Cimarron (1931)

At turns a Western, a romance and a sweeping historical epic,Cimarron tells the tale of Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix, or “Dick Dix” as Katie and I enjoyed calling him) and his wife Sabra (Irene Dunn) trying to carve a life for themselves in the late 19^th century frontier. After the Oklahoma territory is open to settlement via chaotic land rush (think Spielberg’s Far and Away) Yancey immediately makes himself a prominent member of the booming town of Osage by establishing a pro-Native American rights newspaper and combating the corrupt and criminal elements that arrive. Unfortunately, papa is a rolling stone and frequently leaves his wife and two children alone for years at a time to be a part of history and fulfill his roaming spirit. In his absence, Sabra must raise the children, continue the newspaper and be independent and successful in her own right while never forgetting the man she loves and wondering if he will ever return.

As a Montana boy with a father that owned countless John Wayne and Clint Eastwood films (a stereotype I know, but I never rode a horse to school and we did have FM radio, contrary to popular belief), I grew up with Westerns and have come to appreciate the regrettably dying genre. Cimarron is one of the very few films that have won Best Picture but it is only marginally above average for Westerns at large. High Noon it ain’t, folks.

The opening land rush scene is very exciting and the first half of the film is compelling, despite being loaded with cringe-inducing racism (one early scene shows Eugene Jackson with true Don King hair laying on a ceiling light fanning the wealthy, snobby white family before being called a “Boon boy” and being kicked out of the room. Yikes... Luckily, Eugene Jackson went on to an illustrious career.) The second half of the film however drags on and on, becoming scattered and indecisive on what it wants to be. One sadly thrown-away plot thread about a prostitute named Dixie temporarily makes the film into an awkward attempt at courtroom drama and much of the interesting supporting cast is not developed into anything more than a distracting curiosity from the central plot, which itself is unclear until the last half hour or so. The film ends up actually being the story of Sabra, but this welcome plot turn comes too little too late. While perhaps being the predecessor of films like Gone With the Wind or the more recent but similarly troubled Cold Mountain, Cimarron doesn’t make full use of its potential and feels far longer than it’s runtime. 

Oh boy this movie was long. For a movie that was 123 minutes, I felt like I could watch the full Gone with the Wind and maybe half of Ben Hur.  Ok, I exaggerate but man it felt long.  It was a movie with great ideas and not a lot of follow through.  The opening scene I really liked!  All these pioneers riding out and staking their land, I mean that scene cost buco-bucks.  The prostitute Tim refers to steals the main characters land in a sassy way- I dug it.  Her story, the slew's, totally fell off the planet.  Basically this movie is about a selfish man who wanted to get a lot of praise and start his own town.  He was a drifter and once Sabra refused to uproot herself and her children on a silly whim is when her character became interesting.  Yancey started a newspaper in Osage called the "Oklahoma Wigwam" and after he left Sabra continued the paper.  However, she never changed his name as editor for the paper.  Yancey refers to his wife as "Great Penelope" which refers to the faithful wife of Odysseus in the Odyssey.  Tim reminded me that in the Odyssey, Odysseus is trying to get home... not trying to leave... This movie had some decent moments but I just didn't know if it was a Western or about Native American rights or women's liberation.  It felt like three movies melded into a super movie, except that makes it sound better than it really was.  It wasn't a bad movie but if I had to place the movies we've watched so far in a top 5 style, I would have to list it as such:

1. All Quiet on the Western Front

2. Wings

3. Cimarron

4. Broadway Melody 

Good ideas, just a bit misguided. 

According to Anthony Holden's book "Behind the Oscar" (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), R.K.O. lost $5.5 million (approximately $58 million in 2003 dollars, when factoring in inflation) on the movie despite its winning a Best Picture Academy Award.

"They will always talk about Yancey. He's gonna be part of the history of the great Southwest. It's men like him that build the world. The rest of them, like me... why, we just come along and live in it."