1931: Cimarron
Howdy, pardner. Fancy seein' you in this here movie blog. Lucky for you, there's plenty a' room here for all of us. So put your feet up. Stay a while. See what we here been yappin' about.
Life update time. It's been about four months since our last post, and in that time we've fundamentally changed as human beings. Jake is somehow still applying to jobs, working as a valet for Raleigh's most hoity toity restaurants, and looking forward to his 16th year of school (which will include a role as Pep Band Conductor and hopefully roles in various stage productions). Kate has successfully escaped from UNC Chapel Hill with a bachelor's degree in tow, and is enjoying her last summer (ahhhh!) before moving up to the DC area to start full time work. Now, what you really came for: niche takes on even more niche films. Let's dive in. (yeehaw!!!)
Cimarron was produced in 1931 by RKO, a production company barely out of diapers. RKO would go on to produce films such as King Kong, Citizen Kane, and the 1954 classic "Cattle Queen of Montana." It was one of the most expensive films made to date, costing 1.5 million in 1931 money (equivalent to 30.1 million today or approximately one tenth of an Avengers Endgame). It grossed a whopping negative $565k on its initial theatre run (equivalent to 11.5 million today or approximately one Madame Web). Thanks, Great Depression. The set for the movie was so expensive to construct that RKO turned it into a permanent "movie ranch", allowing stars like the Cattle Queen to prosper. Besides winning the highest filmmaking honor (inclusion in our blog), the film also won Best Writing (Adaptation) and Best Art Direction and received nominations for Best Director, Actor, Actress, and Cinematography.
Let's meet our cast and crew. Yancey Cravat is a cowboy-turned-newspaperman-turned-cowboy, constantly touting that he can totally stay in one place with his wife and kid, all the while turning an eye to the next tract of un-tarnished land on the horizon. He runs a newspaper called the Wichita Wigwam, which seeks to defend the reputation and land rights of the very Native Americans whose land he's stealing. Standing as a foil is Yancey's wife Sabra. Raised in polite Kansas society, she willingly and lovingly follows her husband as he unerringly succumbs to the siren song of Manifest Destiny. Sabra is seen over and over stitching up the fraying edges of Yancey's newspaper and home life, the only thing keeping his entire existence from coming apart at the seams. When Yancey is taken by his flights of western fancy, Sabra steps in to run the newspaper herself, gaining enough influence to eventually become the first female member of congress from the state of Oklahoma. They have two kids, Cimarron and Donna, whose only purpose in the story is to illustrate that Sabra is kind of racist, actually. "Cim" falls in love with a Native American girl, much against the wishes of his mother, who takes years to come around to the fact that they're people after all.
Even if this racist arc had some sort of resolution, this does not account for the racist depictions of black characters for "comedic" effect. A young Black boy, Isaiah, is first seen lying on a raised platform above a decked-out Wichita dinner table, waving a large fan to help cool off the entitled dinner guests below. He follows the Cravat family to their homestead in Oklahoma, jumping for joy at the sight of watermelons and being downright eager to be permanent "help" at the Wigwam. He eventually dies to save a Cravat child in a western shootout and is given... about 30 seconds of mourning. Another Black character is Jesse Rickey, a stuttering newspaper assistant who was seemingly running his own paper in town before Yancey came in, and immediately stepped aside to be his editor.
We learned that Cimarron, despite barely being used in the film, is Spanish for "wild or unruly". Probably a commentary on the West. Or fatherhood. Or rather, Yancey's lack of it.
Miscellaneous quotes that were funny:
"I'm advising you to keep your mouth shut. Or the next time, it won't be your sombrero [that I shot]."
"Thanks for the sentiment. Mine is, WHOOOHOOHOHOOHO" (Indian war cry)
"Is Daddy goin' on the run, mama?"
"It'll be our first real home, alone" (after leaving one of the nicest houses I've ever seen)
"I'm highfalutin' myself, sugar, smilin' as a basket of chips."
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