SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

jacobs-greenwood I have to say that this Academy Award Best Picture winner dates badly, especially the acting. I know that The Front Page (1931) was also nominated for Best Picture that year, a film I thought was far superior to this one. It is, however, clearly better than another of the nominees I've seen - Trader Horn (1931), although that one did provide quite an educational adventure (into Africa), for the time.This film has several old stereotypes (racial, and others) in it, which is understandable for the time it was filmed. But, other than that, it feels very long and, in the end, unfulfilling. It is a Western which focuses on the settling of Oklahoma through statehood. There are several contrived scenes which cheapen what I think could have been a better film. There were perhaps two scenes worth seeing: the land rush (which has since been done better, even in the 30's e.g. The Oklahoma Kid (1939)) and a church revival held in the largest building in town (the gambling house!).Initially, I thought to myself "well, it was made in 1931, what did you expect?". And then I remembered several other well made horror and gangster films from that same year. So, who knows? Perhaps I just don't have a good feel for the pulse of America in 1931. It's clear to me that it's one of the most disappointing of the Best Picture Oscar winners (and that's saying a lot).It does, however, have Edna May Oliver (always a plus). The film also won for Art Direction and Writing. Its director (Wesley Ruggles) and two leads, Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, were also nominated as was the Cinematography. For Dunne, it would be the first of her five (unrewarded) Best Actress nominations (a crime that she never received one!); for Dix, it would be his only Academy recognition. Based on the Edna Ferber novel, and remade in Technicolor as Cimarron (1960) with Glenn Ford (among others).

sinel-47034 Will Cimmaron ever end? Yes, but only after our heroine has lost her husband in a glorified wanderlust, both her children have married successfully—if you can call your daughter marrying a millionaire a success—and the heroic husband has one last chance of saving lives after a lifetime of adventure, killing bad guys, defending the downtrodden, knowing virtually everybody in Oklahoma, campaigning for Indian citizenship years before it was granted them, and probably three or four other heroic deeds that escape my mind at this moment.The Indians are portrayed as noble savages and the equal of whites—Cimmaron even marries one (notwithstanding his mother's objections, after all heroic Yancey approves)—and no opportunity is wasted to indict and condemn the ill treatment of the native race by the U.S. government; which is laudable in itself, yet seems ironic coming from the lips of a man who twice literally rushes in to newly "opened" Indian territory at the first moment of opportunity, the second time leaving his wife and children, only to see them at very brief intervals for the rest of his life. Certainly, for one who detests the treatment of Indians, he can't wait, for mere adventure's sake, to benefit from the forcible exploitation of those same Indians' lands. But perhaps I should not judge Yancey's activities too harshly. The author apparently does not see Yancey as a hypocrite and neither should we. After all, while most Americans today are appalled at the history of the white man's treatment of the red man (if they are aware of it), the question of giving any of the land we've taken back to the Indians is never considered, even though every non-native American in this country including, like me, the descendants of immigrants, has benefited, at least indirectly, from the exploitation of Indians.Perhaps I should take off my politically sensitive eyeglasses and see Cimmaron for what it is: a woman's fantasy about a frontier marriage between a highly successful woman and her erudite, but not entirely civilized, husband. She accepts his need for wanderlust, even if she doesn't understand it, and despite his absences of many years, she stays loyal to him all her life in a love that does not fail. In other words, a good but forgettable melodrama.

grantss This movie is easily the worst Best Picture Oscar winner. It won in 1931, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because it was a talkie, and talking pictures were still fairly novel. Maybe because of how epic its historic time scale is. Maybe because it tells a story of the exploration and settlement of America that sparked something in 1930s audiences.Who knows. All I can say is that by modern standards it is incredibly bad.This is not because of the cinematic technology or anything like that. It has a dull story with hammy acting. Worst of all, it is blatantly racist. The black kid is merely there as a figure of fun, something to be made mocked and made fun of. Interesting that while large parts of the movie are very politically correct in the treatment and rights of native Americans, they undo all this good by portraying African-Americans so badly.I had already watched the 1960 remake before watching this, and that wasn't that great either. It retained the dull plot and hammy acting, but at least reduced the bigotry. I didn't realise the original could be that much worse, but it is...

carleeee The historical but fictional film, based on the book by Edna Ferber, presents us with a clash of cultures and attitudes. Yancey is a restless jack-of-all-trades: the new town's newspaper editor, a lawyer, fast-shooting law enforcer and even a preacher. Wanderlust gets the better of him, leaving his wife Sabra (Irene Dunn) to raise the family and run the newspaper.Mostly set in the fictional 'Boom Town' of Osage, not to be confused with today's Osage in Oklahoma which is tiny, we see the townsfolk making do with what they have. Yancey is mainly the Editor of The Oklahoma Wigwam but at the same time he gets to use his shooting skills, act as a lawyer, and run the first church service.The issue I had with Cimarron was that the storyline was disjointed and lost focus at times. Overall it was about the birth of a new state, though it went in different directions at different times and many sub-plots were never fully-explained. Sabra's character grew into a wise and admirable older woman, however we missed out on seeing her character actually develop. A woman in a more modern film would not have shown so much loyalty to her husband...her loyalty is to be admired even if her husband needs a clip round the ears!On a technical note, the characters didn't always age in sync with one another. By the end of the film Sabra has aged (at least in the hair department), but not nearly as much as Yancey. Her complexion remained unrealistically youthful for a woman over 60, though her vocals were always spot-on to whichever age she was playing which is no mean feat for an actor.The acting overall was convincing, special mention to Estelle Taylor as town prostitute Dixie Lee for her moving life story showing there is more than meets the eye when it comes to judging someone, though the town gossip Mrs Tracy Wyatt was a bit over-played by Edna May Oliver. Tracey's mannerisms and loud outfits give the impression of a cross-breed of Hyacinth Bucket and Madame Thenardier. Some minor story lines could have been cut to speed things up where it was needed, but overall Cimarron is a great example of 1930s film, and gives a good grasp of the lives of pioneers in the late 19th Century.