CLASSIC MOVIE REVIEW: Ragtime - Racism raises its ugly head in the Progressive Era
By Alan Herrmann
MOVIE CRITIC
Ragtime is a good movie and well worth watching. It’s an adaptation of a novel by E.L. Doctorow that explores the whirlwind that was America in the early years of the 20th century with a huge cast of characters, some fictious and some historical, that just keep showing up.
Think about a novel that includes Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, Harry K. Thaw, Sigmund Freud, Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, Emma Goldman, Theodore Roosevelt, Jacob Riis, Henry Ford, and J. P. Morgan. Wow!
Then you include the large cast of fictional characters who interact with all these famous newsmakers.
Now imagine a two-hour movie with all these players. It would be overwhelming and confusing at best. In fact, novelist Doctorow felt a ten-part miniseries would make more sense, but producer Dino De Laurentiis wanted a theatrical movie with some big names. He pushed director Milos Forman to create a film with a relatively normal running time.
Forman, a Czech-born director who had won an Academy Award for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest a few years earlier, begrudgingly agreed and screenwriter Michael Weller tried to condense the script by keeping much of the story but shortening scenes from the novel and leaving out several characters.
The basic storyline is about a well-to-do family in the New York suburb of New Rochelle who are thrust into social and political upheaval in the community. But it is the story of Coalhouse Walker Jr. and his grievances that become the most compelling part of the story.
To his credit, Forman was able to keep up the fast-paced story, as the novel did, in a sense like a ragtime piano piece — it just keeps moving along. Being a character-heavy piece required an ensemble cast, and several actors in the film were newcomers or relative unknowns. Solid actors who weren’t household names — James Olson and Brad Dourif — had fairly large parts as the men of the wealthy family.
Mary Steenburgen, a relative newcomer, plays the quiet mother who finds her voice and acts as a moral compass throughout the story, providing a strong nod to the emerging feminist movement.
Howard Rollins earned an Oscar nomination in his first film role as Coalhouse Walker Jr., a young Black musician who is wronged by a bigoted fire station chief and his crew. They initially block Walker from continuing on a major road and then charge him a bogus toll.
Walker views himself as a gentleman, dresses as one, and is proud to own an automobile, an impressive achievement for an African American in early 20th century America.
That, and the fact he has just come from a visit with his fiancée and their child, has elevated both his pride and his happiness.
This bubble is burst by the absurd notion of a fictional toll, delaying his trip back to the city. Walker finds a police officer, played by Jeff Daniels in his first role, and after leading him back toward the station, finds his model T has horse manure on the seat.
Walker begins to lose his patience as the officer tells him to clean up the mess himself and just move on. Things escalate from there and as Walker seeks justice through legal channels, he finds himself being turned away or passed on in a bureaucracy controlled by white men who care little for his predicament.
After tragedy strikes involving his fiancée, Sarah, Walker goes from being a dignified, law-abiding young man to an avenger who, along with some compatriots, bombs a few fire stations.
When this action doesn’t give him justice, he fixes on a bigger target: the Pierpont Morgan library in Manhattan. He and his band hold up in the library and threaten to blow it, and its priceless contents, up. This brings out the police and National Guard with snipers stationed all around the museum’s perimeter as officials try to negotiate with Walker.
They even enlist the help of Booker T. Washington, the famous Black educator, to convince Walker to halt any violence and give himself up.
Walker, who previously admired Washington as a Black leader, is disappointed by his ready willingness to delay justice to calm the situation. Although not mentioned in the story, Walker seems to be embracing more of the influence of W.E.B. Dubois who felt the immediate end of segregation and increased educational opportunities were vital for Blacks to improve their lives. This reached beyond the calm, slow movement of equality based on the white man’s rules and timeline.
In the mist of this turmoil there are other stories where characters intertwine with the New Rochelle family saga. Evelyn Nesbit (Elizabeth McGovern), a famous chorus girl and model is embroiled in a huge scandal involving her husband’s murder of Stanford White, the famous architect who was also Nesbit’s lover. At the time, this was known as “the crime of the century,” even though the century had just begun.
If it were made as it should have been, I believe Ragtime would probably have been produced as a miniseries like The Winds of War or Roots, and Doctorow’s saga would feel more complete. Still, Forman was able to give us a memorable film with solid performances by all, veterans and newcomers alike. Most significantly, he realized the true focal point of the story and went with it.
By the way, the most recognizable actor in the film was James Cagney. He played a small part as a police commissioner and audiences were thrilled to see him again. He had come out of retirement for the role and afterwards he left the business for good. It’s funny to think how few younger people would know who he is today.
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