Ang Lee's own article on RWTD

In Ang Lee's Chinese autobiography Ten Years Cinema Dearm, there is a whole chapter
devoted to Ride With The Devil. I am not sure if this book by Ang Lee has been
translated into English, there are quite some informations on this film people might
feel interesting.

Ang Lee disclosed that he and James Schamus received huge pressure from the production
company during the editing process, they were forced to make the story look clear and
compact, but still in a test screening the film puzzled some of the audiences who are
mostly university professors. As a result, Lee and Schamus made compromise which later
they felt regretful. Two scenes Lee deems precious were deleted, one is two people's
argument on the reason of the war, the other is between Jake and the village woman's
disabled son. (Both scenes can still be found in the published RWTD screenplay.)

Ang Lee also told that RWTD was very well received by southern Americans. Test screenings
in African-American population area also resulted in enthusiastic response. Scholars of
Amercian civil war highly approved of this film. Unfortunately these commercial potentials
were not grasped well by the issue company, RWTD was a huge financial failure.

RWTD even to Ang Lee himself is a puzzling film, this is the one that missed the target
and he couldn't find the exact reason why it is so.

To me, RWTD is one of the most moving, meaningful, miraculous films I have ever seen. I
find it rather surprising that had Ang Lee make no artistic compromise, this film could
be different and could be even better. I wonder if it is possible to have a recut version
in the future.