Based on E.L. Doctorow’s best-selling novel, “Ragtime” tells an unforgettable story of disparate characters in New York City in the early 1900s. From the emerging New York suburb of New Rochelle to the flashy spectacle of Atlantic City, a family faces racial tensions, scandals, and violence that will test everything they believe in.
1981’s “Ragtime,” based on the novel by E. L. Doctorow, became an epic film production by two-time Oscar-winning director Milos Forman. On the fortieth anniversary of the best seller, we have yet another opportunity to witness the attitudes and behaviors of a Post World War I society whereas the elements of passion and compassion are intertwined with the unforgivable behaviors of deep-rooted racism. As the film opens, a very young black infant is found abandoned on the property of a white family, and shortly after, his mother Sarah (Debbie Allen) shows up and will not admit that it is her child. Conveniently, a doctor who is already on the property is asked to give her an exam which proves she has recently given birth. When they question Sarah about the baby’s father, she doesn’t reveal who he is because she says he doesn’t care about anything except his music. The family makes arrangements to take her in as a maid and shortly after, the baby’s father, Coalhouse Walker, Jr (Howard E. Rollins, Jr.), shows up and claims the baby and when questioned as to why he isn’t taking care of his child, he states that given his job of traveling around to play music, he hasn’t been stable enough to do so and shortly thereafter, he leaves for work and says he will be back.
The plot thickens when Coalhouse Walker, Jr. returns to the city to marry Sarah after having done well with a Jazz band. As he drives through town, he is boxed in by the local volunteer firefighters who don’t think he has the right to be the owner of the nice Model T Ford in his possession. After taunting him, they trash the vehicle and when he asks for assistance from a local police officer, the officer tries to get him to accept the damage and move on before it turns into something else. Unfortunately, Coalhouse feels the wrong should be righted by those who did the damage and the entire scenario changes the whole trajectory of his life. Coalhouse is jailed for his alleged behavior and when Sarah tries to get the Mayor’s attention in order to free Coalhouse from the unfair treatment that is being dealt to him, she loses her life in return.
When Coalhouse recruits his gang member friends and the father’s brother-in-law for vengeance on the town, lots of lives are lost as the police commissioner, Reinlander Waldo (James Cagney) and the Fire Chief go back and forth with one another in an attempt to get Coalhouse to surrender. In the background, the mother (Mary Steenburgen) and Father (James Olson) have an interesting relationship whereby she wants to keep Sarah’s baby and he wants to reduce his involvement with the atrocities of being in the middle of the firestorm between Coalhouse, the police, and the firefighters. While this entire debacle is going on, several other volatile relationships between the father and his brother-in-law, and the brother-in-law and Colehouse seem to be very dysfunctional as his brother-in-law is doing everything in his power to supply Colehouse with the information and weapons he needs to fight to get his dignity back. In the end, Colehouse’s unsavory victory comes at the ultimate price, and though he has proven he was in for the long haul, losing his life may have been too big of a price to pay.
Director Milos Forman appears to have done an excellent job retelling the story that crossed many barriers which were indicative of the times that most of us would like to forget. As part of our history, though, there are many lessons to be learned about priorities in life, as well as lessons of love, tolerance, and major injustices that brought many together in some respect and further distanced those who were just living their lives and doing the best they could with what they had.
Now available on Blu-ray in the Paramount Presents Line
