Ragtime

Fantastic movie, beautifully told story. Unfortunately the full 3:10 theatrical cut is not currently available (it is only available on an out-of-print VHS). I'd be happy to buy it if they made the full cut available.

It was probably foolish to try to drag Doctorow's sprawling novel onto the screen (he wanted a miniseries). The result is a movie that's really incomplete despite its 2.5 hours. On the upside it looks fantastic, so awesomely rich and dense in detail that you can easily forgive a few anachronisms in the clothes and speech. And the cast is generally very good. But like a lot of historical fictions -- and this is as true of the novel, if I remember correctly, as the movie -- it's really more about society and race relations in 1981, when the movie came out, than in the early 1900s when it's set. That kind of dates both the book and the movie now. And some of the characters don't feel right. Was Evelyn Nesbit really such a brainless twit? And isn't the fictional Coalhouse Walker more a figure of the 1970s than the 1910s? And why have the character of Tateh in it at all only to so brutally truncate his story? At first he seems like one of the most interesting characters in the movie, then he vanishes for a good 90 minutes. Like a few other of Forman's movies, it's a rich feast for the eyes and ears, but it ends up signifying a lot less than it should.

I also loved Howard Rollins in this movie. The character Coalhouse Walker Jr impressed me the most, I saw this movie as a child originally and was moved by the courage and integrity of the character.

What a truly beautiful film. I feel like it's $5.99 because it's not very popular, but hey, I'm not complaining! And Donald O'Connor is in this movie. Need I say more?

.....not only was an actor in this movie but he was the LEAD ACTOR! For Pete's sake

This is truly a great film. In your credits you forgot a great actor by the name of HOWARD ROLLINS, his chararcter played a very important part in this film. He was a great actor. Who was in many other great tv shows & movies as well, such as A Solider's Story, In the Heat of the Night. Could you please include his name in the credits.