Ride with the Devil
by Ang Lee
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DVD details
Actor: Glenn Q. Pierce, Jeremy W. Auman, Scott C. Sener, Skeet Ulrich, Tobey MaguireDirector: Ang Lee
Brand: Universal
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 139 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-07-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Ride with the Devil
DVD Review: Good Civil War Drama
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought this was a good film and I liked that it explored the hardships and difficulties faced by milita men. I don't think I've seen that in a film about the Civil War. Usually Hollywood makes glamorous depictions of this time in history with handsome leading men and not-a-hair-out-of-place-and no-mascara-running leading women. The actors in this film felt more relatable because they looked like real people. Australian Simon Baker, for one, was completely unrecognizable in this film. Tobey Maguire's boy-man appearance, I thought, was completely shed with the long hair and five o'clock shadow. It's kind of a subtle change to his appearance but it brought out something in him that, at times, I couldn't see the Tobey Maguire I've gotten accustomed to seeing in the Spider-man movies. There was a world-weary quality to his performance, and he seemed more like a man than anything I've seen him in. I also liked the parallels between Maguire's character, Jake Roedel, and Jeffrey Wright's, Daniel Holt. I like that even within the midst of so much bloodshed director Ang Lee allowed moments of humanity. I enjoyed the scene when Roedel reads a letter to Holt and then asks Holt about his mother. In this moment, you can see that Roedel begins to see Holt as a human being and the men begin to establish a bond. I also thought Jewel's performance was good. She's very natural. I had read that Universal did not promote this film very well at the time it was in theaters, and that's really a shame. DVD Review: Tobey Maguire never better, plus great supporting cast
Summary: 5 Stars
Forget Spider-Man. Yeah, different genre, different period. Maguire gives us an outstanding performance as Jake Roedel, a bushwhacking marauder wreaking havoc on the Union Army during the Civil War. Skeet Ulrich as Jack Bull Chiles, Simon Baker as George Clyde and Jeffrey Wright as Daniel Holt are his close associates during most of the ride. With Jonathan Rhys Myers as Roedel's ally/nemesis, Pitt Mackerson; presenting a racist and very convincing neanderthal who just feeds on killing people.
I won't go over the plot, which has been done for many reviews. But I must say that Jeffrey Wright gives an absolutely great performance in his role as George Clyde's sidekick/freed slave ("George Clyde's ni**er - what he was called in the movie) and then Jake Roedel's "riding buddy" (for want of a more descriptive term) to the end of the movie.
Special note to Jim Caviezel as Black John, a psychopath killer and leader of men. Mostly bent on revenge for the deaths of women he knew. Remarkable and amazing performance by Jewel as Sue Lee Shelley, the twice widowed wife, and mother of Jack Bull Chiles baby. She comes across as demure, honest, low-keyed but still self-confident. Truly s surprise casting and very credible performance.
Good detail of story line regarding the infamous Quantrill's Raiders. The ending scene with Daniel Holt and Jake Roedel was the most moving of the many moving scenes (as should be). Kudos to the composer of the ending music and the editor, plus ending theme by Jewel.
DVD Review: An Entertainment Treasure
Summary: 5 Stars
Beautiful cinematography; excitement, romance, history; a first rate piece of entertainment. What else do we need? Popcorn! I've read some
reviews for this film that were dead-on what this movie is about (like
Lawrance from Deluth, MN--the best). I won't even try to go there.
But I will tell you I liked it so much I'm going to buy it and watch it many times over; reccommend it to my friends and family. Ride With the
Devil is what going to the movies is all about.
DVD Review: Ang Lee's foray into the West
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
DVD Review: Near Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
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 Kansas 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, 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 insightful--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
Description of Ride with the Devil
Follows four people fighting the truth and justice admist the turmoil of the american civil war. Director ang lee takes us to a no mans land on the missouri/kansas border where a staunch loyalist an immigrants son a freed slave and a young widow learn how to survive in a place without rules. French subtitles. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/22/2006 Starring: Tobey Maguire Jewel Run time: 99 minutes Rating: R Director: Ang LeeGreat 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
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