MovieChat Forums > Ragtime (1981) Discussion > I will never forgive Dino De Laurentiis!

I will never forgive Dino De Laurentiis!

posted 9 years ago by metatron1970
8 replies | jump to latest

Robert Altman fans are acquainted with the story of how Dino fired Altman from the Ragtime project due to the poor box office of "Buffalo Bill and the Indians". He had been working closely with EL Doctorow (who has a cameo in Buffalo Bill as a Presidential advisor) for at least two years, and for those who've read the novel, no other 70's filmmaker could have done justice to the kaleidoscopic character interactions presented in the novel. Milos Forman's film contains flashes of brilliance but remains a forgotten relic of its era. The only thing it succeeds at is superb production design (that's where that 32 million dollar budget went to--a huge sum at the time) plus an occasionally memorable score by Randy Newman. Ragtime remains the best film Altman never made.

[–] Keely 9 years ago

Well put. If only Altman's footage could be unearthed.

[–] metatron1970 9 years ago

I don't think the Ragtime project with Altman ever got that far. As far as I know, it was only in pre-production by the time Dino opted to fire Altman. But Altman had been working closely with Doctorow in constructing a screenplay from the complex novel. The fruit of that collaboration can be seen in "Three Screenplays" if you want to read Doctorow's original script for Ragtime (significantly different from Forman's version, with Michael Weller doing most of the screenplay). Altman got the last laugh, however: when Garry Trudeau collaborated with Altman to create the political satire TANNER '88, Trudeau intended it to be Ragtime-esque, with fictional characters intermingling with real ones. The result was probably the best work Altman delivered in the 80's.

[–] Keely 7 years ago

Wow! I didn't know this. It's a sin that IMDB is deleting its message boards. Where else would you come across info like this?

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Thanks for the kind words

[–] AngelThMan (124) 6 years ago

I love Altman, but I don't think he would've been right for this film. I'm happy with Forman's version. It's one of my all-time favorites.

[–] KatrinaW (44) 6 years ago

It would have been a totally different film under Altman's direction, that's for sure.

[–] AngelThMan (124) 6 years ago

Altman ruined Popeye, in my opinion. He was wrong for that, too.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Incorrect