MovieChat Forums > Ride with the Devil (1999) Discussion > Jake Roedel - is this guy for real?

Jake Roedel - is this guy for real?

posted 19 years ago by chandler-47
7 replies | jump to latest

First to say this is a very good movie.
I also like the performance of Macguire in most parts. Just, he is always acting in the same way throughout the WHOLE movie. Does not matter if you say nice words to him, suppose he is gay or even shoot at him (!), he is always calmed down. I'm asking because I cannot believe that such a guy really exists, not even in the south. He behaves like a character directly sprung out of a Shakespeare drama, telling us he is like he is and he cannot change it.
(I have read on this board the ending was anti-climatic. I don't think so. I found the scene very strong where Roedel is aiming at Pitt Mackesson and you do not know what he is going to do.)
I think Jake let him go because he is a married man now. That's the way he thinks.

[–] hollycecilia 19 years ago

I think he let Pitt go because he is sick of war and killing--and yes, he does have a wife and baby to think about now.

[–] bertrambunter 16 years ago

I actually wanted Jake to shoot PItt, in case he came back after and shot him - I was shouting at the TV** - shoot him, he'll come back and kill your wife and baby (it actually wasn't his baby, of course) - and I was so relieved when the movie ended well.

**Not that anyone would care, but I was home alone at the time.

[–] movie80 17 years ago

he is always calmed down
Toby was always calm, I noticed that too.

[–] dac287 16 years ago

I wouldn't say he was always calm. In fact he is either slow fuming angry or jovial in the first half of the movie. He has a real anger towards Union soldiers in the first half of the movie and later at Pitt Mackinson during and after the Lawerence raid (being shot by him didn't help). Maguire is just a very subtle and nuanced actor. I don't think he has the ability to be over-the-top and a traditional leading man like his buddy Leonardo DiCaprio, who loves to let you see that he is REALLY acting. Maguire prefers to just kind of walk around in the charracter and play it as the character he has created would and not necessarily perform it for the audience. Outside of his Spider-Man performances (which are still rather complex for the genre and up there with Bale and Downey) he prefers to let the character come out naturally and not play for the melodrama. He is more of a character actor than a leading man this way, but he somehow has luckily become one though.

[–] zuzus_petalz 13 years ago

I disagree. Baker, Ulrich and Caviezel are nuanced and subtle actors. Tobey just sounds like he is on quaaludes the entire time. He is like that in EVERY movie. When you watch his films, the first thing you say when you hear his voice is "hey, it's spiderman". His voice is like Nic Cage, no dimension in it. Baker, Ulrich and Caviezel are great cameleon actors in that they play a variety of roles and they become the characters and you don't say, "Hey, it's the Christ guy, or hey, it's the Mentalist in this movie". I was blown away by DiCaprio in Gilbert Grape and thought he should have won an Oscar. Unfortunately, I think he has picked up bad habits throughout his career and has become a caricature of himself.

[–] goatslayer2001 16 years ago

I think Jake let him go because he is a married man now. That's the way he thinks.

I think that is a slightly narrow POV of being a married man.

Still, you could have a point.

Although I reckon he let Pitt go because Pitt was dead anyway. Pitt was heading to Newport, with Roedel's and Holt's scalp or not, once he got to Newport, like it was said he was gonna be killed. The guy was manic.

she leads me through moonlight only to burn me with the sun...

[–] michaeljbachman 11 years ago

And he cut his bushwhacker hair, which meant that he was over with the war as stated in the movie. Not to mention Pitt and Turner were going into town and were about ready to join there dead comrades.

So other than Jake and Holt, I would say that Cave was the only other character who survived (by joing up with the regulars).