Director: Anders Thomas Jensen
Writer: Anders Thomas Jensen, (based on an idea by) Nikolaj Arcel
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Andrea Heick Gadeberg, Lars Brygmann
Riders of Justice shouldn’t work. This Danish action comedy should suffer from tonal whiplash due to the speed it pivots from comedy to serious violence. It shifts so quickly you feel somewhat punchdrunk just viewing it. Compounding this sensation is a core of pitch-black humour, which veers into inappropriate territory so rapidly as to leave you stunned at what you are actually laughing at. Yet all of this is part of what makes Riders of Justice a great film. All the issues buried in this black comedy are integral to the characters on the screen, and it is the exploration of them – their flaws, their strengths, and how they’re trying to address them, that is at the heart of this film.
When a train crash claims the life of his wife, Markus (Mads Mikklesen) struggles to return to civilian life, while dealing with his estranged grieving daughter (Andrea Heick Gadeberg), as well as his own sorrow. However, he’s approached by a survivor of the accident (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), with statistical proof that the crash was actually a staged assassination of the chief witness in a trial against the Riders of Justice motorcycle gang. Soon an unlikely band of oddballs is gathering together to aid the ex-soldier in avenging his wife.
This isn’t your standard bunch of loveable misfits bent on righteous vengeance, despite its traditional revenge plot. Both the characters and their cause are much more fallible than they would be if portrayed by Hollywood. Yet director Anders Thomas Jensen manages to portray them so empathetically that what appear initially as one-note characters blossom into something more. As Riders of Justice progresses you find yourself invested in all their fates in rather unexpected ways, which reaches a crescendo during the final blood-soaked showdown.
Then there is the star power. On paper Mads Mikkelsen is a perfect action hero, but it wouldn’t be Mads without bringing something more to the film. Sure he has the physicality, being able to move with a military precision that denotes years of training, but it also points to the flaw in the character. Markus is robotic in the field, detached from his emotions, yet seething with anger underneath. That overwhelming need to control and submerge his emotions rather than facing them is what has affected his relationship with his daughter. Against the background of quirkier characters that gather to avenge the wrong done to them, it comes across as toxic masculinity. He’s still every inch a traditional action hero, but it questions the appropriateness of the archetype in the modern era, while allowing the character to grow and heal.
It’s touches like this that makes Riders of Justice such a strong piece. At every step in its process it questions and deconstructs the traditional revenge-motivated action film. The justness of the cause, the dynamics of the group, even the inevitability of the outcome – everything comes into question here. The result is a strange and wondrous piece of cinema, and among the top films of 2021 so far.
