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Ragtime (1981)
Rate:
5
Viewed:
8/25
8/25:
Wow, the Academy Awards sure went nuts, huh?
Nominated for eight Oscars, Ragtime is a train wreck. I'm disappointed because of my high expectations
for Miloš Forman, the director of
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and
Amadeus. Sure, it's a pretty period picture, but that's as far as it gets.
Plot-wise, the first hour is all over the map. Finally, focus begins to emerge through Coalhouse Walker, Jr.,
but it's still shaky. When the ending comes, the whole thing is so ordinary that I can't believe my time was
wasted for nothing. Now, that's a one long-ass movie!
Miloš Forman just can't be following several individuals and then abruptly drop them in favor of another and
keep juggling through them sporadically. If I were him, I would cut out all scenes with Mandy Patinkin and
Elizabeth McGovern who scored an Oscar nomination by being naked from the top for so long. All he had to do
was revolve the film around Howard E. Rollins' character for the sake of simplicity.
Yes, I get it with the two parallel threads. Evelyn Nesbit didn't fight the one-million-dollar issue by
immediately taking the $25,000 settlement. As a result, she went on with her life, enjoying a career in the
showbiz. On the other hand, Coalhouse Walker, Jr., couldn't let go the firehouse incident by demanding
reparations for his car. As a result, he died in a standoff with the police.
Nevertheless, the cast is as star-studded as it can be which includes James Cagney (who returned from a
20-year hiatus) and Pat O'Brien in the final role of their careers, Moses Gunn, Mary Steenburgen, Brad Dourif,
Frankie Faison, and Fran Drescher, Jeff Daniels, and Samuel L. Jackson in very early roles. Unfortunately,
nearly all are given superficial parts.
All in all, because of his expertise in handling an ensemble cast against the backdrop of Americana, Robert
Altman would've done Ragtime justice through a miniseries, but he got fired early by the myopic producer
Dino De Laurentiis.