Amazon.com says: "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 ..."



Ride with the Devil is a coming of age drama set against the backdrop of the Civil War. This is not your typical Civil War film, though. The portion of war seen in this film was not fought on battlefields. The bloody skirmishes of Ride with the Devil were fought in the backwoods by guerillas known as bushwhackers. Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich) and Jake Roedell (Tobey MacGuire) are two best friends who are swept into the war when their families are murdered by Union soldiers. They take up with a bushwhacker, Black John (Jim Cavaziel), and become privvy to all manner of atrocities. Daniel Holt {Jeffrey Wright) and George Clyde (Simon Baker) are also best friends, but their friendship is infinitely different from the friendship of Jack Bull and Jake. For Holt is a black man, a freed slave, surrounded on all side by men who would love to kill him just for the fun of it. Because of this, he must keep up the illusion as George's slave. When things go bad, and things go bad an awful lot in this movie, the four men are forced into hiding together. They recieve help from a young widow, Sue Lee Shelley. Jack Bull begins to develop a certain fondness for Sue Lee, a fondness that quickly blossoms into love. When Jack Bull dies from an infection, Sue Lee finds herself pregnant and unwed. It falls on Jake to make her a respectable woman again. Over time, the friendship between Holt and Jake builds into something more than friendship, something more like a brotherhood.

People who like historical fiction that is more history than fiction.

The relationship between Holt and George. It really was a beautiful friendship tried by times and circumstance.

The movie tends to drag in certain places. Ang Lee loves to set beautiful scenes, but his pension for merely focusing on the scenery sometimes derives from the film as a whole.

Tell everyone I knew about it. It's not the best film I've ever seen, but it does have some really genuine, touching moments.

Watch out for Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Pitt Mackeson. He redefines the word creepy.

The always exceptional Jim Cavaziel lends a perfect level of quiet mourning and powerful hatred to the character or Black John.

Jeffrey Wright as Holt was absolutely wonderful. Surely the Academy was wearing blinders when it came to handing out Best Supporting Actor oscars that year. Wright was robbed.

This is the film that landed Simon Baker his role on CBS's "The Guardian". You'll see why almost immediatelly. His presence is not only powerful, it's downright mighty. Another fine Australian actor to add the growing list of fine Australian actors currently dominating the silver screen.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of Ride with the Devil   from Amazon.Com!

Created Dec 16, 2003 at 12:35pm • Submit your own review...