This is classic filmmaking with a sure and steady hand. It's that rare Hollywood event, a story of substance told with genuine artistry. The first thing the filmmakers got right was the jargon. These characters talk like they couldn't be from anywhere else but mid-19th century America. Nearly all Hollywood historical films get the sets and costumes right, and this film is no exception, but rarely do they capture the moral universe, the defining idiosyncracies of peoples who lived in their own particular times.
Human life is universal, but it is always expressed in individual ways.
Riding With the Devil captures the authenticity of the character in time and place, and therefore tells a story we are willing to believe. The Sesech partisans are Tobey McGuire as Jake Roedel, Skeet Ulrich as Jack Bull Chiles, Simon Baker as George Clyde and Jeffrey Wright as Daniel Holt. Holt is Clyde's former slave, fighting with his former master, which will startle audiences most of whom were never told that some blacks fought for the Confederacy. Jr. Sometimes the movies really do reflect the mystery and contradictions of human existence. Sometimes friendship and personal loyalty trumps ideology and politics.