RAGTIME (1981)

Ragtime occurs a decade into the 20th century when film houses had live music accompanying the moving images on the silver screen and segregation still was strong in the United States.  The houses for picture shows became locations for news as they attracted a paying public’s interest, and people could see the death defying stunts of Houdini.  The musicians played music that enhanced the emotional experience of the visual show on the screen as the audience could view Madison Square Garden receiving its naked statue made after a model.  These were times before prohibition when people lived in and attended the New York City’s largest restaurant in the Madison Square Garden.  The book of E.L. Doctorow by the name Ragtime grabbed these moments as it followed a wide range of characters through numerous stories. 

Milos Forman gave Doctorow’s book a different and personal adaptation as he focused on a family in the small community of New Rochelle outside the city of New York.  The family discovers an infant African-American child in the small kitchen garden, and later finds out the identity of the mother.  The family takes in the mother and the child as they soon learn the name of the father, Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Howard E. Rollins Jr.).  Walker works as a piano player for a big band, but before his job with the band he played in picture houses and small-secluded joints.  When Walker finds his family he wants to marry his wife in order to do the right thing, but on the way home after he has proposed to his wife the local volunteering fire squad stops him.  They harass him by putting horse dung on his driver’s seat, and call him derogatory names.  Coalhouse Walker Jr. demands that his rights are upheld, which leads him into a personal crusade for justice in the segregated town of New Rochelle.

Ragtime is somewhat fragmented like the novel, but it does not come close to touch the diverse tapestry of the written story.  The film stays mostly with the struggles of Coalhouse Walker Jr. as he takes the law in his own hands.  Nonetheless, the audience gets to experience some of the interesting characters, as a madly jealous husband demands that the statue on top of the Madison Square Garden is removed as it is supposed to look like his wife.  The audience gets to follow the brother who travels to the luring city where he is mesmerized by the beauty of the model of the statue.  Then there is a Jewish immigrant that supports his daughter and himself by making picture-flip books and ends up becoming one of the first film directors.

Initially, Robert Altman was assigned to film Ragtime, and it might have been a much different tale in that case as he had already made Nashville (1975) and later Short Cuts (1993).  These two films depict a wide range of characters in a manner which would be needed in order to cover more of the book.  Nonetheless, Forman told the story the way he wanted it and that offers much to ponder as the film deals with injustice, racism, deceit, jealousy, hope, infidelity, and much more.  In the end, the audience will have experienced a good cinematic journey that will be remembered for the connections between the characters, which is somewhat amusing.

DIRECTED BY

Milos Forman

COUNTRY

USA
REVIEWED
12/4/2004
GRADE


Filmography links and data courtesy of  
The Internet Movie Database.