"Ride with the Devil"

[Faulkner]

I don't know how I missed it, but I just picked up a DVD copy of the movie "Ride with the Devil" with Toby Maguire. It was released in 1999 and I thought this was a very good movie about the Kansas-Missouri border war. I'd never even heard of this movie and highly recommend it for any Civil War movie buffs.

Anyone else seen this one?

 

[6518John]

Yes it is an outstanding move--directed by acclaimed director Ang Lee--but was a box office flop I believe due to simply being too good. Cut from the same cloth as The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford--one of the best movies ever made in my opinion--book by Ron Hansen is equally good. You should also read Raising Holy Hell by Bruce Olds if you haven't already, on John Brown. Frankly, I think he is one of the most important figures in American history.

 

[Marshwheeling]

I saw the movie in its first theater run and thought it was quite good. I was looking for it when it came out because it was based on "Woe to Live On", the novel by Daniel Woodrell, one of my favorite contemporary authors. I would also recommend the book, which you may find either under its original title, or retitled after the movie.

Woodrell is probably best known today for "Winter's Bone", which I have enjoyed immensely every one of the four times I have read it, and which was made into a pretty good movie that was the talk of the Sundance festival, received a few Oscar nominations, including one Oscar, and which gave a start to Jennifer Lawrence's acting career.

Something tells me that more of his books will be turned into movies. He is one of the best writers going today. "Tomato Red" and "Winter's Bone" are his best books, in my opinion, but he has yet to write a bad book.

 

[george minze]

The movie Killer Elite, starring Jason Stratham, Clive Owen, and a lengthily cameo by Robert Dr Niro Is based on the very controversial book "The Feather Men" by Sir Ranulf Fiennes. Fiennes was a decorated explorer, and a former SAS operator.....The original book covers years of a revenge plot initiated by Sheikh Amr, a deposed Oman leader by the SAS years before..The Sheikh's three sons were killed by SAS operators during that uprising. (Or he thought they were SAS)...The book was published as a true story, and caused a real ripple with-in the British government..The movie was released under the aforementioned name "Killer Elite". Fiennes was considered very believable due to his legendary past accomplishments....The movie takes place in a some-what short time frame, where the actual events were spread out over years.....The original title of the book was "The Feathermen" They were reported to be a very secrete group of retired SAS operators that was alleged to be a non reportable secrete arm of the Crown. The re-release of the original book was renamed "Killer Elit" but is word for word the same as the original book "The Feathermen" The original book cause a real problem for the crown due to Fiennes's past accomplishments...Interesting whether true or not...Most think it was probably true.....The violence in the movie is believable and not full of can't be true special effects...

 

[Faulkner]

I thought "Ride with the Devil" had some pretty good gunplay scenes.

 

[bobcat]

I rented it on VHS years ago and loved it, I now have a DVD copy. Really great movie that didn't get the credit it deserved IMHO...

 

[Wyatt Burp]

It's a good movie. I like the colorful garb the guys wear. They look like 70s rock stars. I do think they made the raid on Lawrence, Kansas less bloodthirsty than it was. Didn't want the main characters to look too bad, I guess. There's is great use of guns in it, even though I think the confederacy never made brass frame Remington copies. McGuire getting his pink shot off was homage to Jesse James I think. Is this movie technically a western, or would we call it a "mid western?

 

[george minze]

It's a good movie. I like the colorful garb the guys wear. They look like 70s rock stars. I do think they made the raid on Lawrence, Kansas less bloodthirsty than it was. Didn't want the main characters to look too bad, I guess. There's is great use of guns in it, even though I think the confederacy never made brass frame Remington copies. McGuire getting his pink shot off was homage to Jesse James I think. Is this movie technically a western, or would we call it a "mid western?

Living on and off in Missouri I find local legends and historical accounts concerning the war of the raiders. Missouri was a divided state, not necessarily by geographical lines. Family traditions form the mind set of most of the combatants. The original Missouri legislature was pro south. The legislature was taken over by a committee based mostly of St. Louis politicians and pro union sympathizers of German descent. The sitting legislature was setting in absence in north Texas..(pro confederate) Some of those old feelings still exist in parts of Missouri...I think it had little to do with slavery. It seems states rights had as much to do with the feelings in Missouri....Kansas was a anti slavery state and Missouri was pro slavery....However the amount of families that actually owned slaves was small by comparison..It is interesting that Frank James turned himself in to the Missouri Governor and was pardoned, He had been staying in Callaway County, across the Missouri River from Jefferson City..Missouri had a very confused outlook at the time concerning the James Boys and a lot of other things due to the war....."Bloody Missouri" wasn't just a slogan>> Callaway County was pro ,south generally, but due to the occupation of the county by federals the Callaway County administrative judges Declared Callaway County a Principality. It is still referred to "The Kingdom of Callaway" It still has a yearly fair in Fulton called Kingdom Days. Jessie was killed in St. Joseph Missouri by the Ford brothers, who were treated as killers and murderers rather than hero's even in the parts of Missouri that had been pro Union.....We still are confused.....Missouri is I think the only state in the union that can not pass any state debt from year to year...( Hancock Amendment) Imagine California with a law like that????

 

[Faulkner]

. . . . Is this movie technically a western, or would we call it a "mid western?

At the time of the setting in the movie Kansas was the western frontier.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Is this movie technically a western, or would we call it a "mid western?

"Nineteenth century Redneck Noir."

 

[reddogge]

Good movie although I'd rather see someone else as the lead than Toby Maguire.

 

[Faulkner]

Good movie although I'd rather see someone else as the lead than Toby Maguire.

I kind of thought that going into the movie, but when you consider the character he was playing wasn't the Outlaw Josey Wales he-man type, but a teenage kid among a bunch of teenage kids without a lot of competent adult supervision. Maquire's character stated towards the end of the movie that after two years of fighting he was still only 19 years old

Take the wedding night scene when his new bride asked him if he was a virgin he replied, "girl, I've killed 15 men!" That's not what she asked him.

 

[mjr]

I think the confederacy never made brass frame Remington copies.

Right. That revolver irritated me all through the movie. Director Ang Lee probably thought the brass made it more photogenic.

A good movie. Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the seriously disturbed Pitt Mackeson is...seriously disturbing.