Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jonathan Brandis
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 w...( read more
) 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
DVD Release Date: July 18, 2000
Stats: 273 reviews
Lee can take on any period, any place and any genre. He is a master filmmaker who not only slips silently into his role but also offers films with a different edge to their counterparts. Ride With the Devil is one of the most under appreciated films ever made. It is a gem of a fi...( read more)
I'm a big Any Lee fan, so I was curious to see his venture into the Western genre. Ride With The Devil is a great movie, with authentic dialogue, strong performances, and impressive camera work.
Great period costuming and dialog! But, the plot left much to be desired. Tobey, Skeet and even Jewel did the best they could, given what they had to work with.
This movie is great for several reasons. The characters and the lines that they have are fantastic. It tells a story that hasn't really ever been told. One of those small stories in a big story. Johnathan brandis' best work was in this film(rip). It is simply about that madness o...( read more)
I caught this on cable. It caught my eye, since it had Tobey McGuire in it. It was a pretty good Civil War era film.
This is a great fil from the side most people know nothing about. I would love to see the directors cut. Terrably underated and more accurate than most films about the war between the states.
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