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Ride with the devil (Civil War)
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Movie propaganda
In a no-man's land between North and South, you didn't fight for the blue or the grey... you fought for your friends and your family.
Only once, in the history of the USA, has the nation been at war... with itself. In 1861, the Southern Confederacy is formed, and the USA civil war ignites. While the official military campaigns are being fought miles away, the pro-Southern Bushwhackers engage in guerrilla warfare on the back roads and across the countryside. Along the Kansas/Missouri border, childhood friends Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire), the Missouri-raised son of a poor German immigrant, and Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich), the son of a Missouri plantation owner, join up as Bushwhackers. These young men are, or must quickly learn to be, skilled gunmen and expert horsemen executing daring raids on the North's Union soldiers and sympathisers. By 1862, their unit, headed by Black John (James Caviezel), includes the unstable Pitt Mackeson (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), the gentlemanly George Clyde (Simon Baker) and Clyde's loyal former slave Daniel Holt (Jeffrey Wright).
With a harsh winter looming, the Bushwhackers must disperse and find shelter. Several squad members hole up in a hidden hillside dugout. Their vigil is brightened by the visits of compassionate young widow Sue Lee Shelley (Jewel). Then, the realities of the war intrude, splintering the group but uniting Jake and Holt in solidarity as outsiders. When the seasons change and the brutal battles intensify, the young men reach turning points both in the fighting and in themselves.
Also starring Tom Guiry as Riley Crawford, Tom Wilkinson as Orton Brown, Jonathan Brandis as Cave Wyatt, Matthew Faber as Turner Rawls, Stephen Mailer as Babe Hudspeth, John Ales as Quantrill, Zach Grenier as Mr Evans and Margo Martindale as Wilma Brown. Written by James Schamus, based on Woe to live on by Daniel Woodrell, directed by Ang Lee.
Cinematic intelligence sources
- Ride with the devil official movie site
- Director's notes
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
Snooze with the devil.
While Ang Lee's latest effort has great stories, characters, actors and action it takes a long time to get where it's going. Not only that, it changes direction several times. Then you'd be forgiven for thinking that Jack is the central character, being not only the dominant one of the pairing with Jake but also the one who's on-screen for most of the early part of the film. But you'd be wrong. Then you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's a buddy flick, what with the two of them spending all their time together. But you'd be wrong. Then you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's a guy movie since four blokes end up spending half the Civil War together. But you'd be wrong. Then you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's actually about the USA Civil War. But you'd be wrong. Then you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's all about Jake. But you'd be wrong. Then you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's all about Sue Lee. But you'd be wrong. Then you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's all about the South. But you'd be wrong.
Sheesh, that's a lot of wrongs and a lot of forgiveness going on there. Ride with the devil is a meandering tale of the effect of the USA Civil War upon various persons of the Southern persuasion. It's about people, not plots. You might find yourself wondering what's going on, but don't worry because everyone else is feeling the same thing.
Talk about snooze with me...
Tobey is one of those actors you either like or dislike. For me he's more the latter than the former. He has a way of looking like he's not there even when he's centre screen. Maybe he's being subtle. Maybe I'm blind. Or maybe not. Skeet lets loose and goes wild, which suits his character perfectly but does nothing for Tobey. Simon reveals a joy in life and an exuberance of nature which he has never revealed before. That's a good thing for an exuberant character like George. Daniel displays a skill in tightrope walking with which any oppressed minority can empathise. He's cool.
The people I didn't recognise were James and Jonathan even though both are well-known to me through previous works. Their lean, hungry, driven men (at opposite ends of the moral spectrum) are so intense that the actor inside disappears. That's cool, too. Jewel (some kind of teen pop singer chick) does so well that I didn't realise that she was the teen pop singer chick with her name in the credits.
Ang has this thing about making films that are visually washed out. It may be some great new innovation in cinema but I think it's plain annoying. If I wanted washed out he would've wrapped a newspaper around my head.
Qll in all there are better USA Civil War flicks out there but it's still a good romp through the evils of war. Watch it now so you can see The patriot later on.
FYI: The title is inspired by The devil knows how to ride, a biography of the famous Confederate Bushwhacker William Quantrill (who features in the film), by Edward E Leslie.
Security censorship classification
MA 15+ (Medium level violence)
Surveillance time
138 minutes (2:18 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
VHS rental: 23 January 2001
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Director's notes
I grew up in Taiwan, where older people always complained that kids are becoming americanised: they don't follow tradition, and so we are losing our culture. As I got the chance to go around a large part of the world with my films, I would hear the same complaints. It seems so much of the world is becoming Americanised. When I read Daniel Woodrell's book woe to live on, which we based Ride with the devil on, I realised that the American Civil War was, in a way, where it all started. It was where the Yankees won not only territory but, in a sense, a victory for a whole way of life and of thinking.
The Yankee invasion and victory not only had a surface meaning (Yankees prevail, militarily and economically) but also an internal meaning. It changed everyone. Everyone is equal, everyone has the right to fulfil himself: this is the Yankee principle. Now we must study ourselves, our personalities, in order to know how best to be fulfilled. This is all very modern, and so is the new social order based on that. we learn to respect other people's freedom, too, even as we lose a certain connection to tradition.
This is what the Civil War means to me... and I think it means this as well to the young men in Ride with the devil, who are also non-Yankees. The Civil War was not only a physical war - blood and guts - but also a personal war, one which led to the new world that we are living in today: the world of democracy and capitalism.
The story starts with the Southern boys' point of view, the perspective of those who will lose to the Yankees. But then it gradually shifts focus. On the points of view of the two outsiders (the German immigrant and the black slave) as well as of the young woman. Through them, we come to experience the changes that freedom will bring. It is their emancipation that the film comes to be about, and their coming of age. So, as a Taiwanese, I can identify with the Southerners as the Yankees change their way of life forever... but I also identify, more strongly, with these outsiders who grasp at freedom and fight for it.
Before the Civil War, the Kansas/Missouri border was the frontier of America. The border was not just between North and South, but between the settled country and the wild, wild west. Yet today it is the centre of the country. The big muddy river that divided the two frontier states was where Mark Twain sailed his steamboat and created a purely American literature. So, our story is about the very heart of America, even as this heart was - and still so often is - torn apart by racial and other conflicts. Even as America seems to conquer the world with the promise of freedom, it has still not fully conquered itself, or achieved its own freedom. This ongoing struggle and hope is expressed through the film.
