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chezmaxAs part of both my 1001 in 101 days project, and to become more familiar with older cinema, I've taken it upon myself to watch all the Best Picture Academy Award winning films, starting with the oldest. There's a couple not available, but I got my first one last week, which I just watched last night.
1931: Cimarron
[Zip.ca] [IMDB] [Wikipedia]
In general, I didn't find Cimarron to be gripping or exciting, but it was certainly interesting, especially seeing the late 1800s through 1930 eyes through my 2009 eyes. Apparently it was quite the high budget film for the time ($1.5M!)
The story roughly chronicles one family through the development of Oklahoma. It opens in 1889 with Yancey Cravat trying to stake a claim during the first Land Rush, but he is not successful, and returns back to Wichita where his wife Sabra, and his young son, Cim are waiting with her family. Sabra comes from a well-to-do family[1] who are quite resistant to the idea of Sabra going out to such uncivilized areas. Yancey's background isn't explored much, but he's portrayed as an extremely charismatic character, with a severe case of wanderlust, and a lawyer background.
They shortly move to an up-and-coming boomtown (Osage, said to have a population of 10,000 already) and he sets up a newspaper, and they seem to make a reasonably good go of it.
There's a bit of traditional western shooting it up, as there's some unsavory elements in the town.
What makes the film more interesting is the exploration of their lives it goes from there: Sabra is shown to be conservative, a bit racist, and very image conscious, and she gains status with other well-to-do women in the town (Mrs. Wyatt in particular is a hilarious stereotype of the snooty woman[2]). Yancey however, afflicted by his wanderlust, runs off to participate in the 1893 land rush, leaving her and his now two children behind, and is not seen for several years.
Over the period of the rest of the film, culminating in 1929, more snippets from Sabra's life are shown, punctuated by reappearances and disappearances of Yancey. The interesting bits that I got out of it is the opening of Sabra's world view: she comes to accept Indians as people, rather than savages; that a certain woman (implied to be/have been a prostitute) that her Woman's Group tried to have jailed or run out of town, is actually a victim of circumstances and is not entirely valueless; that her husband's unorthodox views do have some value... The film ends with her becoming the first female congresswoman, representing the new state of Oklahoma, and a short but tragic reunion with Yancey.
So, there was definitely more to the film than I expected out of a Western, and it's definitely interesting to see how filmmaking has changed (there were short flavor scenes included that in a modern movie I'm sure would have been left on the cutting room floor), and even more, the change in attitudes. When this film was made, the land rushes were still recent memory, and the themes of racism I imagine were quite pervasive...
[1] There's a scene shown in her parents house, where they have a... ceiling fan. It's shown to be a young black boy servant, with stereo-typical grammar and mannerisms, on a small bench suspended from the ceiling, waving something like a palm leaf. It was so unexpected my brain asploded a little.
[2] In one scene, Mrs Wyatt is talking to a man who has just bought himself a new automobile, and she invites herself for a ride.
Mrs. Wyatt: "Is this a three cylinder?"
Man: "(slightly sheepish) No, it's a two cylinder."
Mrs. Wyatt: "Oh, I've just ordered a four-cylinder, myself."
1931: Cimarron
[Zip.ca] [IMDB] [Wikipedia]
In general, I didn't find Cimarron to be gripping or exciting, but it was certainly interesting, especially seeing the late 1800s through 1930 eyes through my 2009 eyes. Apparently it was quite the high budget film for the time ($1.5M!)
The story roughly chronicles one family through the development of Oklahoma. It opens in 1889 with Yancey Cravat trying to stake a claim during the first Land Rush, but he is not successful, and returns back to Wichita where his wife Sabra, and his young son, Cim are waiting with her family. Sabra comes from a well-to-do family[1] who are quite resistant to the idea of Sabra going out to such uncivilized areas. Yancey's background isn't explored much, but he's portrayed as an extremely charismatic character, with a severe case of wanderlust, and a lawyer background.
They shortly move to an up-and-coming boomtown (Osage, said to have a population of 10,000 already) and he sets up a newspaper, and they seem to make a reasonably good go of it.
There's a bit of traditional western shooting it up, as there's some unsavory elements in the town.
What makes the film more interesting is the exploration of their lives it goes from there: Sabra is shown to be conservative, a bit racist, and very image conscious, and she gains status with other well-to-do women in the town (Mrs. Wyatt in particular is a hilarious stereotype of the snooty woman[2]). Yancey however, afflicted by his wanderlust, runs off to participate in the 1893 land rush, leaving her and his now two children behind, and is not seen for several years.
Over the period of the rest of the film, culminating in 1929, more snippets from Sabra's life are shown, punctuated by reappearances and disappearances of Yancey. The interesting bits that I got out of it is the opening of Sabra's world view: she comes to accept Indians as people, rather than savages; that a certain woman (implied to be/have been a prostitute) that her Woman's Group tried to have jailed or run out of town, is actually a victim of circumstances and is not entirely valueless; that her husband's unorthodox views do have some value... The film ends with her becoming the first female congresswoman, representing the new state of Oklahoma, and a short but tragic reunion with Yancey.
So, there was definitely more to the film than I expected out of a Western, and it's definitely interesting to see how filmmaking has changed (there were short flavor scenes included that in a modern movie I'm sure would have been left on the cutting room floor), and even more, the change in attitudes. When this film was made, the land rushes were still recent memory, and the themes of racism I imagine were quite pervasive...
[1] There's a scene shown in her parents house, where they have a... ceiling fan. It's shown to be a young black boy servant, with stereo-typical grammar and mannerisms, on a small bench suspended from the ceiling, waving something like a palm leaf. It was so unexpected my brain asploded a little.
[2] In one scene, Mrs Wyatt is talking to a man who has just bought himself a new automobile, and she invites herself for a ride.
Mrs. Wyatt: "Is this a three cylinder?"
Man: "(slightly sheepish) No, it's a two cylinder."
Mrs. Wyatt: "Oh, I've just ordered a four-cylinder, myself."
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