Well, I'm an on-the-record apologist and fan (BIG fan) of Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil. When I bought my first DVD player, it was the first disc I bought (Universal's bare-bones release). I saw it in the theater, and it's my understanding that the original theatrical run only made it to eight nationwide theaters.
So I was obviously extremely excited to learn that Ride With The Devil would be added to the Criterion Collection, finally giving it the release the film richly deserves. I'm also a great fan of Criterion's releases, but the Criterion snobs greeted this news with howls of derision ("Spider-man and Jewel are added to the Collection!"). It's not an art film, by any means - though the pacing at times might make you think so - but I think it's simply one of the best civil war dramas in ages, and a great western in many respects. It's also a very interesting slice of American history that I doubt most people are very familiar with.
I don't particularly want to argue with anyone about it, but it does seem to me that the reviews for the release indicate that most critics at least give it more credit than they might have originally. I realize that any movie that stars Skeet Ulrich, Tobey Maguire and Jewel is not likely to recommend it to anyone. So try looking past the cast and check it out sometime. Incidentally, Jewel is not too bad in the film, but it's probably just as well that her acting career quickly fizzled out.
The extras are somewhat slim for a Criterion release, but with two commentaries and 10 extra minutes of "Director's Cut" footage, I am not complaining one bit. Jeffrey Wright, with the standout performance of the film, gets a retrospective interview as well.
Reviews for the Criterion release of Ride With The Devil:
- DVD Talk (by Thomas Spurlin)
- Blu-ray.com (by Svet Atanosov)
- DVD Verdict (by Clark Douglas)
- DVD Beaver (Gary W. Tooze)
- Criterion Forum (by Chris Galloway)
- Film.com (by Ammon Gilbert)
- UPDATE: Great perspective from IFC's Michael Atkinson.
- UPDATE: Slant magazine (by Christian Blauvelt)
- UPDATE: An excerpt from Godfrey Cheshire's essay in the Criterion booklet.
And one of my always-favorite critics MaryAnn Johanson (aka The Flick Filosopher) with her original fim review here.
(To protect my art-house cred, I should mention I also just got two other great Criterion releases that came out last week: Jean-Luc Godard's highly regarded Vivre Sa Vie and Oliver Assayas' 2009 film Summer Hours.)
