Pieta, Madonna

Some viewers, including me, are puzzled by the way Sue Lee reveals her breasts in front of Jake Roedel. Such scenes are very elegently shoot, they seem much more than sexual seduction occurs in the plot, leading to rich interpretations.

I have just figured out many elements here resemble Madonna in Christan religious paintings in thousands of years -- Sue Lee's baby has no father at this moment, and she is in total happiness.

As a common practice by Ang Lee, the one of the greatest film maker in our time, these Madonna scenes reflect the many death scenes in the early part of the film, particularly Jake Bull's death. In all these death scenes, a woman is holding a dead man's body, while other people
weeping around, hence, the Pieta.

In all these Pieta and Madonna scenes, Jake Roedel, as same as us, is a silent audience.
Here the theme of Ride with Devil, i.e. some complex thoughts on civilisation is clear enough.