Ragtime, based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, directed by Milos Forman - Eight out of 10

Ragtime, based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow, directed by Milos Forman

Eight out of 10

Ragtime has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes and it is based on a great novel that is included on The Modern Library 100 Best Novels list–

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

Ragtime is a phenomenal fresco that presents the intertwined stories of families, people, African American and the privileged white, what happens when a wealthy man kills someone and how a black man is treated when he asks for justice.

In the first few chapters, Henry Thaw, a well off man married to Evelyn Nesbit aka Elizabeth McGovern, is aggravated by a man who seems to have treated Evelyn badly, asks for some reparation and then takes a gun, approaches the adversary in performance hall and shoots him dead in front of hundreds of people.

His wealthy mother, who does not like her daughter-in-law, takes her lawyers to the young woman to convince her to testify that her husband is crazy, in exchange for one million dollars – translated in the currency of the present it would be perhaps more than fifty times that, if not one hundred.

Evelyn Nesbit agrees and at the trial, she maintains that her husband had abused her, he acted as mad as one can get, the accused is acquitted on her deposition, sent to an insane asylum, but the mother-in-law does not keep her side of the bargain, when she sends her representatives to catch the woman entertaining a man.

The man known as the Younger Brother is fascinated by Evelyn, courts her, she responds one night when she is very drunk, takes him to her place, where the messengers of Mrs. Nesbit are waiting and present the two alternatives: either Evelyn takes the $ 25,000 on offer, or she would have nothing, considering the adultery charge that would be facing her.

Younger Brother insists that this is a very wrong attitude, but the woman considers for the five minutes she is allowed to, after protesting that she had saved her spouse and she had been promised one million for that and now she gets forty times less – she does not make the calculation, but you know this is the rate of exchange on the table now.

The story of the family of Younger Brother is part of the fascinating tableaux – one day, one of their servants finds an infant in their garden, they identify first the mother, Sarah, who is employed by Mother in the house, where eventually they receive the visit of the father – Coalhouse Walker Jr, portrayed by Howard E. Rollins Jr, nominated for an Oscar for this remarkable performance.

Initially, Father is reluctant to receive Coalhouse Walker, sending him to the back door, in an age when African Americans were discriminated, but after the shock of learning, this man is educated, plays the piano and can read the notes – which Father could not believe he could – the family accepts this man as a sort of friend.

Coalhouse Walker is happy to find his son, arranges for the wedding to take place in the next few days, and takes his Model T near a fire station, where they take out a fire cart in front and one at the back, blocking the way for the innocent hero, who is trapped on the street.

They ask for a ridiculous, outrageous twenty dollars fee to let him pass and when the driver comes back with a policeman – portrayed by Jeff Daniels at the start of his ascending career – the group of thugs has soiled the set of the car, which has faeces in it now.

The enraged owner of the Ford car wants the vandals to clean the car and assume responsibility, but they would not, furthermore, the police officer requests the victim to take the car away, or else he would be charged with about ten offences, starting with blocking the public access and causing a disturbance.

Evidently, this is a case where the victim is charged and the assailants are absolved of any responsibility, the main problem being racism, white people abused African Americans and could and did get away with murder.

Furthermore, Coalhouse Walker tries to take the proper way and find reparations with the authorities, where he tries to register a complaint – with the effect from the hilarious Dead Parrot Monty Python Sketch – only to find that the police sends him to the town council and then back and forth.

Exasperated, humiliated, Coalhouse Walker has to bury his would be wife, who has tried to get attention from the visiting vice-president at a rally, only to be so severely beaten that she dies.

Then he finds that the condition of his car has deteriorated even further and hence he takes justice into his own hands, organizes a band of rebels, and attacks first the firehouse where he was victimized and then others, leaving a message demanding retribution behind.

When he occupies the J.P. Morgan museum, he is joined by African American comrades – one of the them played by the young, starting up Samuel L. Jackson – and Younger Brother, who had warned the wanted man that the police are surveilling their house, where the son is, to catch him if he visits.

Booker T. Washington tries to plead with the leader of the rebels, stating that his work for African Americans is compromised, annihilated by the actions of people such as Coalhouse Walker, who should surrender now and get a lenient treatment and a light sentence.

The film is excellent, if forgotten.