Ride with the devil
Ang Lee got along well with Jane Austen (Sense and sensibility) and 1970s America (The ice storm). However, the Taiwanese director overplays his hand with Ride with the devil, an ambitious historical drama set in the turbulent times of the American civil war, which does not live up to the promise made in the title.
Outsiders sometimes notice at a glance what people closely involved in something are overlooking because they are too close to it. Lee saw the essence of Jane Austen without needing the modernist interventions that mar Patricia Rozema's version of Mansfield Park. His famous eye for detail also served him well in The Ice Storm, in which he examined not only the sexual mores but also the home furnishings of an American family, shooting razor-sharp images that are still etched on my retina. Compared to this, and we are exaggerating on purpose here, Ride with the devil is just a blurry whole. The large canvas that Lee chose this time, he smeared with coarse brushstrokes and his old adage that the big picture should be perceptible in the smallest detail, seems to have been forgotten.
Admittedly, the actors look like people who lived in the Kansas-Missouri border region in 1862 would have looked like. And the area where the pro-Northern Jayhawkers and the South-serving Bushwhackers fought each other — and where the film was largely shot too — doesn't seem to have changed appreciably in the past 140 years. But just because the film's realism is okay, doesn't mean Lee actually brought the story to life. This is not only due to the predictable rhythm of the film, in which action scenes on foot and on horseback are consistently followed by long drawn-out talk sessions, but above all because of the half-hearted way in which he works out these scenes.
The battles between the warring factions, for example, aren't filmed incisively enough - not only Steven Spielberg in Saving Private Ryan, but Oliver Stone with his football scrimmages in Any Given Sunday and even Ridley Scott with his gladiator fights in Gladiator have set a new standard in that regard. when it comes to portraying flesh-and-blood action scenes. Even the massacre that the Bushwhackers in 1863 among the civilian population of the town of Lawrence is not portrayed in such a poignant way that you get the idea that the devil has descended on earth from the title. On the other hand, the serious conversations between the various characters about the events of the day mainly take place in the (semi-)darkness, whereby a disproportionate emphasis is placed on the spoken word and the desire for a speedy return of the light becomes ever stronger. .
To curse
A shame, because from a psychological point of view Ride with the devil is indeed an intriguing film. Based on the novel "Woe, to live on" by Daniel Woodrell, the screenplay by James Schamus focuses on a number of characters who serve in the southern guerrilla army for various reasons. The theme of loyalty in an environment that is subject to radical changes is a common thread running through the film. What is made plausible at the beginning (and also based on historical facts) has become unthinkable in the end. For example, the circumstances initially determine that a boy of German descent and a freed slave fight on the basis of loyalty and friendship on the side of people who are actually their enemies. It is only when the situation around them has changed that their own perspective also changes.
When protagonist Jakob 'Dutchy' Roedel (Tobey Maguire) finally sees after the death of his best friend that his Southern cronies curse him just as hard as the Northerners, he also loses his own ingrained racism towards black Daniel Holt (Jeffrey wright). While this freed slave only dares to say out loud after the death of his former owner that it didn't matter whether he was his friend or his slave. Conversely, a young widow, expecting a new lover, eventually marries her best friend, as circumstances leave her with no choice. "He was a good man, but he didn't last," she says of her dead soldier and puts her happiness in the hands of a nineteen-year-old boy, who is still a virgin but has killed fifteen men.
folk singer
It's a shame that a film that refuses to opt for easy solutions and prefers to give a gray-gray than a black-and-white image of its characters, does not last. That's also because of the casting. Lee had the misfortune that his chosen Matt Damon at the last minute for The talented Mr. Ripley chose. Although Tobey Maguire is a sympathetic actor and Skeet Ulrich does not look out of place as a true southerner, this duo lacks the charisma to give such a complicated story, whose must-see factor is also small, that little bit extra.
Ironically, it is the folk singer Jewel who leaves the best impression in her film debut, because of the great inner dignity that her pragmatic war widow exudes. The question remains whether Lee chose her because of her talent or because he catered to the film company, which hoped the singer would entice her fans to the cinema. It's the fashion — see, for example, the performances of singers like k.d. lang in Eye of the beholder, Sheryl Crow in Minus man and Erykah Badu in The cider house rules — but that presumed plan failed miserably, as Lee's most expensive film (Ride with the devil cost about $35 million) was also his biggest flop to date has turned out.
Oene Kummer