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What's the story? The Kansas-Missouri border, 1861. As America
goes to war with itself, Jake Roedel (Maguire) and Jack Bull Chiles (Ulrich)
join the Southern irregulars, or "Bushwackers", launching surprise attacks on
the Union soldiers. After initial success, Jake begins to question his loyalty
to the cause, while his German parentage and friendship with a freed slave (Wright)
arouses the suspicion of his comrades. Chiles, meanwhile, falls in love with
fetching 'widder' Sue Lee (Jewel).
While filming Sense And Sensibility, Ang Lee told his producer James
Schamus he wanted to make a movie "with characters who have dirty fingernails".
The Taiwanese director's wish comes true with this Gone With The Wind-style
epic, a mix of history lesson and horse opera that offers a Young Guns
perspective on the American Civil War.
Any doubts that Lee may be out of his depth in such an alien time and place
are soon dispelled by the scale and ambition of his sixth feature. For while
the emphasis is on the periphery of the conflict - the guerrilla tactics pursued
by The Ice Storm's Maguire and his nomadic band of gunslingers - Ride
With The Devil has its share of audacious set-pieces: a pitched battle
between the Yankees and the Bushwackers, for example, or the harrowing
recreation of the 1863 Lawrence Massacre, the largest mass murder on record.
These scenes are undoubtedly impressive, but Lee scores even higher in the way
he shows his youthful protagonists growing old before their time, their
innocence butchered by cruel circumstance. Jake kills 15 men before he loses
his cherry, Sue Lee (folk singer Jewel in a very respectable acting debut)
is widowed twice in two years; while Jack Bull sees his dad shot dead, in front
of him. The boyish cast, with the exception of Rhys Myers (far too pretty to
convince as a psychotic renegade), are outstanding, bringing maturity and
gravitas to their performances.
Where this film flounders is in its depiction of an ex-slave fighting on
the Confederate side. This may indeed be historically accurate, but Maguire's
buddy bonding with Basquiat's Wright has an anachronistic,
Lethal Weapon-ish flavour that flies in the face of recorded fact.
This, though, is the only flaw in a masterly Western-war drama that's
already being tipped as a serious Oscar contender.
Neil Smith
Final Verdict
A grittily authentic depiction of internecine strife, not without its
humourous moments (look out for The Full Monty's Tom Wilkinson). Lee's
sweeping saga is a long way from Jane Austen, but he handles the
material with breathtaking assurance.
[Four Stars]
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