My first tryst with Jeremy Saulnier was the 2015 punk vs. nazi thriller Green Room. I had no idea what I was walking into. But the barn burner of a movie, where late Anton Yelchin (the untimely death still hurts, by the way) delivered one hell of a performance, and Sir Patrick Stewart played a very against-type Nazi cult leader, did more than enough for me to check out the director’s other work. So I immediately jumped onto Blue Ruin, Saulnier’s previous film, where he gave a whole new spin to the usual revenge drama genre. It was as anxiety-inducing as Green Room, but much more methodical and subdued in approach. Both films, however, managed to put the name of Jeremy Saulnier in my semi-pro-level cinema enthusiast head. But I eventually moved on. Saulnier did come back to the scene with Hold the Dark, arguably his biggest film, boasting of a stellar cast and the backing of Netflix, but despite the intriguing premise, it turned out to be tad underwhelming. By then I had watched (and enjoyed) Murder Party, Saulnier’s debut, a grizzly Halloween movie, which was a lot of fun for a first movie but doesn’t have the towering impact of Green Room and Blue Ruin.
All these years went by, and Jeremy Saulnier kind of faded away, although my subconscious kept him locked as this two-film wonder. And then, out of nowhere, his latest, Rebel Ridge, dropped on Netflix last Friday. I was aware of it beforehand. The name of Saulnier was enough to get me to check it out. I didn’t see the trailer or read anything, mainly thanks to Netflix’s severe lack of marketing. But when I watched it, I was blown away. The first thought that came after finishing it (actually, it really came during the movie) was that the Saulnier of Green Room, and Blue Ruin is finally back. Even though Saulnier had only one misfire (that did have some pretty good bits) in his four-feature-long career before Rebel Ridge, this does feel like quite a redemption.
To think Saulnier could have just used the physicality of Aaron Pierre and made him beat the crap out of every rotten cop in the movie, and it still would have been a lot of fun! But the way he channeled the energy of First Blood in the narrative led by a Reacher-esque protagonist and ended up mounting an utterly compelling and extremely-grounded tale wrapped in a relevant social commentary is quite phenomenal. Too bad Rebel Ridge landed straight on Netflix, despite being one of the most cinematic movies of the year, look and feel wise.
I might be a Saulnier devotee, but a Facebook post from a friend (whom I rate pretty high when it comes to opinion about cinema) only confirmed that Rebel Ridge indeed has striking similarities to both Green Room and Blue Ruin. So much that together they can make an unofficial trilogy. What do we call it? The Chaos or Escalation Trilogy sounds about right, if you ask me. Alright, things are gonna get SPOILERY from this point so this is where you decide if you want to read the rest of the article. In all three movies, things get blown out of proportion, even where they’re not supposed to. Of course, it happens thanks to bad decisions made by bad people. Like in Rebel Ridge, Don Johnson’s slimy police chief didn’t need to come after court clerk Summer when he’d already gotten rid of Terry. Patrick Stewart’s Darcy could have just let the members of Ain’t No Right go and contained the whole chaos that followed after. One might argue that the events of Blue Ruin are unavoidable as the tragedy was in the past (Dwight’s parents being murdered by the Cleland), but had Terry Cleland not tried to pull off that stunt on Dwight, things could have been better, who knows!Â
The most impressive thing about the cinematic world of Saulnier’s trilogy is the amount of clarity. We know what’s good and evil from the start. There’s no The Usual Suspect twist business going on. The characters, despite being part of action thrillers, feel a lot like you and me. Even Aaron Pierre’s almost mythical hero in Rebel Ridge does all the logical things and never ever attempts to do anything flimsy (hell, I saw a review on Letterboxd calling him non-lethal Reacher, and I couldn’t agree more). The villains in Green Room and Rebel Ridge are driven by a purpose, and they even think what they’re doing is actually right. Both Chief Sammy and Darcy, the Nazi cult leader (he calls it a movement), though, have this holier-than-thou attitude going on, which makes them even more despicable. In Blue Ruin, the Cleland are so entitled as to believe that they have the right to hurt Dwight and even his sisters. This automatically makes you root for the heroes even more. Another notable thing is they’re your everyday characters—be it Dwight’s drifter (Macon Blair, Saulnier’s most frequent and trusted collaborator who was missed in Rebel Ridge, although he had an executive producer credit) in Blue Ruin, Pat the guitarist in Green Room, or ex-marine Terry in Rebel Ridge, all three of the heroes are someone you could relate to (okay, maybe not with Pierre, who’s probably the most gorgeous man working on the earth right now). Very interestingly, all three films also have a character who’s associated with the dark side but has some sort of moral code. Be it officer Evan having a conscience during the climax of Rebel Ridge, Gabe trying his best to prevent the bloodshed in Green Room, or William finding a light during the final showdown in Blue Ruin, these characters have always brought an exciting flair into these stories.
All said and done, should we start calling Saulnier an auteur yet? If we go by the definition, a director who has a certain style and has been influential for quite some time may earn the label, and it takes him higher than his peers. However, I haven’t heard Jeff Nichols or Alexander Payne being called auteurs yet, though they, in my humble opinion, deserve it. But auteur or not, Saulnier has managed to create a certain kind of cinema where the approach is quite similar to the old Hollywood, but the treatment is fascinatingly modern. Blue Ruin has been the cinematic equivalent of revenge truly being served as a cold dish; Green Room is the most profound example of punk is not dead (if you know what I mean); and Rebel Ridge is an instant classic that seamlessly blends socio-political thriller with the western genre. Together they all make a sublime trilogy, which should be the flagbearer of Saulnier’s cinema. This is a personal piece obviously, as I pretty much worship Saulnier, and Rebel Ridge has only intensified that, but I guess I have also been able to prove my point constructively.
