the incident.
Which is a movie that starts off as an interesting film and then slowly, bafflingly, morphs into a Sylvester Stallone movie.
I have to admit I stumble on this detail as I have never in my life had more than $15 cash on my person. I’m absolutely the guy who can get mugged and walk away with a song in his heart because he’s lost pretty much nothing.
Translation: They steal it.
The one false note of this film is the haircut they give AnnaSophia Robb, which is essentially the Hollywood Sassy Girl 101.
Aside from the fact that police departments tend to attract more than their share of Gravy Seals who like strapping equipment to their bodies.
Much like my own. I burn with hatred for a lot of people, but they will never know it because my vengeance comes in the form of small vandalizations and subtle insults. Such is my power.
Especially for someone who looks like Terry, it should be noted.
She also gets a moment of terrific comic relief when she literally crawls out of hiding during Terry’s first attempt to solve his problems with violence and intimidation.
Is “ACAB Shenanigans” a great band name? Yes, and it is my gift to you.
"Least Worst Cop in Shelby Springs” is also a great band name. I’m on fire today.
I’d be in trouble if cops called K9 units in, because everything I owne smells like bacon. For reasons we won’t get into here.
Writers are assholes who will trick you every chance they get, is the lesson here.
And hopefully a dollar or two, because we have crippling bar tabs and extremely hungry cats. Yes, all of us. Every one.
I'm just reading the book "Gonzo, The Life of Hunter S. Thompson". A bit surprised to see that he was friends with Don Johnson.
That sounds really Interesting. Thanks!