Ragtime (1981) User Reviews

It doesn't do the impossible, but so what?

[randysch1 · 8/10 · 16 September 2004]

A short commentary: Having read through a few of the comments here, I note that there are several which express disappointment that the movie didn't do the book justice. Personally, having read the book some time after seeing the movie, I can understand their point, but realistically it's the type of book which would be nearly be impossible to do justice to, as there are so many broad interwoven threads in the book that it would require at least a 6 hour movie to even scratch the surface, and even then, putting it all together into a singular coherent whole which would hold the viewer's interest for that long would be quite a mean feat indeed. So instead of looking at it as an attempt to fully capture the book, it might be best to simply appreciate it for what it is, rather than what it isn't. And I believe that on its own terms it succeeds admirably, and remains one of my favorite movies of all time.

Another way of looking at this, as an introduction to the book, rather than vice versa it has some value on those terms. Perhaps if I hadn't seen the movie I might never have happened upon the book, and never known what I'd missed.

Great To See Cagney But Don't Overlook Olson

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 10 November 2005]

I never saw this film until 2005 and after I had become a big James Cagney fan and wanted to see the movies of his I had missed. Thus, I had to check this out, especially since it was his first film he had made in over 20 years.

En route to getting a glimpse at the 80-year-old star, I found out (1) he wasn't on screen until 45 minutes were left in this 155-minute movie; (2) his absence didn't upset me that much because I was absorbed in this interesting story (plus, to be fair, I was told in advance he didn't appear until the last part!), (3) the sets, clothing, etc. of this "period piece" were fantastic to view.

Anyway, in my opinion, the star of the film was a guy who hardly got any billing: James Olson. He is the key figure in this story and very interesting to watch. Actually, just about everyone is interesting which makes for good storytelling. Nonetheless, Olson's fine performance is unfairly overlooked.

Howard Rollins was good as the black "victim" of the profane slob Kenneth McMillian and Elizabeth McGovern certainly kept ones attention although I wasn't quite sure how her character tied into the story.

By the way, to rate this movie "PG" is ludicrous since McGovern is seen in a 3- to-4-minute scene casually talking away with bare breasts for all to see. And - contrary to a popular rumor - nothing of her was cut out of the DVD.

Meanwhile, Cagney showed he hadn't forgotten how to act. It was a pleasure to see him again, just a few years before he would pass away. It's a cliché, but I doubt if anyone was in his class as an actor and a dancer, a tough guy or a comedian. He was the best and went out in style here, too, although he did do one last made-for-TV film a short time after this.

Imperfect, but still a hell of a ride.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 25 November 2019]

"Ragtime" may have some flaws, but overall it's an impressive recreation of NYC of the earliest years of the 20th century, and tells a VERY compelling series of stories. Scripted by Michael Weller, based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, it has an eclectic cast, just FULL of familiar faces, that bring life to a colourful array of characters. Among the story threads: a piano player named Coalhouse Walker, Jr. (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.) comes into the life of a upper crust white family (James Olson, Mary Steenburgen, Brad Dourif), a pampered young wife (Elizabeth McGovern) makes the acquaintance of a talented street vendor (Mandy Patinkin), her husband (Robert Joy) is incensed over a nude statue for which she supposedly modelled, and Coalhouse is motivated to righteous fury when racist whites foul up his prized car, and he isn't able to obtain justice through the normal channels.

Ultimately, the film does lose a little something once it drops other story threads to focus on the Coalhouse Walker saga, but it's beautifully done in so many ways: period recreation, music (by Randy Newman), atmosphere, etc. It's appropriately uncomfortable in detailing the incredible racism displayed by some of the white characters, but that is contrasted with much more open-minded and compassionate individuals. The cast couldn't be more engaging; chief among them is top-billed legend James Cagney, in his first feature after a 20 year hiatus, and which would turn out to be his final feature film appearance. This viewer will refrain from wasting paragraph space in listing all of the talent that director Milos Forman parades before us, but it's worth noting that Jeff Daniels and Samuel L. Jackson both made their feature debuts here.

Real-life characters such as Stanford White, Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, and Police Commissioner Waldo (Cagney's role) mix with fictional ones in material that would have seemed a natural for Robert Altman (who was, in fact, the original director). It's rich in emotion, and has some humour to it, as well. It may not be completely effective all the way to the end, but it's quite the experience anyway.

Eight out of 10.

A Flawed Beauty Is Nonetheless A Beauty

[bigpurplebear · 2 February 2002]

I finished reading Doctorow's novel just before it was announced that production had started on the movie. I remember thinking, "How the hell do you make a movie of a book where the central characters are named 'Mother,' 'Father,' and 'Mother's Younger Brother?'"

Milos Forman showed how: In a word, beautifully.

And "Ragtime" is beautiful, stunning in its recreation of early 1900s New York, utilizing a script which somehow ties together the central events and their effects on its main characters as well as one of the finest, most haunting soundtracks (Randy Newman, who went so far as to compose several original 'ragtime' numbers) in the past twenty years, topped off with a first-rate cast.

James Cagney was the big news, of course, and deservedly so: Emerging from twenty years of retirement, he showed that he'd not only not lost anything but had added to his expertise. Add Mary Steenburgen, Mandy Patinkin, James Olsen, Howard Rollins, Keith McMillan and even Elizabeth McGovern (each of them perfectly cast), to name but a few, and you see where Forman wasn't missing a bet.

"Ragtime" suffers, ultimately, due to lapses in editing -- the most grievous lapse the cutting of a short scene which explains Commissioner Waldo's motivation behind the action he ultimately takes with Coalhouse Walker. Some cuts are always necessarily (especially in a movie as sprawling as this), yet that cut -- and several others -- flaw this beauty of a film.

But not fatally. Not at all. More than twenty years later, "Ragtime" is still gorgeous.

The passions and complex lives of a wealthy family weave into the scandals and happenings of 1906 America and complicated by a small , unthinking act

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 8 April 2018]

A panoramic epic of the American melting pot and dealing with a middle class family formed by an upright father : James Olson , an attractive mother: Mary Steenburgen and her brother : Brad Dourif. The latter falls in love for an ex-dancer: ElizabethMcGovern married to a jealous millionaire : Robert Joy . As a little incident starred by an African American musician : Howard E Rollins triggers a series of misfortunes and distresses to a sad ending . This wrong act represents all the racist attacks on one man who refuses to back down this time . A thoughful and provoking picture regarding New York American way of life describing racism, social injustices and status of the lower and upper classes . At the end takes place a thrilling siege of the Pierpont Morgan Library which ensues some exciting scenes, including James Cagney acting as the persuasively authoritative police chief Waldo and James Olson interceding between the militants and the massing police.This interesting film results to be an emotive drama with love stories , plenty of historical events and marvelous attention to period detail. From the E.L Doctorow novel , an overrated bestseller , but not nearly as complex. The picture concerns about historic deeds alongside major historical figures as Henry Ford, J Pierpont Morgan , Harry Houdini: Jeffrey DeMunn , Emma Goldman , all are written out of the screenplay. Features wonderful interpretations from Howard Rollins, Elizabeth McGovern, Mary Steenburgen , James Olson , Debbie Allen. Support cast is frankly extraordinary including famous and prestigious secondaries as Pat O'Brien, Jeff Daniels ,Moses Gunn, Mandy Patinkin, Robert Joy , Kenneth McMillan, Donald O'Connor and the writer Norman Mailer.And special mention for James Cagney in his last film performance.

It displays a colorful and adequate cinematography by Miroslab Ondriceck . As well as an atmopheric and evocative musical score by Randy Newman, including Ragtime music, of course.The motion picture was lavishly produced by Dino De Lurentiis and well directed by Milos Forman. Milos had directed very good movies as Loves of a blonde, Hair, One flew over the cuckoo nest, Amadeus, Valmont, Larry Flint , Man on the moon and Ragtime

Ragtime Era Tragedy

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 23 October 2006]

Back in the day when Hollywood was grinding out B westerns it wasn't unusual at all to see famous folks of the west in stories that had absolutely nothing to do with their own lives or to see many famous people interacting when they never even met in real life.

Ragtime revives some of that dubious tradition in filming E.L. Doctorow's novel about the Teddy Roosevelt years of the first decade of the last century. Teddy figures into this briefly as does his Vice President Charles Fairbanks. Booker T. Washington is here too, as are the principals of the Stanford White murder, and New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo.

It's quite a blend because Roosevelt and Fairbanks ran for re-election in 1904 as Fairbanks is shown delivering a campaign speech. He wasn't even Vice President then, just a Senator from Indiana. Fairbanks was running for Vice President because Roosevelt had no Vice President in his first term. He succeeded to the presidency when Willima McKinley was assassinated.

The Stanford White murder took place in 1906 and was then called the crime of the century. Many such murders right up to O.J. Simpson were given that dubious distinction. And Rhinelander Waldo was not NYPD Police Commissioner until 1910 and he was much younger than James Cagney.

Still and all E.L. Doctorow's book is made into a fine film which got a whole bunch of Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director for Milos Forman and Supporting player nominations for Howard Rollins, Jr. and Elizabeth McGovern.

The main story is about Coalhouse Walker, Jr. a black ragtime pianist and his Sarah. She has his baby and they'd like to get married. But a whole lot of things, some of them peripherally connected to the true events and people previously mentioned that lead him and a gang to take possession of the Morgan Library and threaten to blow it up.

Howard Rollins was a real tragedy. This was a great start to a short, but brilliant career that included his long running role as Virgil Tibbs in the TV series In the Heat of the Night and the film A Soldier's Story. He died way too young from AIDS contracted from a lot of intravenous drug use.

Elizabeth McGovern is the famous Evelyn Nisbet, the girl on the red velvet swing which was the title of another film that dealt with the Stanford White murder. McGovern's performance is probably closer to the real Evelyn than Joan Collins was in that earlier film. She's basically a goldigger who juggled two men, her husband Harry K. Thaw and her upscale lover, society architect Stanford White. Her circus act led to White's death, Thaw's commitment to an insane asylum and a vaudeville career for her.

Ragtime was eagerly awaited because of the anticipated return of James Cagney to the screen after being off for 19 years. Cagney is clearly aged, but he gets through the role because unlike that television film Terrible Joe Moran, he's not the center of the film, though he's first billed. Note that he's sitting down during most of his performance and when he has to stand the camera is a discreet distance. It's nothing like the bouncing Cagney of old, but light years better than Terrible Joe Moran.

This was also the final joint appearance as it turned for the team that invented the buddy film, James Cagney and Pat O'Brien even though they have no scenes together. O'Brien is Harry K. Thaw's attorney and Mrs. O'Brien plays Thaw's mother under her maiden name of Eloise Taylor. She was an actress before she married Pat, but gave up her career to raise their four children.

Author Norman Mailer plays Stanford White, fulltime architect and hedonist and Robert Joy plays the demented millionaire Harry K. Thaw and both fit the parts perfectly. Maybe one day we will have a definitive film version just concentrating on the murder and it's aftermath for the three principals.

Milos Forman gave us a remarkable evocation of an exciting time in American history. It seemed that America had limitless possibilities then. I doubt they'll be saying that about the first decade of this century.

Could have been done differently

[smatysia · 6/10 · 21 November 2006]

I haven't read the novel this film was based on. But I understand it had myriad plot lines snaking throughout the narrative. The director, Milos Forman, apparently chose the Coalhouse Walker story line to hang this movie on. It is about racial injustice, and a revolutionary response to it. OK, I understand that racial injustice is a big part of the American story. I'm not saying that it should be swept under the rug, or that the story shouldn't be told. But if I need to be preached at about racial injustice, I could just go rent a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. Aside from this, the film is well done, with excellent acting, good photography, high-quality production values. I guess there was only so much screen time available, but some of the other plot lines got seriously short shrift here, and I think the movie suffers for it.

Now clearly a classic

[scottnyc · 9/10 · 18 October 1999]

Ragtime has emerged as a classic film. Its astonishing array of great performances--literally a score of them, from Howard Rollins's truly tragic stand for human dignity at the film's center to James Cagney's historic return to film at the end of his life and the end of this motion picture--would almost alone qualify this as a great motion picture. But Michael Weller's breathtakingly complex and complete dramatization of Doctorow's sprawling novel, the gorgeous production and costume designs and the superb direction of Milos Forman seal the deal. This is a magnificent tapestry of American life at the beginning of the American century.

Lavishly entertaining, genuinely heartbreaking and a dandy history lesson to boot, Ragtime has joined the pantheon of great, epic movies.

My brief review of the film

[sol- · 6/10 · 16 January 2005]

A vivid portrayal of circa 1900 American life, it is a shame that the film is so poor in structure and ill planned. Intertwining stories are thrown together erratically for the first hour or so, and it takes that long for the film to focus. It looks good, with good costumes and sets, but it is just too chaotic to be able to dig deep properly. There are plenty of good performances, good music, and towards the end the film picks up. There is enough good in it to be certainly above average, but it is far too messy along the way for the film to be anything special. It was nominated for 8 Academy awards, including a well deserved nod for Howard E. Rollins, Jr..

Fantastic in every way

[Idocamstuf · 9/10 · 28 April 2005]

This a truly terrific period piece directed by Milos Forman(Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus) and starring terrific cast. The film takes place in the very early 1900's and follows the lives of at least four different people/families. As the movie gets going, it begins to focus mostly on an African American man and his struggle to be heard in society after he is mistreated by a group of firemen. Everything that follows is equally powerful and fascinating as the man tries to find justice in the turn of the century America. This fine film is richly textured with turn of the century atmosphere, music and actual newsreels from the period which all contribute to this fascinating story. Also nice to see James Cagney one more time. This is a film that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in what life was like at the turn of century. A fantastic film. ***3/4 out of ****.

Engrossing but troubling and flawed

[sissoed · 6/10 · 14 July 2007]

I saw Ragtime back in the early 80s and it made a powerful impression. But seeing it again some 25 years later reveals a few weaknesses.

The sequences with Elizabeth McGovern as Evelyn Nesbit are as effective as ever, but other sequences don't hold up as well. For example, Coalhouse Walker is introduced as a poor movie-theater pianist who gets a job as a member of a band, which gives him enough income to marry the woman whom he got pregnant. Yet in short order, he has a fancy car, and then after his humiliation by the bigoted Irish firemen, suddenly he has a gang of violent henchmen, and then he has an expensive supply of rifles, pistols, and dynamite. His gang and his armaments just appear; in reality there is no way a mere band piano player, however talented, would have these. And the scenario for his wife's fatal injury -- yelling in the midst of a presidential campaign crowd to get the vice-President's attention -- isn't convincing; police officers wouldn't fatally beat a slightly- built, well-dressed African-American woman just because she was shouting in the midst of a noisy crowd gathered around a campaigning politician. The film could easily have found a more plausible scenario in which police would over-react and hurt her fatally. Thus, the provocation that leads Coalhouse to conduct his reign of terror -- horse manure on his car, followed by official indifference, followed by his wife being fatally injured by police -- isn't the kind of action that would motivate a gang to unite around him. It is not all that hard to imagine a more convincing set-up for Coalhouse's rampage, so it is puzzling why the film seems to go out of its way to develop an implausible set-up. The extraordinary performance by Rollins in the role does a lot to correct this implausibility, but it is tantalizing to think of just how powerful a performance it could have been had the story been stronger.

One strength of the film is that all of the characters are morally complex. Tateh, the immigrant who becomes a movie director, is outraged when he catches his wife cheating on him, but later, he is quite willing to romance a woman whom he knows is married and tempt her to leave her husband. The 'father' character is priggish and formal, yet shows himself the most truly courageous and idealistic person in the film.The 'mother' character is presented as the most moral person, caring for the abandoned baby and his mother despite their being African-American (a big issue for most whites in 1906) -- positions which her husband always supports, although after initial hesitation -- yet she leaves him without a qualm to go off with the movie director.

One minor factual tid-bit for those who are interested: in the film, Evelyn Nesbit's husband Thaw is outraged because it is thought that a nude statue of the Greek goddess Diana the hunter ("Diana of the Tower") that adorns the top of Madison Square Garden is Evelyn's body as the model; Thaw finds it humiliating that all of New York can gawk at his wife's nakedness. While this works very well as drama, sadly, factually is it wrong. Nesbit was born in 1884 and never came to New York until 1901. The first version of the statue (18 feet high) went up on the top of the tower in 1891, but was too large; a second version, more lithe and fleet (13 feet high), went up in 1893. Evelyn was 7 when the first version went up, 9 when the second, and when she arrived in New York the second version had already been up for 8 years. The model for the body was Julia 'Dudie" Baird, a well-known artist model born in 1872 -- 12 years older than Nesbit. The model for the face was a different woman, Davida, also active in New York modeling circles, who was the sculptor's mistress.

Off to Oxford

[harryfielder · 10/10 · 18 March 2009]

RAGTIME…Director Milos Forman… Cast Inc… JAMES CAGNEY…Pat O'Brien…Donald O'Connor… This cast is a blast from the past… We film for a few days at Oxford and for me it doesn't get any better than this. The scenes are interior of a big office and I'm dressed as a US cop. Pat O'Brien came onto the set first and shook hands with many of the Supporting Artists (Including me) ''How are you son, you look good'' he said.. Well that's the best way for me to start the day because now I felt good that this man had taken time to welcome all of us. Pat moved around the room chatting to cast and crew alike and we were all waiting for the main man to arrive on set.. The noise was quite deafening until someone said ''He's here''. You could have heard a pin drop as the main man entered the set. Everyone stood and applauded and waited for James Cagney to take his position on the set before silence resumed. There they were in front of me my two heroes of the black and white days of cinema. I think I've seen every film that James has made (Some of them many times) I feel sorry for the kids of today that never got to see he's early films and think a good film today has to be bombarded with special effects to make it work. Let me list some of films of James Cagney to let the kids of today and tomorrow know what they have missed. The Public Enemy (1931), Scarface (1932), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), White Heat (1949). Then in the 50s Love Me Or Leave Me (With Doris Day), Mr Roberts. (With a young Jack Lemmon). I could watch all these films again and never tire. This was to be James Cagney's last film and I would like to say, thank you Mr Cagney for entertaining me for so many years.

Pride goeth before a fall.

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 3 March 2007]

Very neat production that captures the essence of New York City and its upper-middle-class suburbs in the early years of the 20th century.

The performances are uniformly good. On the first viewing, Jimmy Cagney disappoints. We are, after all, used to seeing him as a bouncing semi-psychotic, even in his last film, "One, Two, Three." Here, in his age, he hardly movies, content to wave a finger or slowly swivel in his desk chair or nod his head. A second viewing gets you past that kind of sadness. He's still Jimmy Cagney, with that ironic/comic voice and that mustache like a pair of russet turned-up handlebars.

The rest of the cast can't be faulted either. Howard Rollins, Jr., as the degraded black victim exemplifies a certain kind of pent-up dignity and pride. Rollins' pride, like Coriolanus', can be a weakness when it becomes unyielding. It can lead to escalation and become lethal. Whether or not he should have swallowed the insults and jokes is arguable in this case but I think if I'd been in his position I'd have swept the turds off the car seat and driven away leaving behind a thick cloud of curses against the Irish. His character may be misguided but Rollins isn't. He handles it extremely well, and it's a demanding part.

James Olsen is stiff, formal, and courageous. Elizabeth McGovern is very amusing as Evelyn Nesbitt, a pixillated airhead who reads numbers better when they're preceded by dollar signs. But then everyone is quite good.

I haven't read Doctorow's novel but I gather that it was necessarily compressed and that several sub-stories were left out. I can understand why. As it is, some of the threads seem to dribble away. Did Tatah become a famous director? Did Nesbitt become a star? Why did Olsen's wife, Mary Steenbergen, run off with Mandy Potamkin? What happened to Rollins' baby? Well, we can't expect too much. In order to do justice to ANY of the stories, the film has to resemble a brief encyclopedia entry on a subject like, say, the French Revolution. Robespierre walks on stage, bows, and leaves.

The ending is a sad one. We've grown to like and admire Colehouse Walker, Rollins' character. And the escape of his accomplices, which we probably applaud, foreshadow the urban unrest and racial conflicts which were let loose on us in the 1960s. Of course it's a plausible argument that if the system had worked perfectly in 1910, we might not have had the 1960s.

The score by Randy Newman is first rate. He plays a good piano.

Well worth seeing.

A Bit Of a Mess.

[aklcraigc · 5/10 · 11 October 2013]

Ragtime is a movie that has obvious aspirations to the epic, but never quite makes it. Multiple plot lines go nowhere, only to be neatly resurrected at some random time in the future, just to remind us that everything is 'linked'. Characters go off on random tangents for no apparent reason, things just happen, you get the idea. The central subplot is actually reasonably compelling, but even then it suffers from being slightly haphazard, with all but the very central characters basically behaving in a completely random manner. All this being said, Ragtime is not a bad movie per se, it's sumptuously shot and the acting is mostly pretty good, once the main subplot gets moving, it's pretty engaging.

Ragtime is based on the book of the same name, I didn't know this when I was watching the movie, but it's pretty obvious that the script has suffered from attempting to compress the book, even then, the movie still weighs in at a hefty two and a half hours, one can't help feeling that they should have just concentrated on developing the main story properly, instead of trying to throw in the kitchen sink.

In conclusion: Well done, a little bit of a mess, probably worth a go if you're looking for a period drama.

No, NOT the 30's, not the 20's, the 'oughts ...

[djexplorer · 1 May 2000]

1906, to be specific, is when Stanford White was shot -- which of course marks the beginning date bookmark of the movie.

The "declaration of war" -- WW I -- as announced in a Newspaper headline at the end of the film, bookmarks the end of the movie -- and of the era.

Not trivial points, since a good part of the interest of this movie lies it it's serving as a relatively rare window into this period. Which unlike the 1930s or the 1920s which the plot summary and first comment confuse it with, is not a period which is much portrayed in film.

I'd say it's a pretty good, although not great, "costume" film. The first half is much stronger than the second half, both in historical interest and in character development.

Worth seeing though. Perhaps try seeing it right after "Age of Innocence", which is set primarily in the New York of the 1870s (although entirely among the upper upper class, instead of the somewhat broader class look, and city/near country look of Ragtime).

Possibly Forman's least interesting film.

[MOscarbradley · 6/10 · 23 February 2021]

E.L. Doctorow's picaresque novel was always going to be one of the great unfilmable books until Czech director Milos Forman, working from a Michael Weller screenplay, brought it to the screen in 1981. It might have been better if he had left well enough alone. It's reasonably entertaining but the novel's several interlinked stories never gell on screen so it's left to Forman's large cast to carry the picture and a number of them very ably do so with Howard E. Rollins Jr.'s Coalhouse Walker Jr. coming off best.

The various tales involves the murder of Stanford White, (Norman Mailer) by Henry Thaw, (Robert Joy), over Evelyn Nesbit, 'the girl in the red velvet swing', (which was the title of an earlier film dealing with this incident with Joan Collins as Nesbit, a part much better played here by a young Elizabeth McGovern). Then there's the story of Brad Dourif's initial courtship of Evelyn before getting involved in the Coalhouse yarn while yet another tale, (the weakest), follows Mandy Patinkin's down-and-out inventor who becomes a famous movie director all culminating in the Rollins' story of a proud African-American taking his revenge on those who abused him and which takes up the final section of this long film.

For this story Forman was able to coax James Cagney out of retirement to play the city's Chief of Police while other 'oldies', mostly guesting in the cast, include Donald O'Connor, Pat O'Brien and Bessie Love. It's not a bad film, just a meandering and disappointing one that, despite all the dramas onscreen, never really builds up a head of steam and when it's over it all feels very anti-climatic.

A Wonderful Panel of Racism, Intolerance, Violence, Greed and Hypocrisy, Showing the Formation of the American Society

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 22 January 2004]

In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, many dramas cross in a wonderful panel, showing the formation of the American society. Evelyn Nesbit Thaw (Elizabeth McGovern) is the wife of a millionaire, and pivot of a crime committed by her jealous husband. Her mother-in-law is a hypocrite old lady, who convinces Evelyn to lie in court for money, to avoid her son to go to the electric chair. Evelyn commits perjury, but the mother-in-law does not pay her the promised amount. Mary Steenburgen is a correct woman, having a very moralist husband. Her brother (Brad Dourif) is honest and idealist. The family hires Sarah, a black and single mother, with her baby. The father is the pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Howard E. Rollins Jr.), who progresses in his career and comes back to Sarah, proposing her to get married with him. An incident with a group of racists makes him fighting for justice in a racist society. Rheinlander Waldo (James Cagney) is the chief of police, who is involved in the incident. This movie is another wonderful film of Milos Forman. Amazing the quantity of marvelous movies made by this fantastic director. The reconstitution of the period is magnificent. The cast is stunning. Elizabeth McGovern looks like a doll wearing those costumes. Her nude scene is also great. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): `Na Época do Ragtime' (`In the Age of the Ragtime')

See the musical instead

[overseer-3 · 6/10 · 20 October 2002]

This movie stinks compared to the Broadway musical. Get the original cast recording of the musical (the double CD set), and see a production when and if you can, and you will get a much better feel for the era...and be entertained much more. If you want to enjoy classic James Cagney, watch Yankee Doodle Dandy instead. This film version is embarrassing.

Well Done!

[johnbee-1 · 8/10 · 25 September 2007]

I read the book years ago, and am glad I finally got around to watching the movie. It is an engrossing and well crafted story, beautifully set in the final years of the American Gilded Age. On the surface it appears to be a wonderfully happy and enthusiastic era, but the tensions created by the different racial groups and social classes of that time show that, aside from the wonderful architecture, manners and wardrobe of the well-to-do, most people of that period suffered the same challenges and woes as they always have. Same crap, better packaging.

I was originally unhappy that they didn't do more with the character of Evelyn Nesbit, played by the captivating Elizabeth McGovern, but I finally understood that her character wouldn't let herself get involved with the many nasty situations that happened. She just floated away to the next soirée when things got ugly. All the other characters got sucked into the many interrelated subplots because they cared, and wanted to deal with the challenges and problems - not simply move on to greener pastures.

Some of the less enthusiastic comments here indicate some viewers didn't care for the film because it didn't contain all the characters and sub-stories that were in the book, but to me that is irrelevant. The movie stands well on its own merits. It is a powerful and thoroughly enjoyable film, with a great ending. As Evelyn elegantly waltzes around in dreamy bliss with yet another beau, we see that all the efforts of most of the other key characters to solve their problems and find happiness have turned to doo doo. It ends with a shot of a newspaper headline announcing the start of World War I. The Gilded Age is over.

Playing the notes but not the music

[ecjones1951 · 7/10 · 16 August 2006]

Like many people, I devoured E.L. Doctorow's sprawling novel, "Ragtime" prior to the release of the film. I also wondered how a director could handle characters known in the book only by their positions in the family. And how could more than a dozen threads that run contemporaneously throughout the novel be woven neatly together in a 2 1/2 hour movie? The answer to both questions is, "imperfectly."

Robert Altman was originally hired to direct "Ragtime." But he had a falling out with producer Dino DeLaurentis and backed out of the project.

So Milos Forman was brought on board. He had directed "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" to 5 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director in 1975, and would achieve even greater success three years after "Ragtime," when "Amadeus" picked up eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and a second Best Director Oscar for Forman in 1984.

For "Ragtime," Forman assembled a first-rate cast. James Olsen as Father, Mary Steenburgen as Mother, and Brad Dourif as her Younger Brother just seem to spring off the pages of Doctorow's book. The bedeviled, ill-fated Howard Rollins, Jr. plays the equally doomed Coalhouse Walker, Jr. with great charm, passion and intensity. His is a star-making performance.

Numerous others in the large cast bear mention, but when "Ragtime" was released in December 1981, James Cagney's heralded return to the screen after a 20-year absence got the most ink. Cagney most likely would not have appeared in the film had Altman remained director. Milos Forman lived in the same New York neighborhood as Cagney, and persuaded him to play the fictional Police Commissioner, Rhinelander Waldo. He does so with a crusty, irascibility that is fun to watch, until he is an accessory to murder.

Robert Joy is memorable as the maniacal Harry K. Thaw; Moses Gunn is suitably dignified as Booker T. Washington; and Donald O'Connor and Pat O'Brien (who had made many pictures with James Cagney in the 1930s) are thrown in for nostalgia's sake and for good measure. "Ragtime" also helped to spark some new careers. Elizabeth McGovern, in only her second film (after "Ordinary People"), plays Evelyn Nesbit as somewhat ditzy, but she is certainly lovely to look at. Jeff Daniels made his film debut here, and Mandy Patinkin convincingly moves from tenement-dwelling street peddler to visionary silent film maker with great dash and style.

The production design, costumes and set decoration are jaw-dropping. Randy Newman's score is by turns wistful and jubilant. It's one of the best film scores of all time. Creating the look of this film and its soundtrack were obviously labors of love.

Where "Ragtime" goes wrong is in scrapping about 75% of the text of the novel. Perhaps it would not have been possible to do Doctorow's novel full justice except as a miniseries. Even so, devoting the bulk of the screenplay to Coalhouse Walker's search for racial justice throws the movie off-kilter. There is no reason why the movie could not have woven a carefully selected group of Doctorow's plot lines into a more satisfying whole. As it is, screenwriter Michael Weller's choice to concentrate on the sad crusade of Coalhouse Walker at the expense of other, equally interesting characters and their stories is a misstep. It's not a fatal one, but it drains away much of the tremendous energy built up in the first, glorious hour of "Ragtime."

In 1906, America was a cold, lonely and sometimes very dangerous place for women, immigrants and minorities of all kinds. The movie alludes to what the book thoroughly explores—that wealthy white men lived lives of bloated excess, while women were hamstrung by lack of opportunity, and seldom accorded any real respect. They were often exploited sexually and rarely taken seriously. First generation Americans of various nationalities pitted themselves one against another. Blacks occupied the lowest rung of all, and risked their lives if they tried to get ahead playing by white men's rules.

Coalhouse Walker's desire for equality with white men is, of course, reasonable, fair and just. In a very effective montage, Coalhouse pursues every legal means of redressing the original grievance committed against him. Understandably, when he gets nowhere, he decides to fight his battle on his own terms. He gains some unlikely allies along the way, in a subplot that provides both optimism and some comic relief, Coalhouse's tragic story finally eclipses those of all the other characters who are also victims of prejudice or injustice in one form or another.

"Ragtime" is not a failure, not by any stretch. The acting is uniformly fine, and it is a marvel to look at. Despite its flaws, "Ragtime" remains a well-intentioned film that yields many pleasures and reveals a good many truths about American life one hundred years ago.

Love this film.

[suzy q123 · 10/10 · 17 May 2001]

This is one of the last great epics featuring James Cagney, Donald O'Conner, and oh yeah- some terrific younger actors too. An amazing score by Randy Newman, a great script based on a book, and lovely cinematography. I highly recommend this film, I saw it the night after I saw REDS, and somehow they belong together on a double bill.

Rambling yet engaging story

[grantss · 7/10 · 13 March 2015]

A rambling yet engaging story.

Set in the early 20th century the movie initially follows the lives of several characters, from different walks of life. Their stories are not independent - their lives do intersect, sometimes fleetingly, sometimes indirectly, sometimes more permanently.

This creates a rambling, unfocused, feel to the movie, especially in the first half to 2/3rds of it. After a while it mostly settles down and tends to focus on one main character, but in the early stages it is difficult to get into the movie, due to the disjointed nature of it.

Ultimately it is quite engaging, as you start to support certain characters and the plot takes shape.

Solid performances all round. ELizabeth McGovern and Howard E Rollins received Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively, Oscar nominations for their performances.

James Cagney, 82 years old at the time, gives a great, gravitas- filled, performance as the Police Chief. This was to be his last cinematic role, though he did make one more movie, a TV movie, before his death in 1986.

Also interesting to see many now well-known stars in early-career minor roles: Jeff Daniels, Samuel L Jackson, Fran Drescher, John Ratzenberger.

Underrated

[evanston_dad · 8/10 · 14 April 2020]

I read E.L. Doctorow's novel many many years ago and have forgotten a lot of it. I do remember that Emma Goldman was a major and vibrant character, and I believe that Harry Houdini also had a sizable role. Houdini is only glimpsed briefly in context of newsreel footage in the Milos Forman film adaptation of the novel, and Emma Goldman isn't a character at all. This leads me to conclude based on my fuzzy recollection of the novel that the movie pretty liberally adapted its transition to screen, which I suppose will disappoint those who wanted a more faithful version.

I'm glad, though, that I have forgotten the novel so much, because I was able to enjoy the film for what it is rather than for what it fails to be. And what it is is a pretty damn good movie, and one that seems to have been unfairly forgotten. It garnered 8 Academy Award nominations in the year of its release (though it won none of them), so clearly it had fans back in 1981. But you never hear about this movie now.

It's true that in weaving together the many plot strands of Doctorow's novel into a tapestry of American life at turn of the 20th century, the screenplay doesn't do all of its story lines justice. I'm thinking mostly of a plot featuring Mandy Patinkin as a Jewish immigrant who goes from selling street art in a city ghetto to successful filmmaker. The movie abandons his character for such long stretches of time, and doesn't elaborate on how he got from point A to point B, that his story arc is not only jarring but seems implausible. But otherwise the good greatly outweighs the bad in this movie, and we get the central story of radical activist Coalhouse Walker, Jr., a black man whose quest for justice leads him to criminal and bloody places, as well as the tangential story of ditsy movie star Elizabeth McGovern as she moves from one sugar daddy to another. Howard E. Rollins, Jr. received an Oscar nomination for playing Coalhouse Walker, and he anchors the film with a serious, impassioned gravitas. At the other end of the spectrum, McGovern, also Oscar nominated, gives a bonkers performance as Evelyn Nesbit as delightful as it is weird.

But most impressive to me was the performance of James Olson, who you never hear about in connection with anything, as the patriarch of an affluent family and the film's reluctant hero, a man whose own moral sense of justice won't let him sit by and enjoy his position of white privilege.

The film is full of all sorts of good actors giving equally good performances: Mary Steenburgen, Brad Dourif, a barely recognizable Debbie Allen, and, last but not least, James Cagney, clearly old and past his prime, but whose natural charisma nevertheless comes practically pouring off the screen.

In addition to its two supporting acting nominations, "Ragtime" received Oscar nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song ("One More Hour"). I'm not a big fan of Randy Newman in general, but his score for this film is one of my all-time favorites, and I could listen to "One More Hour" at least once a day.

Grade: A

Good Movie, better book

[rickdugs · 7/10 · 14 July 2022]

Good film with great production value. Visually very enjoyable. Definitely worth a watch but book is much better, based on many real people and events.

Too much for one film

[Jvbway · 4/10 · 6 April 2006]

E.L Doctorow's novel "Ragtime" is an amazing achievement, blending real life an fictional characters into a thrilling and heartbreaking story. However, since there are many different story lines in the novel, making a film would be difficult. E.L Doctorow hoped that "Ragtime" would be made into a t.v miniseries which is really the only way i could ever see it working, even though the musical version in 1998 did an impressive job of adapting the novel.

Unfortunately, Milos Foreman's film version did not. While it would be difficult ton include every aspect of the novel into a film, many major parts of the novel were not included, for instance, Father (a fine performance from James Olson) does not go on his expedition with Admiral Perry, so therefore father doesn't return a changed man, and Mother (a miscast Mary Steenburgen in an unimpressive performance) cannot discover her independence, and her character is greatly diminished. Likewise, the story of the immigrant Tateh (a fine performance from Mandy Patinkin) is too briefly seen, even though they do include the episode of him kicking out his unfaithful wife (played by an unknown Fran Drescher), which was eliminated from the Musical.

On the opposite side, they pay an unusually large amount of attention to Evelyn Nesbit's story, which is only a minor thread to the overall plot. However, one can't complain about this too much, as Elizabeth McGovern gives a dazzling performance as Evelyn Nesbitt.

Not surprisingly, the most attention is spent on Coalhouse Walker's story, as it is the most compelling and dominant. However, changes make this story somewhat less compelling, such as him not bringing Sarah back to him through his music. not to mention underpowered performances from Howard Rollins as Coalhouse and Debbie Allen as Sarah.

It must be noted, that i can't really imagine a successful way to film the novel, i could really only imagine it working as a miniseries, which hopefully one day, it might.