Gossip Ang Lee (6)/Ride with the Devil: This movie isn't that bad

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Film title: Riding with the Devil

Released: 1999

Director: Ang Lee

Writers: Daniel Woodrell

Starring: Toby Maguire, Jewel, Skeeter Ulrich

"Riding with the Devil" is probably the most unknown of Ang Lee's works. This may be because the film has suffered failures at both the box office and word of mouth, and after the success of both "Sense and Sensibility" and "Ice Storm" in English, Ang Lee has encountered setbacks for the first time. Or maybe it's because the style of this movie is too warm and watery, and second, it can't talk about in-depth humanistic discussion, and the third is that the storyline is also average, which can only be regarded as a passing line, and it has no advantage compared with the Hollywood blockbusters with outstanding creativity and hot pictures at that time. So it suffered a double dismal reputation and box office.

But I watched this film, and I felt that it was actually not bad, not as bad as the comments said.

If "Push hand", "Wedding Feast", "Eating Men and Women" is based on traditional Chinese culture, exploring the differences and conflicts between Chinese and Western cultural concepts, which is very Chinese, these three films have gained an international reputation for Ang Lee and are the rise of Ang Lee, then "Reason and Emotion", "Ice Storm", "Ride with the Devil" three consecutive English films are the accumulation and breakthrough of Ang Lee's entry into the mainstream Hollywood film circle. These three English-language films have established Ang Lee's position as a first-class director in Hollywood.

The story of "Riding with the Devil" is not complicated, set in the History of the Civil War in the United States, and one of the more innovative points is to break through the mainstream concept of the dualistic view of the American Civil War. In the eyes of ordinary Americans, the Northern Army is the righteous side, and the Southern Army is the reactionary side. It was a consensus that the South represented the backward serfdom of slave owners, and that black slaves hated slavery so much. History is always written by the victors.

In the film "Riding with the Devil", this concept is dissolved, and the protagonist joins the Southern Army, sees the cruelty of war, and finally escapes the war. In the movie, the righteous Northern Army is as cruel and murderous as the Southern Army, and the two sides in the war actually have neither old grudges nor new enmity, but are actively and passively involved in this war in the name of justice. The film is more like an anti-war film, standing from a neutral and impartial omniscient perspective, calmly analyzing the cruelty and absurdity of war and the helplessness of the antagonism of human relations.

Ang Lee is always calm, tolerant, and euphemistically tells a story, and the story ends with the protagonist leaving the war, finding the woman he loves, and living together. It's very Chinese again, isn't it.

Sometimes Ang Lee is like a hermit who looks down on the world, always giving the movie a reunion or escaping the real world ending of contradictions and conflicts, full of hidden spirit.

The movie "Riding with the Devil", I don't feel so bad, although the narrative pace is very slow, the potential power is not subtle enough, but the whole movie is still OK to watch.

Samsung recommended it, it is still a work that barely passes.

After making three consecutive English-language films, Ang Lee returned to the theme of traditional Chinese culture, so with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" a year later, the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" pushed Ang Lee's reputation to a new peak. If the previous film only laid the foundation for Ang Lee's status as a world-class director, then this movie is a big breakthrough in Ang Lee's film career.