Ride With the Devil

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A 1999 civil war drama by Ang Lee. Based on the book Woe To Live One by Daniel Woodrell. Follows friends, Jack Roedel and Jack Bull Chiles, as they fight with Quantrill's band of raiders during the Civil War.

Tropes used in Ride With the Devil include:
  • The American Civil War: Kansas and Missouri, 1861-1865.
  • And This Is For: Right before they attack Lawrence, Quantrill makes a rousing speech to the men, telling them to remember their female relatives who died in the collapse of a Kansas City jail. "To Lawrence!"
  • Antebellum America: The beginning of the movie is set right before the start of the war.
  • Attack! Attack! Attack!: Both sides during the retreat from Lawrence.
  • Ax Crazy: Black John, after her learns of the death of his sisters.
  • Complete Monster:Pitt Mackeson and Black John.
  • Big Bad: The Jayhawkers or Quantrill and company, based on whose side your on.
  • Expy: Black John is based on the historical "Bloody Bill" Anderson and Pitt is based on "Little Archie" Clements. Anderson rode with Quantrill until the deaths of his sisters, after which he became a blood thirsty pyschopath who killed anyone in union blue. Archie was his right hand man, obeying Anderson's every order. Some of their atrocities could be considered Nightmare Fuel: decapitating a soldier, cutting his genitalia off, stuffing it in his mouth, and then arranging the corpse so it's sitting up holding it's own head. All this in front of a troop of soldiers about to executed.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Jack Bull's leg amputation
  • Token Minority/Black Best Friend: Holt, George Clyde's freed slave. Woe to anyone who insults Holt in front of Clyde.