| Ride With the Devil | | Cast : | Skeet Ulrich, Tobey Maguire, Jewel Kilcher | | Director : | Ang Lee | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 01, 1999 | | DVD Released Date : | July 18, 2000 | | Language : | French (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 01, 2005 | | Summary | "It ain't right and it ain't wrong - it just is." | Content
 | Thus reasoned young bushwhacker Jake Roedel, (Tobey Maguire) summing up the condition of his native Missouri, torn apart by savage guerilla warfare, as neighbor fought and killed neighbor during the Civil War. This outstanding movie manages to take much the same attitude as it tells the tale of this troubling period that has usually been handled in a much more partisan manner.
The Civil War in Missouri was particularly terrible, as the loyalties and interests of the population split between the Union and the Confederacy. Few regular troops were committed to Missouri, and most of the fighting was done by roving gangs of Irregulars; Secessionist Bushwhackers and Unionist Jayhawkers. These men more often made war on those who once had been their neighbors and friends than on uniformed troops, and terrible atrocities that were more murder than war were committed by each side.
`Ride with the Devil' is an incredibly thoughtful and nuanced telling of this sad story. All of the protagonists are bushwhackers, but the movie does not attempt to paint them as pure heroes fighting against evil for all that is good and right. Instead, it manages to show them as young men who had the misfortune to be caught up in the sweep of history and forced into a violent life by unavoidable circumstances. We see the struggle some of them had between the violent actions that had become their life and their own sense of decency, and we see others enthusiastically revel in the murderous mayhem - glad for the excuse the war had given them to be free of the constraints of civilized society. One scene in particular drives home the fact that these warriors were more boys than men. Jake (Maguire) faces his new bride, a young women already widowed by the war (Jewel) in the bedroom on their wedding night. When she asks him if he is a virgin, he blusters that "I've seen plenty" and when ask again if he has been with a woman, he seems frozen with terror, and only manages to say, "Girl, I've killed fifteen men." These were boys forced to become killers before many had the chance to be lovers.
Though there were no Unionist protagonists in this film, it used an effective device to put across the humanity of the bushwhacker's enemies. A captured mailbag was plundered, and letters were read aloud as the bushwhacker's searched for enemy secrets. The letters turned out to be mundane messages from mothers to sons and brother to brother. The young men heard and acknowledge how like their own mothers and brothers these people sounded, and how in other circumstances they might find them fine people, before someone reminded them that the sons of that mother would kill them, given the chance.
`Ride with the Devil' is filmed beautifully, and is as close to being cinematically perfect as could be desired. Its scenes of violence are quick, realistic, and brutal, but the film does not dwell on them. Indeed, there are long sequences that deal with nothing but the complex interpersonal relationships of the characters, and action war movie junkies are likely to find `Ride with the Devil' a disappointment despite its realism. Tobey Maguire is perfectly cast as a shy, decent young man trying to maintain his integrity in a violent life, and Jeffery Wright is outstanding as a freed slave who fights for the bushwhackers out of loyalty to his friend who freed him. All of the roles are well cast and acted, including Jewel in her film debut as a young Confederate widow.
`Ride with the Devil' is the best done of any Civil War film that I have yet seen. It is beautifully filmed, skillfully acted, intelligently written, and tells its story with fairness and perspective. Unfortunately, its virtues are exceeded by its obscurity, as so many have never heard of it. Now that you know of it, don't cheat yourself by missing this outstanding film.
Theo Logos
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| Rating | | | Date | April 29, 2005 | | Summary | "Ride With the Devil" a very authentic gem | Content
| I grew up on a farm in Northwest Missouri where "Ride With the Devil" was filmed. Clay County, Missouri was a hotbed for southern sympathizers and where Jesse and Frank James became notorious. This story closely parallels the outlaws lives and border wars that preceded the civil war. Everything from the costumes to the accents and colloqial expressions are dead on correct. This is NOT a western, it is a very subtle, beautifully filmed civil war drama set on the southern frontier. The people of Northwest Missouri were pioneering southerners, tough and resilient and brought their southern ways up the Missouri river from Kentucky and Virginia. This area is called "Little Dixie". The film is deftly acted by Tobey Maguire, playing "Jake Roedel" who goes through the transformation of being pulled into the conflict by circumstances. He goes from a clean cut, son of a German immigrant to an all out long-haired hell raisin' southern bushwacker rebel. He is amazing to watch. I would call Jeffrey Wrights performance Oscar-worthy. He plays the former slave "Holt". This is really more of a film than a movie, it does have action, but it is more of a period drama with the story unfolding. Jewel does a great job as the local farm widow who is helping to protect the guerillas. The cinematography is sweeping and goes through all four seasons, (watch for this)!
I can't recommend this film more, it is just brilliant!!
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| Rating | | | Date | February 01, 2005 | | Summary | A thoughtful, visually compelling movie | Content
| This is a beautiful movie, set in a very complicated time in American history but dealing with a very simple thing: human nature. Granted, it requires a bit of an intellectual investment by the viewer, as do most of Lee's films; in fact, most movies really worth watching, and this is certainly one of them.
I found the dynamic between the Southern gentleman George Clyde (well played by Aussie Simon Baker) and his childhood friend, slave Holt (excellent Jeffrey Wright) who he had bought and freed especially poignant. The nuances of their complex and complicated relationship, which is full of mutual respect and love but at the same time cannot be removed from master-slave relationship thrust upon them by the time and place in which they live, were brilliantly done.
I particularly enjoyed (and appreciated the irony of) the scene where three Southern boys (two of whom are quite aristocratic in bearing and dress) are working hard digging into a hillside for their winter shelter, with one expounding how hard work was never his particular ambition in life, while the former slave lounges around on watch! It's small stuff like this that makes this film what it is, a brilliantly crafted snapshot of life, so raw, intense, real, moving, brutal, tragic and with such sense of periodic authenticity that it cannot but instantly transport you into the time and place. See this one, it's a gem!
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| Rating | | | Date | January 18, 2005 | | Summary | A Good Southern Revenge Movie. | Content
| I believe this to be an accurate film on the Civil War as far as showing a hint of how the war wasn't really about slavery. But the Yankee Government trying to control the country and how they wanted to steal Southern land, money, and pride to turn the south into what it is today a [...]occupied Republic raped & pillaged by the Yankees for their own benefit and ruined for profit. The film showed how the Yankees started the fight but we Southerners are better at fighting' than they. the only thing that wasn't to accurate was the treatment of the Black fellow real Southerners don't and never acted like that towards the help we respected them just as much as they us. The Yankees would like you to believe that and so would the Liberal film industry but it is a lie slaves were treated well and they fought along side us because they wanted to, because they liked there way of life. There were also a lot of other nationalities that fought for the south like American Indians, Cubans, Jews, Irish, American Blacks, & American Mexicans. Because the Northern Yankees Had treated them badly in the past and the South was good to them and not a evil slave owning Republic like the South was made out to be, but a good Christian Republic that wanted to leave well enough alone... After all don't the winners always write History. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 14, 2004 | | Summary | It's Worth Seeing. | Content
| I won't retell the story of this movie. Plenty of good info in earlier reivews to give you the story's flavor. I recall when the movie first hit theaters and didn't review well. So I skipped on it until it hit pay per view and wow...It's one of those movies that grabbed me and I still find much of it compelling from it's opening scene to its wonderful ending. I have had the great fortune to travel much of the area of central and west central Missouri that were the scene of the guerrilla phase of the Civil War in Missouri. Take a trip to Lexington, Glasgow, or Arrow Rock, Missouri and you'll find yourself on the set of this movie. Ang Lee's decision to film in Missouri and Kansas was the right one. The dialogue was wonderful and I think the movie does capture one of the seminal reasons that people fought for either side during the war...they did what their friends did. How many of us would have done the same.
I am certainly no film critic, but I loved this movie and I think you will too. |
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