Rating: 
Summary: Historical? No. Good movie? Yes.
Review: Although Ride With The Devil is not the most historically accurate depiction of the Border War, it does give a good feel for some of the things that did happen. It was a horrible time in Kansas/Missouri history as well as American history. That was correct. The idea that some of those things actually happened, not so correct. But, that's why it's a movie and not a historical recreation. As long as you look at it like one, you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasure to the eye and the ear!
Review: I was fortunate enough to get free tickets to the premiere showing of this incredible movie. If I had known then that it would never be given a general release here I would have seen it as often as possible on the big screen. The small screen doesn't do the beauty of Missouri's countryside justice, but there's an actual story here that will keep your mind occupied. Some viewers may be tempted to bail out of the movie at the beginning because the dialog sounds stilted to the modern ear. Don't do it! You'll get accustomed to the speech patterns and they really add richness and depth to the story. You don't have to be a Civil War scholar to appreciate this movie but you do have to have an open mind. It is neither the glorious southern cause of Gone with the Wind nor the valiant northern crusade of Glory. It is an accurate portrayal of war between and amongst civilians. There are no clear winners or losers, just survivors.
Rating:
Summary: COMPELLING!
Review: A fantastic retelling of the Civil War as seen through the eyes of those who fought on the Kansas-Missouri border. Superb acting! Great battle sequences! Great music (including Jewel's "What's Simple Is True")! Also for Civil War historians. Part of the film talks about Quantrill's raid on Lawerence, Kansas. God only knows how many times Quantrill's story has been set to film. Anyways, good storytelling! Grade: A+.
Rating:
Summary: Ride With the Devil
Review: This movie is the best I've seen in a long time. Since I live in the area where the movie is set, it makes it even more interesting to see what actually happened on this land so many years ago. I have actually visited where part of the filming took place, Watkin's Mill in Cameron, MO. [Opening scence where Jake Roedel (Tobey McGuiere) is talking with his father in the mill.] Ride With the Devil is very realistic. You can almost feel the emotions of the actors and its easy to relate to their anger and pain. If you want a real look at what our history really was, watch this movie. It's Awesome. A movie I will definately buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Ride With the Devil
Review: Outstanding!!!!!!! Very realistic you can smell the gunpowder. The dialogue is the style in vogue in that era. Shows the complexity of the times and the emotional devide between both sides.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly Overlooked
Review: I can't believe how overlooked and forgotten this movie has been. This is epic cinema at its finest.This movie is just beautiful. Every scene is woven together seamlessly and perfectly. Jewel is spectacular in her debut and Tobey Macquire shines in a role that is acted as well as his role in The Cider House Rules. Every actor shows perfection in their roles. In a refreshing change we see the Civil War fought between,not strangers,but between neighbors and former friends. Also,it is rare that we see the Civil War from the southern point of view,which is just what we get here. To sum up this movie only takes one word...Spectacular!
Rating:
Summary: An Astounding movie wich was shamfully overlooked!
Review: Ride with the Devil is a civil war drama about the kansas/Missuori buskwackers. It is one of the few movies which takes you into its period world so effortlessly. It shows the true violence of the time and yet shows how that violence affected people and changed their lives. Ride with the Devil was directed by Ang Lee, who brought us the brilliant Sense and Sensibility, this is his best work since Sense and Sensibility. Lee knows how to make a period drama come alive to the viewer in a way that few directors can do. Maybe its because he usually does projects he really feels for. The acting in Ride with the Devil was supuerb. Tobey Maguire again proves that he is the most talented young actor in Hollywood, today. He protrays a a first generation american,Jake Rodell, with such heart and sincerity, very few actors could have done that. Skeet Ulrich delivers his best and most seriuos performance to date, as Jack Bull. Singer, Jewel, gives a suprisingly good and nuanced performance as Sue Lee Shelley. Jefferey Wright, protrays a freed black with real integrity and authority. Wright and Maguire were horrible oversights at the Oscars. Actually, i thought the whole movie was a horrible oversight. They brought a whole differnet level to this movie with their performances. they made you see their characters in a way that few could have done. You truely cared what happened to them as if they were a close freind. Wright and Maguire made you see the Civil War not as north and south but as people defending the only life they had ever known. Ride with the Devil is a captivating movie that goes right to your heart and helps you to understand a time in America's history, when nothing was simple and everything was a battle--Freedom, your way of life and survival. it puts a new persepective on a war with split our nation in two and hurt everyone it touched. this movie will probably never get a big following but for those of you reading this you will not be disapointed. so go rent this movie or be like me and buy it. thank you Ang lee and everyone how helped make this magnificent movie!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent on all counts....
Review: I became intrigued with this film because I heard a favorable review by a critic I respect on National Public Radio (Rita Kempley--who also writes reviews for the Washington Post). She pointed out that Ang Lee had directed the film, which immediately appealed to me because I have found his other films--"The Ice Storm and the "Remains of the Day"--especially moving and beautifully crafted. Nevertheless, I avoided the film when it played in the local theaters because Ms. Kemply also indicated it was rather bloody, and it is bloody--the Civil War was not a pretty sight. But, it probably is not nearly as bloody as "Braveheart"(which I have yet to watch) or "The Search for Private Ryan" (which left me stunned because I saw it on the big screen--but I am glad I saw it). "Ride With the Devil" probably has about the same amount of violence as "The English Patient" along with a shocking scene or two as well. I finally bought the DVD and I am glad I did. Lee takes time to develop his four main characters: Jake Roedel (Tobey McGuire); Jack Bull (Skeet Ulrich); Sue Lee Kelly (Jewel); and Holt (Jeffrey Wright). Jake and Jack are best friends sucked into the mindlessness of the war machine(reminded me of the anecdote Shelby Foote provides in Ken Burns film "The Civil War" about the response of a Southerner to a Yankee soldier who asked the Rebel why he was fighting, "You don't own slaves, why are you here", to which the Southerner replied, "Because you're here.") Holt is a Black man caught up in the fighting--on the Southern side, a curious fact explained by his life long friendship with another man (Blonde and White) who is fighting a war of retaliaton for wrongs committed against his family by the Yankees. All these men are "bushwackers" as they were called by the regular Union Army. Quantrell is the most famous of these "rebel outlaws" and in one scene he rides through camp with his men. Jake, Jack, and Holt join Quantrell to ride into "Kansas, bloody Kansas." Ang makes it very clear this raid resulted in one of the worst days in Kansas, and probably the dumbest raid ever staged. The story of the lives of Jake, Jack, Holt, and Sue Lee is beautifully told. Lee's cinematography is gorgeous. In one scene, Jake steps out onto a porch on a frosty winter night and gazes up at the moon. The camera holds Jake's view of the moon in it's lens a full minute. It is a heart-rending scene--a young boy in his teens probably wondering if he will ever find peace and beauty again. But, that's Lee's specialty--heart wrenching beauty the midst of suffering.
Rating:
Summary: overlooked masterpiece
Review: Ang Lee's RIDE WITH THE DEVIL quite simply is one of the best films of 1999, superbly crafted, sumptuously mounted, harshly realistic and brutal when it needs to be, gentle and understated when it should be. If you have any interest in the Civil War era, or merely appreciate fine historical drama and storytelling, do yourself a favor and rent (or better still, buy) this DVD. And don't watch it on pan and scan videotape crap-vision or you'll miss out on half of the gorgeous widescreen cinematography. Virtually unseen when it was unceremoniously dumped and abandoned in theaters last year, RWD represents everything that is right with the state of American filmmaking and horribly wrong with the state of American film marketing and distribution. At a time when every crass, lowbrow, insipid and moronic subject is not only filmed but heavily hyped, advertised and shoved down the throats of the pre-sold masses, I guess it is no surprise that a film this thoughtful and intelligent should be ignored. No doubt the lack of marquee star power contributed to this, but the film was never given a chance to succeed even on a limited, arthouse level. Why spend the millions necessary to produce such a fine film and then toss it in the dumpster like some unwanted bastard child? Enter the DVD. Others on this site have quibbled over historical innacuracies, being too P.C., etc. I am not a Civil War historian and choose to approach the film as a piece of filmmaking rather than a historical artifact, and on a filmmaking level it succeeds superbly. It is one of those rare time-machine films that genuinely transports you to another era in its authenticity and detail: in dress, customs, mindset, and most importantly, language. At first, the dialog seemed a bit stiff and stilted, but after about fifteen minutes or so the rhythms and complexities of a more graceful manner of speech began to work a form of magic. It helped to illustrate both the charm and the hypocrisy of the lost antebellum world. So many aspects of this film deserve to be praised. The acting is uniformly excellent, from the leads down to the smallest roles. Standouts were Jeffrey Wright as Holt, the freed slave fighting beside Southerners (one of the many unique and revealing historical details) and in particular Tobey Maguire as Jake. On the strength of this performance and his turn in WONDER BOYS, Maguire shows himself capable of astonishing range and rare depth, and the possibility of becoming the preeminent young American actor of his generation. RWD follows the cardinal rule of all great drama: start with the characters. When you create three dimensional characters the audience can identify and empathize with, they will follow you wherever your story takes them. By the end of this film, I felt I had lived with these people, watched them change, grow, die. Some have complained they found the film too episodic and meandering, and it's true the storyline is unconventional, but again I find this as one of its strengths rather than a detriment. We follow these people through scenes of carnage and tenderness, sorrow and joy, and the pace reflects the unhurried rhythms of the era, taking its time to examine and reveal aspects of a way of life which would not be as deeply felt or understood without this understated approach. You want histrionics, over the top melodrama, simplistic one-dimensional cardboard characters and conventional resolutions? Don't come looking here, you will be disappointed. If however you love finely crafted, thought provoking and intelligent filmmaking, RIDE WITH THE DEVIL will satisfy the discriminating film lover.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Movie, But NOT Liberal PC Hollywood
Review: ... Having read a number of historical accounts of the era, I found the picture for the most part accurate (I agree that the encounter outside of Lawrence never occurred and was probably staged for dramatic effect). What I find most surprising about the picture is Ang Lee's mastery of the subject matter. Clearly he knew what he wanted and got it on film. In my opinion, Lee acquits himself on this film at least as well as he did in "Sense and Sensibility". The acting by this ensemble cast is quite good. Skeet Ulrich is very turned in a fine performance and Jewel was, surprisingly, quyite good in her first movie performance. Tobey Maguire shows once again why he is clearly the best young actor in films today. One word of warning-this film is quite violent. If you can handle that, then I highly suggest watching this motion picture.
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