Barnes & Noble

After brilliantly recreating the 1970s in the The Ice Storm, director Ang Lee and writer/producer James Schamus delve deeper into American history with this violent, visually striking Civil War drama. Tobey Maguire stars as a young man who comes of age fighting for the South in the bloody guerilla war waged on the Missouri/Kansas border. Ride With The Devil sidesteps any overt politics, focusing instead on the vigilante ethos and male bonding of the freewheeling band of hotheaded state patriots known as "bushwhackers." As he begins to question the cause for which they are fighting, the ever-sensitive Maguire emerges as the group's conscience. Strong performances by Skeet Ulrich, Simon Baker, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, and James Caviezel as brothers in arms play well against Maguire's boyish charm, and Jeffrey Wright smolders with quiet charisma as the sole black bushwhacker. Male energy abounds here, nicely offset by pop star Jewel in her screen debut. As the war widow who captures Ulrich's heart, the comely poet and singer bares more than her soul. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

A complex tale of uneasy alliances along the Kansas/Missouri border during the Civil War, Ride with the Devil concerns Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich), a proud son of the South ready to fight for the Confederate cause after his father is killed by Union troops. Chiles's best friend, Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire), joins the Bushwhackers, a group of renegade Southerners aligned with the Confederate Army, even though his family supports the Union cause. The two young men, used to the slow pace and gracious lifestyle of the South's privileged class, are soon confronted with the chaos of battle. Their comrades include valiant leader Black John (James Caviezel), paranoid madman Pitt (Jonathan Rhys Myers), Southern gentleman George (Simon Baker), and Daniel (Jeffrey Wright), a slave from George's plantation. The Bushwhackers hide out in a barn near the home of Sue Lee (singer/songwriter/poet Jewel, in her film debut), a pregnant widow whose husband died in battle three weeks after their marriage. Roedel and Sue Lee begin a chaste romance, but it remains to be seen if the war will permit them to stay together. Adapted from the novel Woe to Live On by Daniel Woodrell, Ride with the Devil was directed by Ang Lee, whose previous project was a very different look at America's past, the 1970s domestic drama The Ice Storm (1997). Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 025192077425
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français
• Time: 2:19:00
• Sales Rank: 4,379

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