Ragtime

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.

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.

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.

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).

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