Cimarron: An Actual Western

Okay, y'all. Without any preconceived notions, I thought Cimarron might be like Moulin Rouge. Wishful thinking, I know. But it was my first knee jerk reaction. Turns out, it's the first Western to win the Oscar for Best Picture. And I like Bonanza and Tombstone, so I knew I could make it through this one.

 Some noteable notes about the flick:

1. Budget: $1.5 million (equivalent of $20,119,472.05 today)
2. 5,000 extras, 28 camerman, & dozens of extras were used
3. First movie to be nominated for 6 Academy Awards
4. Name of the male lead: Richard Dix. (yep, this is funny to me)
5. The poster tagline is my new motto: Terrific As All Creation


Cimarron is based on the 1929 novel by Edna Ferber. (Ferber also penned the novel Showboat, another Blockbuster in later years). It's a combined story of two of the most prominent Oklahoma Land Runs (or rushes, as some historians would call it). One of them in 1889 and one in 1893. Why this many people would spend so many years rushing to a place that would later be overpopulated with Dairy Queens is still baffling to me...but I digress. It follows Yancey and Sabra Cravet (I know what you're thinking...Yancey's the guy, Sabra's the girl) as they "rush" with everyone and their dog to claim stake on prime Indian territory.

Honestly, the history of the Oklahoma Land Runs is a little boring to me. But the movie wasn't. According to some more well known movie reviewers, there's a lot of controversy about the topic of racism and how it was handled in this film. I don't like to read other reviews of these movies until after I have published my own, simply for the fact I don't want to be jaded or persuaded in my own thoughts on these flicks. Within the first few minutes of the film, I had to say to myself, "Amanda, put on your 1931 point-of-view hat, not your 2011 point-of-view hat.* (Note the 1931 hat has come full circle and is now InStyle again!) It's really sad to say, but racism was more widely accepted, or should I say, practiced in 1931. While I was watching this movie with my present-day, 2011, anti-racism brain and hat intact, I was offended and saddened on more than one occasion. But then I discretely took my 2011 hat off, placed it out of my dog's reach, and put my "1931-I'm-not-totally-sure-racism-is-bad-or-not-in-this-day-and-age hat" and I began to see a unique, and very realistic portrayal of how divided we were as a nation, when all the while we were claiming to be "One Nation Under God." It's just unfair how we treated people so differently who were/are really the same as us. But director Wesley Ruggles did a fine job of showing us what was really happening over 110 years ago.

Sometimes when we go see or rent a film, it's because we want to escape to a fantasy land that doesn't exist. Sometimes, we want to see realism. Cimarron is far from a fantasy. But the realistic portrayal of the fight for ownership of prime land (interesting, we still use Location, Location, Location when it comes to describing prime real estate) and how it effects people for the rest of their lives, was real. For real, y'all, it was. Impressive cinematography, amazingly believable depiction of Oklahoma in the late 1800's (that set obviously cost more than the cast) and some above average acting make this film worth watching.

3 out of 5 Stars