Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

grantss 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.

thinker1691 It was a time of novelty, a time for stunts and a time for great men to become famous. Yes, it was a time for all things except, white society did not believe it was a change for the colored man. Despite all that was happening in the 1930's, everything about America was on the verge of exploding in all directions. That is, all but the notion that Black people were entitled to justice under the law. This movie is perhaps a memorable snap shut of American life in the 1930's. This film is called " Ragtime " and is an extraordinary example of what was happening in America in the 30's. Howard E. Rollins Jr. plays Coalhouse Walker Jr. a young black man who believes in being part of the emerging American dream. He has a job, a new car and a young wife. However, while driving home in his new car, Walker is confronted by Willie Conklin (Kenneth McMillian) a white racist and volunteer fireman who wants to make an example of a successful black man, by humiliating him. The bad joke, gets out of hand and eventually cost the life of Walker's wife. With a group of friends, Walker seeks justice and causes such a fervor, that the police Commissioner (James Cagney) gets involved when the joke becomes an explosive incident, involving death and destruction. A great and powerful drama ensues when noted actors like Brad Dourif, Moses Gunn as Booker T. Washington, Pat O'Brien, Donald O'Connor, James Olson and Mandy Patinkin are discovered to be part of the cast. A serious movie with all the wonders of the emerging American nation are profiled. Superior story written by Heinrich Von Kleist and directed by none other than Milos Foreman. Recommended. ****

Robert J. Maxwell 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.

Jvbway 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.