Best movie of this year hands down!

You won't be disappointed!

Good movie but grossly overrated

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A panoramic epic of the American melting pot and dealing with a middle class family formed by an upright father : James Olson , an attractive mother: Mary Steenburgen and her brother : Brad Dourif. The latter falls in love for an ex-dancer: ElizabethMcGovern married to a jealous millionaire : Robert Joy . As a little incident starred by an African American musician : Howard E Rollins triggers a series of misfortunes and distresses to a sad ending . This wrong act represents all the racist attacks on one man who refuses to back down this time . A thoughful and provoking picture regarding New York American way of life describing racism, social injustices and status of the lower and upper classes . At the end takes place a thrilling siege of the Pierpont Morgan Library which ensues some exciting scenes, including James Cagney acting as the persuasively authoritative police chief Waldo and James Olson interceding between the militants and the massing police.This interesting film results to be an emotive drama with love stories , plenty of historical events and marvelous attention to period detail. From the E.L Doctorow novel , an overrated bestseller , but not nearly as complex. The picture concerns about historic deeds alongside major historical figures as Henry Ford, J Pierpont Morgan , Harry Houdini: Jeffrey DeMunn , Emma Goldman , all are written out of the screenplay. Features wonderful interpretations from Howard Rollins, Elizabeth McGovern, Mary Steenburgen , James Olson , Debbie Allen. Support cast is frankly extraordinary including famous and prestigious secondaries as Pat O'Brien, Jeff Daniels ,Moses Gunn, Mandy Patinkin, Robert Joy , Kenneth McMillan, Donald O'Connor and the writer Norman Mailer.And special mention for James Cagney in his last film performance.It displays a colorful and adequate cinematography by Miroslab Ondriceck . As well as an atmopheric and evocative musical score by Randy Newman, including Ragtime music, of course.The motion picture was lavishly produced by Dino De Lurentiis and well directed by Milos Forman. Milos had directed very good movies as Loves of a blonde, Hair, One flew over the cuckoo nest, Amadeus, Valmont, Larry Flint , Man on the moon and Ragtime

This must be Milos Forman's best and greatest film. It's a complex story, I haven't read the recently deceased E.L.Doctorow's novel, but the film communicates the story well enough, nothing needs to be clarified (unlike for instance Kubrick's "2001" where the book was as clear as the film was utterly incomprehensible), while Forman's personal touch adds an important flavor of irony and distance to the tragedy, which quality you recognize with relish from his earlier films. The direction is completely satisfactory, Howard E. Rollins Jr and James Olson as the main leads match each other excellently and augment the impact and profundity of the tragedy, which really is one of integrity, while the real asset of the film is the panoramic set-up with almost Schlesingerian scenes of the everyday life of New York social life before the first world war, focusing on dancing halls, entertainments, banquets and even early cinematography scenes, in which you feel how much the director himself is enjoying it. James Cagney makes a remarkable appearance as the Police Commissioner 50 years after his days of glory in the 30s, and Brad Dourif is convincing enough as the renegade. Music has its special place in this film and is neither too dominating nor reduced in importance. Usually "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus" are ranked as his best films, but the Kesey film has its flaws, there are better asylum films, like both Rossen's last film "Lilith" and Litvak's famous "The Snake Pit", and "Amadeus" is a terrible example of historical forgery - none of it is true, and everyone who knows anything about Mozart must object to this even exaggerated character assassination, turning one of the greatest composers into a caricature. "Ragtime" on the other hand gives a fair picture of American society and New York social life under Th. Roosevelt and is a success in realism. The film is so good that it's impossible to imagine that the novel underlying it could in any way have been reduced in quality and importance.

At the end you miss the point at the end. There is no explanation for the police commissioners action. It was stated in another review that this scene was cut, then you wonder what other stupid cuts were made. The main character did give up and come out so why was he shot? Also it was not explained why the wife left the husband with her children when it appeared the father was doing all the right things and being honorable. Why did she leave him? With the end just ending and missing these appears to me just to make no sense and the two plus hours was a waste of time to me. There are many characters in this film and they do not directly tie in so it is hard to keep track of why they are there.

Very neat production that captures the essence of New York City and its upper-middle-class suburbs in the early years of the 20th century.The performances are uniformly good. On the first viewing, Jimmy Cagney disappoints. We are, after all, used to seeing him as a bouncing semi-psychotic, even in his last film, "One, Two, Three." Here, in his age, he hardly movies, content to wave a finger or slowly swivel in his desk chair or nod his head. A second viewing gets you past that kind of sadness. He's still Jimmy Cagney, with that ironic/comic voice and that mustache like a pair of russet turned-up handlebars.The rest of the cast can't be faulted either. Howard Rollins, Jr., as the degraded black victim exemplifies a certain kind of pent-up dignity and pride. Rollins' pride, like Coriolanus', can be a weakness when it becomes unyielding. It can lead to escalation and become lethal. Whether or not he should have swallowed the insults and jokes is arguable in this case but I think if I'd been in his position I'd have swept the turds off the car seat and driven away leaving behind a thick cloud of curses against the Irish. His character may be misguided but Rollins isn't. He handles it extremely well, and it's a demanding part.James Olsen is stiff, formal, and courageous. Elizabeth McGovern is very amusing as Evelyn Nesbitt, a pixillated airhead who reads numbers better when they're preceded by dollar signs. But then everyone is quite good.I haven't read Doctorow's novel but I gather that it was necessarily compressed and that several sub-stories were left out. I can understand why. As it is, some of the threads seem to dribble away. Did Tatah become a famous director? Did Nesbitt become a star? Why did Olsen's wife, Mary Steenbergen, run off with Mandy Potamkin? What happened to Rollins' baby? Well, we can't expect too much. In order to do justice to ANY of the stories, the film has to resemble a brief encyclopedia entry on a subject like, say, the French Revolution. Robespierre walks on stage, bows, and leaves.The ending is a sad one. We've grown to like and admire Colehouse Walker, Rollins' character. And the escape of his accomplices, which we probably applaud, foreshadow the urban unrest and racial conflicts which were let loose on us in the 1960s. Of course it's a plausible argument that if the system had worked perfectly in 1910, we might not have had the 1960s.The score by Randy Newman is first rate. He plays a good piano.Well worth seeing.