Cimarron, the first Western to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (and until Dances With Wolves in 1990, the only one), is the story of Sabra Cravat (Irene Dunne) and the westward expansion of the United States at the turn of the 18th century.
When the government opens up the Oklahoma territory for settlement, restless Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) claims a plot of the free land for himself and moves his family there from Wichita. A newspaperman, lawyer, and just about everything else, Cravat soon becomes a leading citizen of the boom town of Osage. Once the town is established, however, he begins to feel confined once again, and heads for the Cherokee Strip, leaving his family behind. During this and other absences, his wife Sabra must learn to take care of herself and soon becomes prominent in her own right.
For the first half of the film, I was easily distracted. Distracted by the poor sound mixing, the lack of foley (meaning, no sounds of footsteps, doors slamming, etc), the literal shooting from the hip (you must have extrordinary aim, if you think about it, to be able to shoot from the hip). In fact, there were several times that I laughed outloud at the film. It didn’t help that a nosy neighbor was played by a woman who could’ve easily been Carol Burnett’s grandmother.
But then the film got serious, emotional, and riveting – it became more than just a film about the land rush of the early 1900′s. (Side note: as the film was made in 1931, this is probably a pretty accurate depiction – there must have been veterans of the land rush still alive, available to consult on the film and help with details.)
Cimarron is really a film about racism (against the Native Americans), the social development of the United States (“Westward, ho!”), and the personal development of Sabra Cravat. She went from being a sheltered socialite from Kansas to being elected to Congress and campaining for the rights of Native Americans (i.e. citizenship). Of course, this change took a lifetime for her, and she spent many years without a husband (he’d leave to go off fighting in wars or just to explore new territory).
And for a long time, I didn’t like Sabra. But when I finally realized that the film was about her and her personal growth, I began to admire her perserverence and her bravery in admitting she was wrong. She had initially forbidden her son to marry the girl Ruby because she was an Indian, but at the end of the film, she publicly commends her son and praises her daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
The only thing that troubles me about this film is that the film itself goes through great lengths to champion the Indians, yet the actress that played the grown-up Ruby in the film, Ms. Dolores Brown, was uncredited. The filmmakers came so far with this film, but stopped just short.
Up next, MGM’s Grand Hotel!
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