Ride With the Devil Movie Review

Ride With the Devil (1999)

Rent Ride With the Devil on Amazon Video
Written by: Daniel Woodrell (novel), James Schamus (screenplay)
Directed by: Ang Lee
Starring:  Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jewel Kilcher, Jeffrey Wright, Simon Baker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, James Caviezel, Tom Wilkinson
Rated: R
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Plot
When the Civil War begins, lifelong friends Jake and Jack Bull join the Missouri Bushwhackers, a ragtag team of Southern guerrilla fighters. After the cold realities of conflict set in, the men must decide for themselves what honor means.

Verdict
This is a bigger movie than a lot of Lee's films, but it has some of the same sentimentality as it focuses on outsiders. The Civil War was fought in the backyard, in people's homes. It's a lot different than being away from home. While this has a focus on honor and devotion, the way the movie is broken up contributes to the uneven feel. It never quite seems to hit a stride until well into the movie. This gives you a lot to think about, but unfortunately it's more engaging after it ends, if you take the time to think about it, than while you're actually watching.
It depends.

Review
I'm a fan of Ang Lee. I really enjoyed The Ice Storm (my review) and Brokeback Mountain (my review). Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (my review) and Sense & Sensibility (my review) were also good.  
Ride With the Devil just doesn't get there. Like most of Lee's movies, it focuses on outsiders. Roedel is the main character, joining the Confederates to fight. The movie is two distinct halves, and that makes this uneven rather than illuminating. I get that Roedel doesn't view war the same way, but the first half doesn't have a build up and pay off. It just diverts.

One thing this brought to mind is how crazy it must have been to fight in people's homes, even your neighbors yards. Most war films have a disconnect of being a different place, a culture, a different language. It blunts what soldiers are doing because it seems like a different world. The war section of this is kind of mindless, and I'm sure that's the point but it also doesn't really separate a main character like the second half. The second half slows down quite a bit. It provides a chance to consider Roedel's ambitions, but I doubt a lot of people are going to think that hard about this movie and try to go between the lines.

Roedel is fighting on the Confederate side but never accepted. He's a German by descent, but his American birth amounts to nothing from the viewpoint of everyone but his best friend Chiles. It doesn't matter who vouches for him or what danger he endures, he always faces suspicion. That leads to a friendship between he and Holt. Holt is a freed slave, but no one trusts him.

Roedel is pushed into war, but vowing vengeance is a different thing when faced with the calamity of war. Fighting for the honor of his family soon becomes fighting to stay alive and to stave off disease. He's fighting a war he's constantly told isn't his war. When Roedel finally leaves the battlefield, he's pushed into a relationship with his best friend's girlfriend. Jewel, the singer/songwriter from the '90s plays the girlfriend. Surprisingly, she does a good job.

The movie is about honor; among friends, compatriots, and even thieves. It's an interesting history, but it's uneven and not always engaging. Ang Lee has a knack for crafting emotional stories, but this one doesn't reach the heights of his other films. It's too big to uncover the intimate stories that are usually his focus, and this movie is two halves that never quite fit together.