Ragtime

Ragtime
by Milos Forman

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DVD details

Actor: Brad Dourif, Elizabeth McGovern, Howard E. Rollins Jr., James Cagney, Milos Forman
Director: Milos Forman
Brand: Paramount
Producer: Bernard Williams
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis
Producer: Fred Sidewater
Producer: Gary Khammer
Writer: E.L. Doctorow
Writer: Heinrich von Kleist
Writer: Michael Weller
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Surround Sound, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 156 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-16
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount

DVD Reviews of Ragtime

DVD Review: 3 stars out of 4
Summary: 4 Stars

The Bottom Line:

A successful adaptation of Doctorow's novel, Ragtime can't quite manage to do every storyline from the book justice but it does craft a solid movie based largely on the plot thread of Coalhouse Walker, an African-American who refuses to silently accept racism; a well-made slice of Americana (albeit directed by a Czech), it's worth a look.

DVD Review: Great To See Cagney But Don't Overlook Olson
Summary: 4 Stars

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 he wasn't on screen until 45 minutes were left in this 155-minute movie but his absence didn't upset me that much because I was absorbed in this interesting story. The sets, clothing, etc. of this "period piece" were fantastic to view.

Anyway,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 naked for all to see. And - contrary to a popular rumor - nothing of her scenes were cut out of the DVD.....at least the one I have.

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 clich?, 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.

DVD Review: A Bygone Era Revisited
Summary: 5 Stars

For anyone interested in the great ragtime music of the early 20th century, this movie is a "must see." Why?---because, it transports the viewer back to a bygone era so artistically as to make the viewer believe that he was actually present and viewing the events as they are unfolding. One feels the presence of the era while actually experiencing the horrors of racist hatred---wanting to, but not being able to stop it. Observing and experiencing first hand the warped mentality of the bigots practicing there calumny. Although there were moments of extreme heroism that raised the spirits of the viewer, the heros of this film did not ultimately enjoy the fruits of their heroism as we see in the great majority of Hollywood films. Instead, the heros here became its victims by losing what they had rightfully earned. The film concluded by relegating the hero to simply being inconsequential--certainly not the usual Hollywood ending. However, if its true to life realism you prefer, this is it. The "good guys" don't always win.
Overall, this film definitely leaves lasting impressions.

DVD Review: A classic of it's time
Summary: 4 Stars

Ragtime is a period piece very well done for it's time period.
The subject should be seen that these events happened when these types of things were really happening. Would not happen today

DVD Review: The Return of Jimmy Cagney
Summary: 4 Stars

After he made ONE, TWO, THREE (1961), James Cagney retired from the screen and turned down all offers to return for twenty years. He even refused the choice role of Alfred Dolittle in the movie version of MY FAIR LADY.

The film that brought Cagney back to the movies was RAGTIME (1981), the adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's best selling novel.

Set in 1906, RAGTIME interweaves the story of a fictional upper middle class family (Mary Steenburgen, James Olson, Brad Dourif) living in Upstate New York, with the lives of some real-life figures, such as Evelyn Nesbitt Thaw (Elizabeth McGovern) and Booker T. Washington (Moses Gunn). Cagney, whose role is relatively small, is (as always) effective as the corrupt New York police commissioner.

The main plotline concerns Coalhouse Walker (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.), a black musician who turns vigilante when the authorities refuse to correct a grievous wrong done to him and his fiance' (Debbie Allen).

Also in the first-rate cast is Mandy Patinkin, playing a European immigrant who becomes one of the first film directors, Donald O'Connor and Cagney's lifelong friend, Pat O'Brien.

Directed by Milos Forman, RAGTIME is a terrific picture than does a superb job of recreating a bygone era.

DVD extras include audio commentary by Forman, a retrospective featurette and a deleted scene featuring the real-life character of activist Emma Goldman.

? Michael B. Druxman

Description of Ragtime

Based on the popular novel by E.L. Doctorow, RAGTIME tells the story of four New York families at the turn of the 20th century. Starving immigrant artist, Tateh sets off to make his fortune in Hollywood, but along the way encounters showgirl Evelyn Nesbit who is at the center of a murder investigation. Meanwhile, an upper-class family finds their seemingly perfect existence ruined when black pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. begins to romance a pregnant girl living in their home.

Fact and fiction intertwine in Milos Forman's colorful kaleidoscope of E.L. Doctorow's sprawling novel of turn-of-the-century America. Anchored in the true story of the murder of architect Stanford White (Norman Mailer) by Harry Thaw (Robert Joy) over the affections of his wife Evelyn Nesbit (Elizabeth McGovern), Forman weaves a portrait of early 1900s America in a tapestry of intertwining fictional tales. The primary thread involves the proud black pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Howard Rollins) and his demand for justice when a racist fireman destroys his automobile, which escalates into a reign of terror by Walker and a band of revolutionaries. A secondary story involves an ambitious immigrant artist (Mandy Patinkin) whose primitive flipbooks send him on the road to creating early cinema. Centering all of these stories in one way or another is an upper-class family known simply as Father (James Olson), Mother (Mary Steenburgen), and Younger Brother (Brad Dourif). James Cagney came out of a twenty-year retirement to play the irascible Irish police commissioner, a character created for the film. Forman's biggest departure from Doctorow's novel, however, is his focus on Walker's story, cutting away the other threads to little more than asides in the final half of the picture, the primary dramatic weakness of an otherwise rich evocation of America's past. Randy Newman's lyrical score and Miroslav Ondricek's understated cinematography earned two of the film's eight Academy Awards nominations --Sean Axmaker

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