How Netflix’s ‘Rebel Ridge’ turned ‘civil asset forfeiture’ into a No. 1 hit

“Rebel Ridge,” the hit Netflix movie, makes no secret about its intent or approach. It’s a satisfying political thriller that also delves into racial tensions in America.

Those tensions are evident in the film’s first 10 minutes. An unlawful traffic stop on a rural backroad, where $30,000 in bail money for a relative is confiscated, temporarily turns ex-Marine protagonist Terry Richmond, played by Aaron Pierre, into a victim. It’s a scene that’s visceral for many because of the sad history of Black male fatalities at seemingly innocuous stops.

Terry, in response to the incident, goes “Rambo” on a racist police force, led by a corrupt police chief (Don Johnson). But writer-director Jeremy Saulnier offers Terry as a different kind of superhero.

“Terry, throughout the whole movie, is actually using minimum force, even when he’s cracking elbows and knocking people out. ... I wanted this to be grounded and plausible in how he gets across the finish line” without being killed, Saulnier told the Los Angeles Times.

His sensibilities give gravitas to the performances of Pierre, Johnson, and AnnaSophia Robb, who plays Summer, an aspiring attorney who ends up befriending and assisting Terry. And they’ve struck a chord with streaming audiences. The film sits atop the Netflix Global Top 10 list a month after its release, having registered close to 70 million views in its first two weeks and winning raves from nearly every critic who’s seen it.

Because “Rebel Ridge” isn’t a gory shoot-em-up, it allows for analysis and criticism of police reform, a central theme of the movie, and offers important commentary in the wake of movements such as Black Lives Matter. It also allows for viewers to understand the depths of civil asset forfeiture – a legal process allowing law enforcement to seize property suspected of being involved in a crime. First used in the war on drugs against kingpins, the practice has since become dubious and discredited.

While Johnson and Pierre’s characters have a number of face-offs, the “stand-off” in this case is more of a dialogue from the police chief about how his department employs civil asset forfeiture to make up for budget shortfalls. It’s a narrative, much like its real-world incarnation, that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

A December 2022 report from an advisory committee in my native South Carolina offers a grim reality.

“The Committee learned that civil asset forfeitures are seemingly not driven by public safety needs but rather by funding needs for law enforcement agencies,” said Ted Mauro, who chaired the committee. “In South Carolina, civil asset forfeiture has few procedural safeguards and no formal reporting requirements of what is seized from whom and why. The due process and property rights of the state’s residents deserve protection, particularly when this policy seems to disproportionately impact communities of color.”

Neither the Palmetto State, nor the South in general, has a singular license on problematic policing methods. New York became infamous for its “stop-and-frisk” methodology. Part of the aftermath of Michael Brown’s murder at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, led to a Department of Justice investigation in 2015. The words of Eric Holder, who was the attorney general at the time, could have been used as a preview for “Rebel Ridge.”

“In a sense, members of the community may not have been responding only to a single isolated confrontation, but also to a pervasive, corrosive, and deeply unfortunate lack of trust … exacerbated by severely disproportionate use of these tactics against African Americans; and driven by overriding pressure from the city to use law enforcement not as a public service, but as a tool for raising revenue,” Holder said.

Because director Saulnier chose to present a message and not a massacre, he struck ideological gold on a streaming service. And that has inspired hope, he told the LA Times.

“I specialize in tension and creating these sort of slow-boiling movies. And unlike any other, I think this [movie] has more of an uplift to it,” he said. “Certainly, it’s harrowing, and there’s some tragic turns, but I’ve never felt such a lift from an audience. Literally, I’ve seen people get out of their seats. I’ve seen people high-five.”