Stand Your Ground is a bruising, straight-faced throwback to 1980s and ’90s revenge thrillers, complete with sweat-drenched close-ups, brooding one-liners, and a body count that escalates like a bad temper in a bar fight. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Fansu Njie and starring Daniel Stisen as the walking slab of vengeance, Jack Johnson, the film doesn’t waste time pretending to be anything it’s not. What it is is loud, violent, and frequently absurd. But if you’re willing to go along for the ride, it delivers a satisfyingly grimy dose of low-rent catharsis.
The set-up is ripped from the classic vigilante playbook. Jack, a former special forces operative, returns to small-town America with his pregnant wife, looking for peace and a fresh start. Instead, he gets an ambush at the hands of local gangsters led by crime boss Bastion, played with gravel-voiced menace by Peter Stormare. Jack’s wife is killed, and when he fights back, he ends up in prison for six years. Upon release, and with nothing left to lose, he sets his sights on revenge, invoking the controversial ‘Stand Your Ground’ law to bait Bastion’s family into a deadly confrontation.
It’s a premise built for high-stakes chaos, and Njie certainly doesn’t shy away from delivering just that. Once the bullets start flying, they rarely stop. What the film lacks in narrative sophistication, it makes up for in brute force. The second half turns into a near non-stop siege on Jack’s fortified home, as mercenaries and hitmen attempt to overwhelm the walking tank at its centre. Stisen, with his mountainous physique and thousand-yard stare, isn’t much for emoting, but he commits fully to the physicality. Every punch looks like it hurts. Every explosion rattles the frame. It’s meat-and-potatoes action cinema, unrefined but hearty.
After six years behind bars, Jack Johnson (Daniel Stisen) is released, setting the stage for revenge in Stand Your Ground.
“Once the bullets start flying, they rarely stop…”
Njie, to his credit, tries to layer the action with thematic weight. His interest in America’s real-life Stand Your Ground laws gives the film a moral unease that occasionally bubbles to the surface. He doesn’t take sides, instead exploring the ambiguities of a law that can protect or destroy, depending on who’s holding the weapon. There’s even a touch of the Western here, as Njie likens his tale of personal justice to the dusty, lawless morality of Leone’s gunslingers. That ambition, however, often gets drowned out by the noise of gunfire and slow-motion carnage.
Supporting turns from Isobel Laidler as the conflicted daughter of the villain and Patrick Regis as the town’s increasingly overwhelmed sheriff add some texture, though the script gives them little room to breathe. Eric Roberts pops up briefly, in what can only be described as an extended cameo, offering a dose of recognisable sleaze in a film already dripping with it.
Stand Your Ground is not a particularly nuanced film, but it knows its audience. If you grew up on video store revenge flicks and have a soft spot for action that favours fists over finesse, this is serviceable, bullet-ridden fun. It won’t win awards, but it might just win a Friday night.
"…A bruising, straight-faced throwback to 1980s and ’90s revenge thrillers."
