Cimarron (1931)

Cimarron (1931)

Director: Wesley Ruggles
Screenplay: Howard Estabrook & Louis Sarecky

Adapted from: Cimarron by Edna Ferber

Production Company: MGM

Rating: N/A

Starring: Richard Dix & Irene Dunne

My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

I used to say I didn't like Westerns. Then, of course, I saw good Westerns - and varied Westerns - and I realized I just don't like a Western unless it's a really good one. Cimarron is not a 'really good' one. 

That is not to say that it didn't have its moments. Cinematographer Edward Cronjager reportedly planned every single shot of the film meticulously to coincide with the widely popular book's descriptions. This is where I grant the film its 2 stars. It is beautifully shot for its time. Sprawling landscapes, even in black and white, are a joy to behold. And it ought to have been well shot. It was a $1.5 million picture produced in the depression - RKO's most expensive film until 1939's Gunga Din. 

At the time, this movie got critical acclaim, but unlike other movies I'll watch on this journey, it has not stood the test of time. The love story of Sabra (Dunne) and Yancey (Dix) set during the Oklahoma land rush of 1889 is rife with offensive stereotypes about Native Americans and black People. As we will see moving through other films - Hollywood has always had a race problem - this film's strong points do not give us much to celebrate in the wake of all that. The opening 10 or 15 minutes are the highlight of the film, and the rest of the story suffers from poorly fleshed out characters and a tired plot. 

The racism, itself, is even more troubling when the entire conversation about Western Expansion and the Frontier is told with the veneer that such expansion is the 'great equalizer'. With land a plenty, anyone can be their own master. Anyone, that is, but people of color, women, Native Americans, etc. That these messages were not part of the contemporary discourse around the movie in 1931 shows that general understanding of white privilege, racism, and sexism hadn't moved very far since 1889. While modern viewers can see these discrepancies and find a wealth of topics to discuss, in its time, Cimarron was a Western Romance with little in the way of social commentary. 

I wouldn't watch it again. 

I give 2/5 stars.