Riders of Justice (2020): A brutal and absurd revenge
2020 • Anders Thomas Jensen • 2.39:1 • Jump to Gallery ↓
Riders of Justice (2020) reunites Anders Thomas Jensen with his frequent collaborators, including Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas. The film follows a soldier who returns home after his wife dies in a train explosion. He is approached by a group of statisticians who claim that the explosion was a targeted attack, not an accident. As they develop their theory, he embarks on a revenge mission against those allegedly responsible.
Continuing Jensen’s blend of dark comedy, violence and philosophical enquiry, the film combines the structure of a revenge thriller with analytical speculation, blurring the line between coincidence and intention. This approach provides a plausible basis for the more extreme events in the story.
The shifting tone reflects this, moving between brutality and absurdity often within the same sequence. Humour emerges from character behaviour and dialogue rather than situational exaggeration, while violence retains its impact through restraint. As a result, the film subverts expectations of the revenge thriller genre through philosophical questioning and dark humour, highlighting ambiguity in causality and moral justification.
Technical Specs:
- The Story: After his wife dies in suspicious circumstances on a train, a soldier who has been deployed abroad returns home to care for his daughter. However, he becomes embroiled in a conspiracy when a statistics expert claims that the crash was no accident. What follows is a darkly comic tale of revenge, exploring themes of grief, randomness, and the search for meaning.
- Actors: Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Andrea Heick Gadeberg, Lars Brygmann, Nicolas Bro, Gustav Lindh, Roland Møller.
- Director: Anders Thomas Jensen
- Year: 2020
- Cinematographer: Kasper Tuxen
- Origin: Danish Cinema
- Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
- Genre: Black Comedy / Revenge Films
