Um, wow. So Cimarron was...interesting. In the "so...there's that" kind of way. Basically we're following around this smarmy asshole cowboy-type who thinks he's better than everyone else because he likes classic literature and the Bible, yet continually leaves his wife and kids for up to a decade at a time for...reasons. Basically he can't stand to put down roots and how dare anybody expect him to stick around, dammit, and because he's a handsome white man he can do exactly as he pleases. He's also a really great shot because how can you be a real man of the West without that skill? (There are several scenes of him doing things like shooting off people's ears, but the bullet never hits anything behind them. One would almost think the bullets were magic.) The focus of the movie is equally on his belabored wife who has to run the newspaper he starts and raise his kids while he's gallivanting all over Oklahoma. She of course as a faithful, loving wife falls immediately back into his arms with delight whenever he deigns to reappear and all of her accomplishments (she eventually gets herself elected to Congress--yes really) and her reservations about him are pushed aside in favor of his smarmy self-righteousness. The movie's narrative structure seems to indicate we're supposed to sympathize with these people, but by the end we really couldn't bring ourselves to care about either of them.
Modern-day audiences will obviously be offended by the racist stereotypes and jokes this movie proudly trots out--for example, our intrepid main character goes out of his way to point out a wagon of watermelons to the token black character, who is of course also mentally deficient so we don't feel too bad about laughing at him.::sigh:: Oh, 1930s humor. Making fun of two marginalized groups simultaneously. Ha ha.
I would imagine the movie gained its Best Picture largely on the first five minutes, which is a grand series of shots showing the rush to claim territory in Oklahoma, during which several cameramen and a bunch of extras were probably nearly run down Ben-Hur style. It is really impressive, but the movie after that just sort of wanders around following these people we don't really like. While nowhere near as bad as Broadway Melody, All Quiet and especially Wings are definitely still far superior.
Next up is Grand Hotel, which as I understand it is one of those movies where a whole bunch of unrelated people are shown to have interconnecting stories. (The genre to which Crash and Love Actually belong) Here's hoping it's better than this one, which overall was decidedly 'meh.
Watched: April 8, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment