![]() ![]() Cagney’s wisened world-weariness adds a sense of composure to the film, a kind of all-knowing wisdom looking upon mankind’s folly. Next to Rollins, Cagney gives Ragtime’s most memorable performance as the police commissioner assigned to take care of Walker when the situation escalates out of control. Cagney would pass away in 1986 Ragtime was his first on-screen appearance since Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three in 1961, and would be his final big screen role. Ragtime was the only major Hollywood production to shoot between July and October of 1980. Looking for a big name to replace Nicholson in Ragtime, Forman found an all-time great: James Cagney came out of retirement to shoot scenes for the film as real-life New York City Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo.īecause of the actor’s ill health, he was confined to a wheelchair during shooting and cameras were allowed to roll on the film despite an ongoing actor’s strike. Still, it’s hard not to imagine what the iconic Nicholson would have done with the role, and the impact it would have had on Ragtime’s legacy. Olson is more than adequate in the role, and his final scenes with Rollins – as the well-intentioned Father struggles to resolve a situation that he cannot – are particularly poignant. Jack Nicholson, who starred in Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was originally slated to star as the patriarch but dropped out of Ragtime shortly before production began, and was replaced by James Olson. Mary Steenburgen plays his sister, raising two children alongside the family patriarch, who operates a fireworks factory. Simpson would ultimately claim.īrad Dourif plays a character who becomes obsessed with Nesbit, and a member of the central family that Ragtime’s narrative comes to revolve around. Thaw’s resulting legal proceedings would be dubbed The Trial of the Century ironically, this was the role that O.J. It opens in 1906, as Stanford White ( Norman Mailer) is shot dead by billionaire Harry Kendall Thaw ( Robert Joy) over an alleged affair with Thaw’s wife Evelyn Nesbit ( Elizabeth McGovern). While Coalhouse’s story comes to dominate Forman’s Ragtime, the sprawling narrative touches upon dozens of characters, real and fictional. In 1996, he died with lymphoma at the age of 46. was nominated for an Oscar for his performance two years later he landed the lead role in A Soldier’s Story, the movie that launched Denzel Washington to stardom. Rollins is electric in the role, and imbues Walker with a deep-rooted sympathy that anchors Ragtime and elevates the story into something real and tangible. ![]()
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