Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8942 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-07-18
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 139 minutes

Amazon.com
Great period pictures make you feel as if you've stepped into another era, heard its language, breathed its spirit, and come away with a fresh perspective on that time as well as your own. Ride with the Devil is one of those special films--why wasn't it more widely embraced by reviewers and filmgoers? Did it rely too much on our patience for slow accumulation of unforced rhythms and meanings (as opposed to The Patriot, which "moved" audiences with cattle-prod simplicity and manipulation)? Ride with the Devil--smart, handsome, tenderly awed by how individual lives get ambushed by history--is ripe for rediscovery.

The Civil War of battlefields and plantation houses is nowhere to be seen here. Instead we see the war as an improvised and largely blundering but very bloody feud among neighbors in the border state of Missouri. In this bucolic war zone--more than a little reminiscent of the Balkans in the late 1990s--the Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee (Sense and Sensibility) traces the destinies of several young Southern bushwhackers (guerrilla fighters) as they experience violence, the seasons, and different kinds of love. Skeet Ulrich draws the aristocratic glamour role (and top billing), but he's overshadowed by Tobey Maguire as a first-generation American, the magnificent Jeffrey Wright (a shameful oversight at Oscar time) as a freed slave fighting beside his former master, and singer Jewel in a very natural acting debut as the young widow who graces all their lives. The title The Birth of a Nation was already taken, but by the end of this movie you feel it would have applied here. -- Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Ang Lee's foray into the West
I was unsure about purchasing RIDE WITH THE DEVIL since I'm not a huge fan of the western genre, but was ultimately won over by the positive feedback it received by fellow Amazonian reviewers.

RWTD isn't a western per se, more of a Civil War docudrama. Being a history buff, I'm always interested in the various interpretations others place on our country's darkest hour (especially those not born in the States). The Border Wars between the Jayhawkers and Bushwhackers were not granted major coverage (during or post Civil War), but the ramifications were just as strong as the battles of Gettysburg, Shiloh, etc. because neighbor vs. neighbor, brother vs. brother, or father vs. son squared off.

I was very impressed at the breadth of emotions the actors conveyed in director Lee's film. Tobey Maguire was a marvel to me (having not really appreciated any of his work, including the SPIDER-MAN trilogy). He's a boy having to do a man's work-a frightful thing in any world. Someone gave Skeet Ulrich (of SCREAM fame) a shot of acting serum, because his portrayal of Jack Bull Chiles was subtle, nuanced, and perfectly suited to the pacing of the film. Jewel's feature film debut was strong-nothing spectacular. The one caveat I have with her is that snaggletooth; it is a distraction when she speaks.

An actor whose work I never question is Jeffrey Wright's. His Daniel Holt is tortured, burdened, but silently strong and empathetic. For another strong Wright performance view him as Dr. MLK, Jr. in the KING miniseries. Jonathan Brandis (from LADYBUGS) is unrecognizable as Cave Wyatt, and imbues the character with the proper sense of gravitas. James "Jim" Caviezel shines as Black John, and Mark Ruffalo's turn as Alf Bowden is brief but memorable.

A showstopper (and scene-stealer) is Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Pitt Mackerson. Showcasing a fine "Missoura" drawl, he's a menace, a threat to humanity, a bloodthirsty savage hell-bent on death and destruction, yet, he's a charmer, and the viewer can't take their eyes off of him. It would have been a treat to see him featured more in this film. His determination on suicide by heading into Newport "cause they got drinks there" is powerful. I'd like to take an Amazonian poll to see who would NOT have shot that pretty head off though after he shot Tobey Maguire's Jake Roedel.

A 4 star effort by Lee (the musical score-especially the banjo-could've been much stronger). Judge RIDE WITH THE DEVIL for yourselves.

Near Masterpiece
This movie directed by Ang Lee is powerful and historic. I like almost everything about it except the guerilla who so irrationally hates the lead character apparently for no better reason than xenophobia. Our lead character is "Dutch" i.e. German, and this " bad guy" hates him for it. It's overdone and not even well-acted.

Otherwise the film is terrific drama and carefully researched history. These are no hardbitten, tough Confederate Bushwhackers. They're just a bunch of boys with southern sympathies. There's even a sense of fun in their depredations against the hated Yankees but it is, at times, desperately unfunny fun. The Yankees burn out farmsteads, murder civilians and execute rebels. The boys fight for revenge.

They invade Kansa with Bill Quantrell. In an effort of kill Jim Lane, leader of the rebel-murdering Red Legs, they attack the town of Lawrence which is his "capital." Our boys kill almost every man in town. This is the famous "Rape of Lawrence", a misnomer because not a single woman was touched...physically. Boys who haven't achieved full size; boys whose revolvers almost drag the ground, happily participate in the massacre.

The rebels--including a Yankee-killing black man fighting alongside his friend--retreat to Missouri. There is a scene in which our boys have gone to winter quarters--no more than a cave dug into the ground--that is especially memorable. The white boys and the black fighter are there together when they are visited by a lovely young white woman who is providing them with food. The girl is brilliant. I can't catch it in writing. She glaces at the black man, "WHAT is He doing here?" She's perfect. Her words and actions are those of bygone attitudes and a bygone era.

"He's my friend...," his white friend says, "...and he stays." Later we learn that the white and black boy have been friends since childhood and the white boy, as soon as he could raise the money, purchased his friend's freedom. Later the white friend is killed in battle and, from the lips of his black friend, we learn something truly inciteful--something about the power and grief that comes along with obligation and friendship. "Being that man's friend was harder than being his slave." Potent. It's not a statement about slavery but about smothering obligation.

Anyway, if you can look through its imperfections, this is a great movie. You might even learn something from it.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Conquest of Mexico

Ride With the Devil Won Me Over
This movie of one of the darkest periods in our history is very moving and shows the personal tribulation that the average person endured. I have watched over and again. I highly recommend!