Cimarron: 1931

I'll be frank: I watched this movie, started the post, and then life happened. I've had this tab open on my computer for a month and a half, easily. So what you're about to see is not a finished post, but it's what I was able to write down before shit got real. 

[When I was a senior in high school, my English teacher said that there is no such thing as a "slow beginning." We either find the whole story enjoyable or it isn't worth its salt. I've thought about that a lot since then, because I could never quite figure out if I agreed with him or not. Then I watched Cimarron, and I made up my mind.

I'm going to preface this whole post by saying I've somehow successfully managed to avoid watching Westerns my whole life on the assumption that I wouldn't enjoy a single one of them . I never in my life have seen the appeal of men in cowboy hats shooting each other over stolen property, all the while encroaching on native territory and disrespecting women. The concept of men riding horses, firing guns, sitting around a campfire, and having duels on dirt roads over matters or disrespect or trivial debts was foreign to me in terms of its appeal. I've never had the desire to see a man in a cowboy hat throw a lasso or drink whiskey at the local saloon. And that is how the first hour of Cimarron was: Western Expansion; caravans; shooting matches; brandy and whiskey; saloons; horse-drawn carriages; swooning women and damsels in distress. But the second half of the movie swiftly turns into a story of abandonment, betrayal, greed, wanderlust, and mourning.]

Final thoughts before I put this post to bed: 

- This post would not be complete if I didn't mention the fact that this movie did NOT age well. Irene Dunne's character, Sabra, calls the Native American woman who works in their house a "filthy Indian" on more than one occasion. Yancey and Sabra also have an all-black household staff in the beginning of the movie, which is most likely historically accurate, but Isaiah, the young member of their house staff who stows away with them to Oklahoma, becomes the butt of several jokes in the community and is not taken seriously. While appreciated and loved by Yancey and Sabra, he is not at all respected, even when he comes to his untimely death in order to save Sabra's son during a shoot-out between Yancey and The Kid.

- Which Element do I think won this film Best Picture? Although I had my preconceived (and unfounded) doubts about Westerns and the stereotypical cookie-cutter structure of them, I would have to go with Plot. The story spanned several decades, which automatically gives the film an epic feel. There were brief moments of feminism, with Sabra taking over her husband's company every time he runs off, and eventually becoming an elected official at the end. Believe it or not, this movie passes the Bechdel test. It doesn't do so in a majorly surprising way, however; in most of the scenes where women are having dialogue with no men present, of which there are extremely few, they're discussing fashion--or Sabra's lack thereof--and rumors about other women in town.

Clearly, exemplified by the fact that this post has taken me over three months to write, Westerns are not my thing. I enjoyed watching the story play out, and I enjoyed my first experience watching Irene Dunne on-screen. I thought her character had the one truly interesting arc in the story. I think that the quality of the first four Best Picture winners increased exponentially; I enjoyed more and more aspects of each film. And what I latched onto most with Cimarron was the story. The whole story line built up to an epic and heartbreaking ending, and after my doubts about the genre subsided, I was genuinely riveted by the story.

That's the best I could do for this one, y'all. Here's hoping for a better post for the next film: Grand Hotel is up next!