The Uncivil War
Ride Remembers Tragedy of War

Not too long ago, I sat with some friends discussing the upcoming Ang Lee film Ride with the Devil. As we talked, I noted that I had yet to see a Civil War film that conveyed the true horrors of neighbors fighting each other on our own soil. We needed a film that showed the tragedy of war without the politics of North vs. South. Lee gave us that, and more, in a wonderful film about choosing sides and living with decisions.

Lee's Ride with the Devil is adapted from Daniel Woodrell's novel Woe to Live On. It follows Jake Roedel (Tobey Maguire), a young boy of German descent who chooses to join his Missouri neighbors in their struggle against the Northern powers during the Civil War. When Jake's best friend Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich) loses his father to raiding Jayhawkers from Kansas, the two boys join up with the Bushwackers to extract their revenge.

Along with fellow Bushwackers George Clyde (Simon Baker-Denny) and his black companion Holt (Jeffrey Wright), Roedel and Chiles hunker down for the winter on some land owned by a Southern-friendly family named Evans. There, they meet Sue Lee Shelley (Jewel), a young widow whose husband lost his life in the Southern army. Soon, Sue Lee becomes a personification of everything they are fighting for, something to protect, defend, and die for.

The movie intentionally pulls your loyalties to the South early on when the Jayhawkers murder Chiles' father and burn his house. But the viciousness of that attack is later matched -- perhaps outdone -- by the Bushwackers themselves. And that is certainly the point here. For many, the Civil War was not about lofty ideals of North and South. The people in Kansas and Missouri fought a different kind of war. It was about family, friends, and neighbors. The film does not set out to judge either side. It makes its strongest statement in its inability to choose sides, just as Roedel eventually comes to question the side he has chosen.

Ride with the Devil is not like the Civil War films and mini-series of the past. This is more a documentary than a study of characters. Seeing Quantrill's Raiders burn Lawrence is very intriguing, and not nearly as grandiose as the history books make it out to be. Many of the scenes in the film are savage in their butchery, both in the fighting and in the careless disregard for human life, as when men use scalps of Negroes and Dutchmen in a game of poker.

Maguire is the lynchpin of the film. His boyish face belies his experience in war. Without his naive point of view, the film would become lost in hatred and vengeance. In Roedel, however, his youth stands out and makes him an innocent, even as barbarism breaks out all around. As we follow him, we care less and less about the outcome of the war, and only concern ourselves with him and those he loves.

Singer and poet Jewel makes her film debut in Ride with the Devil. Although her part in the film is small and she is new to the craft, she does a reasonably good job. She won't be winning any awards for her role, but she makes an honest effort that lends credibility to the film. Like Maguire and Ulrich, her unfamiliar face adds a sense of realism to the film that better known stars would not.

I feel that Ride with the Devil offers an emotional and historical perspective on the Civil War that has been long overlooked. There are many moments of violence, and one amputation, that are not for the squeamish. Yet, it has a great deal to say about the last war fought on our own soil. If nothing else, it may provide a lesson so that this great tragedy will not be repeated.

MY RATING: 8 out of 10.

RATED: R
RUN TIME: 138 min.