RAGTIME

US, 1981, 156 minutes, Colour.
Howard Rollins Jr, Mandy Patinkin, Kenneth McMillan?, Mary Steenburgen, James Cagney, Elizabeth Mc Govern, Brad Dourif, James Olsen, Debbie Allen, Donald O'Connor, Jeff Daniels, Moses Gunn, Pat O'Brien, Norman Mailer.
Directed by Milos Forman.

Ragtime is an adaptation of the celebrated novel by E.L. Doctorrow. It was adapted by Michael Weller (who won an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay) and directed by Milos Forman. Forman had made a number of films in his native Czechoslovakia during the 1960s but moved to the United States after the invasion by Russia in 1968. Slow to build up his career in the United States, he made Taking Off in 1972 and then won an Oscar as best director for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He then made Hair (scripted by Michael Weller) and then won another Oscar for Amadeus. He continued making films for the next twenty years including a variation on the Dangerous Liaison story, Valmont, as well as The People Versus Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon, with Jim Carrey.

The film is broad in its scope. The setting is New York City around 1900. The centre of the story is a young black pianist, played by Howard E. Rollins Jnr. The film highlights themes of racism at the time and the reaction of the New York police. The head commissioner of the police is played by James Cagney in one of his final roles. Also appearing is the veteran Donald O’Connor? as the dance instructor for the famed Evelyn Nesbitt (Elizabeth McGovern), the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (Joan Collins in the film of that name in 1955). Novelist Norman Mailer is Stanford White who was involved in the scandal.

The film focuses also on a white family, especially Brad Dourif as Younger Brother. Mary Steenburgen is Mother.

The film’s various strands interweave so that the audience gets an overall picture of the range of life in New York City in that period. The re-creation of place, costumes and décor, production design is outstanding and these aspects also won a number of Oscar nominations.

In the early years of the 21st century, the film and novel were adapted as a very successful stage musical.

1. The reputation of E. L. Doctorow's novel? A satisfactory adaptation, dramatisation? The scope of the novel: history, Americana, public figures, symbolic family? Their intertwining? How well did the screenplay follow the direction and scope of the novel?

2. The film as a piece of Americana: the detailed re-creation of the period, New York as the microcosm of America? The realism of the events and characters? Their symbolic value? The creation of a mod? Transition from 19th. to 20th. century? Costumes? Sets and decor? Music? Ragtime as symbol? A period of transition and yet of innocence? The eve of World War One? Dreams and nightmares? The influence of the period on the 20th. century? Looked back at by the film with nostalgia?

3. The re-creation of New York interiors and exteriors? Buildings, streets, homes? Madison Square Gardens etc.? The detail of decor and costume? Immersing the audience in the atmosphere?

4. The significance of Ragtime as title, mood, musical style? The credits dance? The theatre, the various songs e.g. The Million Girls? The use of music as a refrain throughout the film? The transition from Ragtime music and its tempo to the tempo of the period: the newsreels and the music being played to accompany them? The framework of the tango and the music?

5. The range of the screenplay: from personalities and events in the public eye, to high American society, to private families, to race tensions? How well did the screenplay interweave the events with history? The momentum of the screenplay or a series of episodes? The juxtaposition of the various characters and situations highlighting the ironies in their comment?

6. The opening with Harry Thaw and his spoilt background, wealth, madness and obsessions? His invading Stanford White's party, the demands on Evelyn Nesbitt, the build-up to the evening at Madison Square Gardens and his shooting White? The court case and the judgment about his mental state? The powerful figure of his mother, her return from Europe, her hiring lawyers? The influence on the court judgment? Thaw's being put into the asylum? His later release? Thaw as a symbol of spoilt Americans in Ragtime? Surface respectability and wealth, mothers' protection, depraved behaviour, insane and obsessive jealousy, madness? The importance of Thaw's mother and the symbolism of the protective mother in America? Her handling of Evelyn, the negotiations for the settlement, the private detective, the surprising of Evelyn with Brother and the lowering of the price? The sordid background of the wealthy in America?

7. Stanford White and his background, achievement and reputation? His parties and the lavish entertainment, the police chief present? The Madison Square Garden design. the party, theatrical entertainment? His wide range of friends and influence? The suddenness of the shooting? The court case and his being slandered - yet his respectable reputation and behaviour with Evelyn? His representing another aspect of American society?

8. The background of law, justice and the courts: Thaw's men and his being able to buy protection. bodyguards? Chief Waldo and his presence at White's party? The lawyers and the pay-offs? The behaviour and deals of Delmer, Mrs. Thaw's lawyer?

9. What did Evelyn Nesbitt represent? Her dancing during the credits? Her being used as a link between the various characters? The American gold-digger? Liaison with White? marriage with Thaw and putting up with him and his obsessions? Her response to his death? Being paid court by Brother? The contacts with him? Amusing herself with him but only shallow relationship? Her missing out on Thaw's money because of the liaison? Her dancing lessons, the instructor? Her going to Hester Street? The contact with Tateh and the paper dolls? The later work with him as film star? Her being pursued by Brother? Her moving to musical career? Her moodiness. the clashes with Brother? Her later becoming a celebrity. star, working in the films. her pleasantness to the family when she met them at Atlanta? The irony of her talking with Mother and the family not knowing her influence on Brother?

10. The symbolic American family? The device of their not being known by personal names but as personifications of their family roles? Middle America? Their house and its style, Father's work and the fireworks factory? Good manners, turn-of-the-century decorum? Prejudices and presuppositions? Money. morals? Father and his precision? His being forced to acknowledge the negro baby? His treatment of Sarah. Coalhouse? His love for his family? The growing alienation? His involvement in Coalhouse's plight? His desire to see justice done? Further demands on heroism? His losing Mother? His going into the library to persuade Coalhouse to surrender? His being betrayed by Waldo in the shooting of Coalhouse? Mother and her spirited nature, her helping Sarah and the baby. her devotion to Brother? The prosecution about the child and her taking the side of Sarah? The breaking through prejudice? The attitude towards Coalhouse and his difficulties? The growing alienation from Father? The clashes with Brother? The holiday in Atlanta and her fascination with Tateh? Her eventual decision to leave with him? The disruption of the traditional American family? By race. by riots. prejudice, violence?

11. The theme of propriety and upheaval? Americans ignoring upheaval and then finding it disrupting their ordered way of life?

12. Sarah and the baby in the garden? Her story? Mother and Father and their taking the baby? Discussions with the police and the courts? The background of Coalhouse and his playing the piano, working in the cinema, his audition, skill and success? His joy and coming back to claim Sarah and the baby? The initial hostility of the family? Their accepting him? Sarah's forgiving him? The possibilities of happiness? Sarah and the protest to see the Vice President and the police clubbing her to death? Coalhouse and his reaction to vengeance?

13. Themes of racism: the background of oppression of African Americans, their expected place? The 20th. century response to the racial upheaval? Coalhouse accepted by the family gradually? His wealth and success, buying of the car? The incident with the fireman and the manure? His indignant reaction and taking a stance? The clash with Willie Conklin? The courts, the police, prison and its consequences? His making so much out of the incident? His admiration for black heroes, especially Booker T. Washington? (The use of newsreel material to highlight Washington and his relationship with Roosevelt and Washington's later being used as a mediator with Coalhouse?)

14. The character of Coalhouse: his strengths and weaknesses, his behaviour towards Sarah, his attitude towards the incident, his stances, his rage? The highlighting of attitudes of American justice and law? The way that he was treated? Comparisons? The grief at Sarah's death and the forming of the group? The seeming parody of the Ku Klux Klan? Killings, raids, fires? The various please for justice? The work of Brother as the firearms and explosives expert? The taking of the library and the siege? The Underground? The men in the masks? The various contacts? The realisation of what he had done? The deals, the effective escape of the group and Brother's part in the deceit? The final discussion with Father in the library? The deal and his being betrayed? Audience indignance at his death?

15. Conklin and the redneck Americans? The attitudes, the work for the fire brigade, rudeness, laughing, the manure and the car? Audience response to Conklin? His stubbornness against Coalhouse? Arrogance even in the face of the fires and the killings? His being summoned by Waldo? His being called 'low life' and 'scum'? His fear and retreat? The symbolism of the individual redneck and his bigotry that could cause upheaval?

16. The character of Younger Brother - his place in the family, his obsessions, his friendship with Coalhouse, his antagonism towards Evelyn Nesbitt, his joining with Coalhouse to help with the firearms, with the siege? With helping in the escape?

17. Waldo and the symbolism of the police chief and authority? His being at White's party? His administrative skill? His reaction to Conklin and the demands on him? The effectiveness of the siege of the library? Shootings? Deals and using Father? The cynical ordering to shoot at the end?

18. The weaving in of Tateh's story: Hester Street and the migrants, his daughter, the paper dolls, the encounter with Evelyn? The transition to his becoming a famous director and his work with Evelyn? The fascination with Mother and his going off with her?

19. The historical characters presented by sketch, or in newsreels: Houdini, J. P. Morgan etc.? A sense of authenticity? The use of newsreels and film-going?

20. An interesting insight into the period, aspects of Americana, the cross-section of American life? A period of innocence leading to tragedy?