FREE: RIDE WITH THE DEVIL VHS TAPE - LIKE NEW CONDITION

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RIDE WITH THE DEVIL VHS TAPE - LIKE NEW CONDITION

Thus reasoned young bushwhacker Jake Roedel, (Tobey Maguire) summing up the condition of his native Missouri, torn apart by savage guerilla warfare, as neighbor fought and killed neighbor during the Civil War. This outstanding movie manages to take much the same attitude as it tells the tale of this troubling period that has usually been handled in a much more partisan manner.

The Civil War in Missouri was particularly terrible, as the loyalties and interests of the population split between the Union and the Confederacy. Few regular troops were committed to Missouri, and most of the fighting was done by roving gangs of Irregulars; Secessionist Bushwhackers and Unionist Jayhawkers. These men more often made war on those who once had been their neighbors and friends than on uniformed troops, and terrible atrocities that were more murder than war were committed by each side.

`Ride with the Devil' is an incredibly thoughtful and nuanced telling of this sad story. All of the protagonists are bushwhackers, but the movie does not attempt to paint them as pure heroes fighting against evil for all that is good and right. Instead, it manages to show them as young men who had the misfortune to be caught up in the sweep of history and forced into a violent life by unavoidable circumstances. We see the struggle some of them had between the violent actions that had become their life and their own sense of decency, and we see others enthusiastically revel in the murderous mayhem - glad for the excuse the war had given them to be free of the constraints of civilized society. One scene in particular drives home the fact that these warriors were more boys than men. Jake (Maguire) faces his new bride, a young women already widowed by the war (Jewel) in the bedroom on their wedding night.