taiwanese director ang lee and whose previous film include sense and sensibility and the ice storm and turn to the american civil war for his late feature . base on a novel by daniel woodrell and it follow the exploit of a group of southern guerrilla and know a bushwhacker and a they fight their northern equivalent and the jayhawkers in the backwater of missouri . a one might expect and there be plenty of visceral action and but the focus be on the tension that the war put on the young men who fight it many of whom be fight against their former neighbour and even family . jake roedel ( tobey maguire ) be such a man and or rather and boy and a he be only seventeen when the war reach missouri . he be the son of a german immigrant and but instead of follow his countryman and become a unionist and he join his lifelong friend jack bull chile ( skeet ulrich ) and rid with the bushwhacker . despite a lack of acceptance because of his ancestry and an unwillingness to participate in the murder of unarmed union men and he remain loyal to the cause . so do his friend daniel holt ( jeffrey wright ) and a black slave free by another bushwhacker and so fight for the south . lee handle the subject with aplomb and never rush the deep introspection that the plot demand in favour of action and this lend the film a sense of the reality of war long period of boredom and wait interpose with occasional flash of intensely terrify fight . the action be unglamorised and admirably candid and recognise that both side commit a great number of atrocity . the performance be superb and with maguire and wright both courageous and dignify . up and come irish actor jonathan rhys meyers be particularly chilling a a cold blood killer and while skeet ulrich be enjoyably suave and arrogant . lee never flinch from the reality of war and but his actor do an admirable job of show the good that come from it the growth of friendship and the demonstration of courage and and on a wider scale and the emancipation of oppressed people . ride with the devil be a beautiful and deeply compassionate film that regularly shock but always move the audience .