Trivia: The wonderful soundtrack to this movie topped the US Billboard charts and won the academy award too.
Trivia: All the actors were fluent in English and dubbed themselves in the English version.
Trivia: Australian playwright David Williamson makes a cameo as the tall player in the opposing team in the football match held near the Pyramids in Egypt.
Trivia: Teddy Lewis tells Ned that "Matty" had him show her how to rig up a explosive with a delay to a door. So in theory Matty could have opened the door and escaped unscathed.
Trivia: During the rosebush/tree chopping scene, Faye Dunaway is chopping the tree, except when you see the close up. During the close up (when the tree falls), it is actually the films director Frank Perry chopping the tree.
Trivia: Producer/screenwriter/director John Boorman deliberately chose renowned stage actors Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren to play the sorcerer Merlin and the sorceress Morgana, knowing very well that Williamson and Mirren hated each other in real life (because of a disastrous stage production of Macbeth they worked on, years earlier). Boorman anticipated real friction, tension and anger between the two actors, which was the effect he wanted onscreen. On the contrary, the experience of working together in "Excalibur" completely changed Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren into the best of friends.
Trivia: Maureen Stapleton won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Emma Goldman, even though she only has nine minutes of screen time.
Trivia: James Cagney was granted several "special dispensations" when he agreed to appear in this film. He was given an opt-out clause allowing him to quit at any time should he deem the schedule too grueling; his presence convinced the unions to allow Ragtime to continue shooting during a major strike, a privilege afforded no other movie in production at the time; and when the ailing 81-year-old Cagney had trouble memorizing lines, director Miloš Forman had cue cards prepared for him.
Trivia: Henry Fonda won the Best Actor Academy Award for his role of Norman Thayer. At the age of 76, Fonda became the oldest winner in the Best Actor category in Academy history (his record was broken in 2021 by Anthony Hopkins, who won at 83).