aklcraigc 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.

grinmichigan At the end you miss the point at the end. There is no explanation for the police commissioners action. It was stated in another review that this scene was cut, then you wonder what other stupid cuts were made. The main character did give up and come out so why was he shot? Also it was not explained why the wife left the husband with her children when it appeared the father was doing all the right things and being honorable. Why did she leave him? With the end just ending and missing these appears to me just to make no sense and the two plus hours was a waste of time to me. There are many characters in this film and they do not directly tie in so it is hard to keep track of why they are there.

theowinthrop When RAGTIME was published in 1980 it was a big best seller, establishing E. L. Doctorow as a leading popular novelist, and also showing the way to Mr. Doctorow to future literary work set in other periods of American history. It was optioned for the movies, and became a hit of the 1981 film season. Guaranteeing it's success was the announcement that after nearly two decades (except for some minor television appearance dealing with conservation) James Cagney was going to reappear in the film, in an important supporting part: the somewhat corrupt New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo.Actually RAGTIME had several "old time" faces in it. Cagney's pal, and frequent co-star, Pat O'Brien played Harry Thaw's lawyer Delphin Delmas. And in a smaller part, Donald O'Connor appeared as a singer and dance teacher who was part of the cast of "Mademoiselle Champaign", the musical that was being shown at the Madison Square Garden on June 18, 1906 (the night architect Stanford White was shot and killed by millionaire Harry K. Thaw). Interestingly enough, when I first saw RAGTIME, it was at a theater that stood on Northern Blvd., in Queens. There were two theaters, one showing RAGTIME and one showing GHOST STORY, a film that starred Fred Astaire (his last film), John Houseman, Melvin Douglas, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The affect of seeing all these old time actors on the marquee of the theater was to make me look at the cars on the road to make sure they did not all have rumble seats and running boards.The story was cut in the final movie that was shown. Emma Goldman and Harry Houdini, among other real characters, were in the shot film, but their sections were cut (in some DVDs theses sections are sometimes shown as extras). Houdini's role was rather important, for in the plot he was supposed to demonstrate an escape trick to the Younger Brother (Brad Dourif) that he was going to use later on to aid Coalhouse Walker's gang (Howard Rollins). Emma was supposed to represent the rise of labor as a force against the powers of the rich. She also was to undercut the blare of the Hearst Press regarding the White Murder Case, which was called the "Crime of the Century". "How can it be the crime of the century," Emma asks with amazement, when the century is only six years old?" J.P.Morgan and Henry Ford also appear, forming a club for themselves only as America's two richest men, and going to Egypt on an archaeological trek. Morgan's mansion and library (still there on East 32nd Street and Madison Avenue) and Ford's Model T play important roles in the story too.Doctorow's novel was to show the growing pains of what is modern America, with the rise of American power under Teddy Roosevelt, the rise of immigrants and their contributions (Goldman, Tateh the future movie pioneer: Mandy Pantikin), the rise of African-American self-respect and struggle for equality (Coalhouse/Rollins; his wife Sarah/Debbie Allens), the power of the rich (Harry Thaw's crazy acquittal - the "Million dollar defense": Robert Joy; and the deus ex-machina appearance of Waldo/Cagney to settle the final confrontation).The complications of the story are the collision of groups seeking equality and power, from the past (the rich, the family that hires Coalhouse's wife Sarah), the African-Americans, the immigrants (Houdini, Tateh). Inside the groups are conflicts. They younger brother becomes a committed revolutionary, while his older brother (James Olsen) is a remnant of conservative seeming sanity. Coalhouse finds his violent activism (which is due to personal tragedy caused by bigots) is opposed by America's leading African-American educator (Dr. Booker T. Washington: Moses Gunn). Washington believes in self-respect earned by a bootstrap approach that will gain the admiration and support of the better elements of the White majority. Ironically, after he has helped unman Coalhouse towards the end of the story, Waldo and the other whites push him aside as though they consider him little better than, say, a Pullman Car porter!The film was well directed by Milos Forman. The acting was quite good, including Cagney who was rather infirm at the time, but who is shown to advantage, and has his last good part. It was nice to see him going out on a high note here. Rollins was very promising, and it is a pity that he died so young from A.I.D.S. with so little shown for his talent. I can go down the list, including a brief performance by Norman Mailer as the ill-fated White. But take special note of Kenneth McMillan (as Willie Conlin) who is the bigoted fireman who mistreats Coalhouse and causes the tragedies. He is pretty good as a malevolent slob (or piece of slime) who ends up a pawn in a final game of sudden death that ends the movie.

bkoganbing 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.