Keep It Oldskool Movie of the week

Ragtime was released in 1981 and was directed by Milos Forman. The movie starred Howard Rollins Jr,Mary Steenburgen, Elizabeth Mcgovern,Debbie Allen and in one of his last screen rolls James Cagney. The film was nominated for 8 academy awards and featured now famous stars in early screen rolls Samuel Jackson,Jeff Daniels and Mandy Patinkin 





The movie centers around Father, Mother and Younger Brother. The time is early 1900s. Father and Mother (Steenburgen) find an African American baby on the doorstep the mother and father of the child (Allen and Rollins) are not together. That changes as Coalhouse Walker Jr ( child's father played by Rollins) becomes a prosperous ragtime musician. He comes home in a brand new Model T car to find his child and child's mother and is promptly insulted and treated unfairly by the local fire department and police.Coalhouse tries every legal recourse to get satisfaction and constantly told to accept and forget it. He decides that he has had enough and sets forth with his cohorts which includes Caucasian "Younger brother" to teach the city and the perpetrators of the his wrongdoing a lesson.



The movie is set against the backdrop of the "Hip Hop" of its day Ragtime. This movie was powerful as we watch a law abiding man pushed to the brink for no other reason then the cost of repairing a car. We see that a mans dignity especially an African American is not something to be trivialized. This was one of Howard  Rollins Jr's best known rolls. It is a shame that an Oscar win did not come with that epic performance. This is not the normal Keep It Oldskool slapstick, 80s fun movie. This movie was serious and reflected a serious subject matter.The sad part that in 100 plus years this still happens.   

KEEP IT OLDSKOOL