Ragtime (1981) [VHS]

Ragtime (1981) [VHS]
by Milos Forman

Ragtime (1981) [VHS]

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Product details

Actor: Brad Dourif, Elizabeth McGovern, James Cagney, Kenneth McMillan, Moses Gunn
Director: Milos Forman
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 156 minutes
Release Date: 1998-01-13
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: 1486
Publisher: Paramount
Studio: Paramount

VHS Movie Reviews of Ragtime (1981) [VHS]

Movie Review: Ragtime rocks
Summary: 4 Stars

It captures the spirit of the age and is mostly true to the original book but has by necessity to omit several sub plots. I recommend reading the book first.

Movie Review: 4 1/2 Stars for the FULL VERSION of a Forgotten Class Act
Summary: 5 Stars

"Ragtime" is a great, vastly underrated materpiece of the early 1980s, before slasher flicks and Indiana Jones / Star Wars sequels turned American cinema into an arrested-adolescent male fantasyland. This is a complex, audacious reconsideration of 20th century America as seen through the lens of class, race and infamy (just right for the America of the 21st century). Milos Forman's adroit and subtle directing skills were never more in tune with a project than with this one, and he brings a wistful, evocative and ultimately forlorn grace to a long-ago time that still resonates today. Forman's literate style frames each scene with specific intent yet he never loses sight of the evanescence of these moments.

This film is also full of top-notch performances. Howard E. Rollins Jr. received the bulk of the praise at the time of the film's release for his ostentatious role as Coalhouse Walker Jr. and he makes the most of his plum part. He lost the Oscar he so richly deserved to sentimental favorite John Gielgud ("Arthur") but that doesn't diminish his accomplishment. Still, there are so many other performances of equal merit. Scene stealer Elizabeth McGovern lacks the expertise of her costars, yet her comedic turn is delightful through and through. Brad Dourif effectively provides creepy emptiness and Mary Steenburgen (especially) a quiet resolve that instills a firm feminism into this Victorian tale. For once, Mandy Patinkin's over-the-top delivery is shown to good advantage and Kenneth McMillan is thuggish villiany incarnate. There are two other performances deserving special mention. James Cagney (82 years-old) came out of retirement to do this film. He may have been infirm and feeble at the time, but his subtle authority and steely resolve resonate powerfully. He brings a quiet dignity to the role, which makes his final screen moment here shockingly unforgettable. However, the sublime James Olsen as "Father" is the film's true centerpiece. A mask of propriety covering the meandering soul of a lost man, this is the kind of performance that gets lost beside the fireworks, yet it's no less accomplished. The complexity of Olsen's portrayal astounds and confuses the viewer. He offers no easy answers, no solutions, no placations and no cosy denoument. He's confoundingly human, and that's a risky task in popular entertainment.

The film itself boasts some of the most beautiful cinematiography of any American film and the art direction and costume design evoke the period without wallowing in it. A special mention should be made of the musical score and, more specifically, the use of music in this film. Randy Newman's beautifully evocative score is used to annotate and transition scenes and many moments are shown sans any soundtrack but the score itself. A bold choice, but one that works beautifully within the context of Ragtime's misty recollective melancholy. These are flickerings of sepia-tinged moments, barely recalled yet romanticized mightily in memory. Filmmaking doesn't get more multi-leveled than this.

Movie Review: Doctorow at his best
Summary: 5 Stars

While the movie doesn't precisly follow Doctorow's book, it is very good and reflects the time from at the turn of the last century.

Movie Review: Interesting period piece
Summary: 4 Stars

Just saw the musical Ragtime and wanted to see the movie again after so long. Had seen movie and read book 30 years ago. A good movie but not a great one. Long and a little dragging in places. Interesting story for the times with its racial and immigrant relations aspects. Also fun to see some familiar faces on today's entertainment scene, when they were young.

Movie 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.

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Summary of Ragtime (1981) [VHS]

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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