Ragtime Movie/Book Comparison

A detailed Summary of Ragtime Movie/Book Comparison

In 1981 when director Milos Forman took up the challenge of making the 1975 novel Ragtime written by E.L. Doctorow a movie, he had to make many changes. Some of these included rewriting whole characters so they were able to fit into the genre of a movie. Some of these include how Tateh in the movie is never a socialist, or how Harry Houdini is only shown once in brief. These absences and changes affect the over all feel and direction of the story told in both the movie and the novel. One instance that has minuit differences but changes the over all feel and direction of the novel compared to the movie is the way in which Coalhouse Walker dies.

In the movie after negotiating with Whitman the District Attorney, he gets his car back and his gang escapes back to their hide out. Coalhouse comes out of the Morgan library with his arms raised. As he comes to the foot of the steps Whitman orders one of his men that is with him on the second story of the house across the street to fire upon Coalhouse. The man carries out the order

These alterations in the movie give it a sense of direction, something audiences with short attention spans seem to need. Also it gives a finality to the movie and lets you know for sure that Whitman is a sell out and even though he knows the right thing to do was to give Coalhouse due process he wants to be reelected so must have him shot. In the book however it leaves that to the imagination which in turn leaves Whitman's reputation untarnished. In both versions however Coalhouse still dies a martyr.

In the novel much the same events took place with different details that gave his death more a mystery. In the novel Coalhouse after negotiating with police watched his model T being rebuilt by the Fire Chief and a team of mechanics then let his gang escape with Brother as a make believe hostage in place of father. Two hours later Coalhouse emerged from the Morgan Library. At both ends of 36th street were mounted police with their horses in formation shoulder to shoulder so that the crowds could see. Across the street was

Some common words found in the essay are:
Morgan Library, District Attorney, Harry Houdini, EL Doctorow, Fire Chief, Whitman Coalhouse, Milos Forman, JP Morgan, Coalhouse Walker, , district attorney, change story, morgan library, mounted police, street mounted police, feel direction, street mounted,

Approximate Word count = 693
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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