| Taiwanese director Ang Lee received near universal acclaim several years ago for his filming of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. His latest film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, recently won Golden Globes for best foreign film and best director. In between the releases of those films, Mr. Lee made a film that received far less fanfare, and an even smaller audience, but nevertheless showcases his visual and story-telling skills. Ride with the Devil (rated R for graphic war violence) is another period piece, set in Missouri and Kansas during the Civil War. The story focuses on Southern bushwackers, ragtag bands of Confederate rebels that fought too far from the war's key battlegrounds to be part of the regular army. In typical Ang Lee fashion, the story is more about friendship, love, and a brutal coming of age than the philosophical or political underpinnings of the Civil War. While this detracts from a complete understanding of these characters' motivations, the story serves to humanize a group of men who are often portrayed as hollering savages. Ride with the Devil also trusts the audience enough to understand that America's bloodiest war was a complex, complicated tragedy, not a clean-cut battle between right and wrong-giving the film a welcome subtlety and intelligence. |
Comments
You must be a WORLD print, online, or iPad subscriber to post comments.