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starring: Tobey Maguire, Jeremy W. Auman, Scott C. Sener, Skeet Ulrich, Glenn Q. Piercedirected by: Ang Lee
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780783242576
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 0783242573
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: January 16, 2001
Running Time: 139 minutes
Sales Rank: 10870
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
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Editorial Review:
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
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Good Civil War Drama
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - Tobey Maguire never better, plus great supporting cast
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.
Read More
Rating: - An Entertainment Treasure
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.
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
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