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Ride With The Devil
USA Films


6.2

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 4 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for graphic war violence

Starring Skeet Ulrich, Tobey Maguire, Jewel Kilcher, James Caviezel, Zach Grenier, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers

A bloody chapter of Civil War history in 1861, with friends fighting friends in vicious guerrilla warfare along the Kansas/Missouri border. This is the story of a 16-year-old boy, Jake (Maguire) who joins the First Kansas Irregulars.

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Daniel Woodrell (novel) James Schamus
DIRECTED BY:	Ang Lee
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 18, 2000 Video: July 18, 2000 Theatrical: November 24, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	138 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The best movie I've seen this year.

Film.com Peter Brunette

Far too deliberate for many--I found its generally contemplative spirit, punctuated at regular intervals by some exciting battle sequences, superb.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

In its quiet way, Ride With the Devil is terrific.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

The film is beautifully shot and filled with fine performances.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Ang Lee's dark and sober fable might be the most interesting and least dogmatic view of the Civil War to wend its way into the multiplexes.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Lee has made a brutal but sensitively observed film about the fringes of the Civil War.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

In this, Lee's most ambitious and successful work yet, his celebrated gift for psychological shading and complexity is on proud display.

Film.com Gemma Files

A gorgeous and enduring piece of work.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

For fans of Westerns, the film may have particular appeal. Its period gear and garb and galloping horses are major attractions

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's one of the few films that persuades you that it went out to meet the war and bring it to us with verisimilitude.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Never has this war been filmed with such ragged glory.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie is longer and slower than necessary, but it explores interesting questions of wartime violence, personal integrity, and what it means to come of age in a society ripping apart at the seams.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

At a time when new westerns are in short supply, Devil a sight for sore eyes.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

Brave enough to take up the war from the Southern point of view.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A serious film with a lot on its mind, is probably the most intelligent treatment of this period we've had.

TV Guide Steve Simels

A moving, gorgeously filmed look at one of the Civil War's more obscure chapters, the quasi-official combat that divided friends along the Missouri-Kansas border.

TNT RoughCut Spencer H. Abbott

Watching Wright portray a black man who actually fights alongside the very men who wish to keep him enslaved proves to be an interesting philosophical dichotomy.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Dramatically skimpy, even though the movie stirs together themes of love, sex, death and war.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Though Lee's movie is dripping with action and beautiful details, it's aimless and, eventually, tedious.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Doesn't offer much texture or depth of character.

Austin Chronicle Russell Smith

Unostentatious originality, psychological insight, and stark beauty make it well worth any film lover's time.

USA Today Mike Clark

Jewel is more like an acting zircon because she just can't project, but at least she looks the part, and her novelty value isn't unwelcome.

Time Richard Corliss

For all the carnage, Lee's tone is contemplative.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The movie is not unintelligent but it is insipid

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A meditation on the racial and class conflicts at the heart of the American character.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Ang Lee's bloody but dramatically anemic depiction of the American Civil War as fought by boys without uniforms.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Not a very entertaining movie; it's a long slog unless you're fascinated by the undercurrents.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Comes to be dominated by the acting, and this is an unfortunate fate.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

The plot is largely a series of excuses for one-liners expertly delivered by Maguire, making all the hatred, maiming, and killing seem like digressions.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dave C. gave it a3:
Laughable and not in the least bit convincing. Some of the most poorly staged battles I've seen and Maguire is miscast. Ang Lee's worst.

Paula W. gave it an 8:
An enjoyable period piece from - surprise! - Ang Lee, about the unheralded battles of the Civil War along the Kansas-Missouri border. Just as in real war, scenes of tremendous violence alternate with long periods of watching and waiting. Lee does not shy away from the gore that accompanied the conflict, but the battle scenes are interspersed with lyrical stretches in which we get to know and understand the characters. The actors (including Jewel - who knew she could act?) convey all sorts of powerful emotions without becoming maudlin or manipulative. Beautiful visuals, too. I'd take this over Crouching Tiger... any day.

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Ride With The Devil USA Films

Ride With The Devil
USA Films