Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

DVD

Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Recent DVD/Video Releases

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Ride With The Devil

EMAILPRINTUSA Films

Ride With The Devil reviews
69
6.2 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Romance

Written by: Daniel Woodrell (novel)
James Schamus

Directed by: Ang Lee

Release Date:
Theatrical: November 24, 1999
DVD: July 18, 2000

Running Time: 138 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

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.

What The Critics Said

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.

Read Full Review >
80

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.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

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

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

The film is beautifully shot and filled with fine performances.

Read Full Review >
80

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.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Todd McCarthy

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

Read Full Review >
80

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.

Read Full Review >
80

Film.com Gemma Files

A gorgeous and enduring piece of work.

Read Full Review >
75

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

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Never has this war been filmed with such ragged glory.

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

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

Read Full Review >
75

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

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

Read Full Review >
70

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.

Read Full Review >
70

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.

Read Full Review >
70

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.

70

The New York Times Stephen Holden

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

Read Full Review >
70

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

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

Read Full Review >
67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Doesn't offer much texture or depth of character.

Read Full Review >
67

Austin Chronicle Russell Smith

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

Read Full Review >
63

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.

Read Full Review >
60

Time Richard Corliss

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

Read Full Review >
60

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The movie is not unintelligent but it is insipid

Read Full Review >
60

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

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

58

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

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

Read Full Review >
50

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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

Read Full Review >
50

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

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

Read Full Review >
30

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.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

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.

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use