Jeremy Saulnier’s new Netflix action thriller brilliantly breaks his best movie trend in 17 years

Warning! This post contains spoilers for Netflix’s Rebel Ridge.

Jeremy Saulniers movies are known for yet another interesting trend, but his new critically acclaimed Netflix Movie brilliantly breaks away from his usual style of storytelling. After working as the cinematographer on 2006’s Hamilton, Jeremy Saulnier made his directorial debut in 2007 with Killing Party. The film not only won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival, but also won acclaim from several viewers and critics.

After his debut, Saulnier directed the revenge thriller film Blue RuinWhich further established him as a talented filmmaker after earning an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 96%. The director continued his successful run with Green room In 2015, which failed to leave its mark at the box office but received great acclaim from critics. His 2018 film, Keep the darkIt also received mostly positive reviews, although it was considered less memorable than his other thrillers. Saulnier’s new film is also highly acclaimed like his other movies but is visually different in one significant way.

Rebel Ridge is much less violent than Jeremy Saulnier’s previous films

Rebel Ridge relies primarily on suggestive violence

Jeremy Saulnier Rebel Ridge Boasts a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95%, making its critical reception as impressive as his previous movies. However, despite being acclaimed like his previous movies, Rebel Ridge One ingredient that defines his other films is missing: violence. Even though Rebel Ridge It begins with a gruesome scene where its main character is run off the road by a police car. This is surprising since deep, Graphic violence is a hallmark of all of Saulnier’s previous films.

Although Keep the dark, Blue Ruin, Killing PartyAnd Green room Are thematically and narratively different, all films use brutal violence as a narrative device to raise the tension of their overarching storylines. Rebel Ridgeagainst, Only teases the potential for extreme violence but doesn’t pull the trigger until the final moments. From its opening scene to the climactic showdown, Rebel Ridge Masterfully raises the tension by letting viewers imagine the worst-case scenario and subtly implies the possibility of violence and bloodshed that runs through the characters.

Rebel Ridge benefits from its suggestive violence and lack of explicit gore

The lack of violence separates the hero from the villain

Rebel Ridge features a Jack Reacher-esque overpowered protagonist, Terry Richmond, as its lead, who can single-handedly take down many people without breaking a sweat. However, the movie also tries to establish that Richmond realizes that defying the law would only make things worse. Therefore, instead of taking extreme measures against the police officers who wronged him, he first settles for non-lethal methods of escalation. This allows the movie to make a clear distinction between him and the immoral police officerWho are ready to do everything to protect their best interests.

Rebel RidgeThe ending also features a showdown between Terry and the police force, where the police officers are determined to shoot him down. Despite having a target on his head, however, Terry kills none of the officers and only attempts to flee the scene. This proves that although he has the skills to take the lethal route against corrupt police officers, he does not want blood on his hands. If Rebel Ridge had portrayed Richmond as a ruthless murderer who uses violent methods to take down the police force, he would not have appeared as morally upright as he did.