Cimarron (1931): Shira's Take

To start with an oxymoron: for such a boring movie, Cimarron was interesting. Interesting enough that I could get past the fact that I couldn't stand the two main characters (Richard Dix's Yancey Cravat and Irene Dunne's Sabra Cravat). Sabra is a whiny, ignorant, waspy, reactionary twit who only comes to her senses politically and occupationally because she is forced to. Forced to, of course, by her obnoxiously self-absorbed husband Yancey. See, Yancey is "progressive"--he believes that the Indians have the same rights that the white folk do (though this is inconsistent with his not wanting the family's black attendant to join them in the church meeting). Still, he gets a thrill out of Manifesting Destiny. President signs a paper saying white folk can take the Cherokee panhandle of Oklahoma? See ya, wifey! Gotta go have an adventure with my buddies and not come back for five years! Honestly, though, Sabra's change throughout the forty years from when they move to Osage, Oklahoma until the end of the movie is really phenomenal. Because her jerk of a husband leaves her with two kids to support, she becomes the anonymous editor of her husband's newspaper and eventually even a congresswoman. The last twenty minutes of the movie really saved it for me in this way, though it did feel sort of cheap to have them bring the movie to modern times (1930) to show Sabra as an old, accomplished woman. Notes to myself: must.never.forget.Yancey's.neighing. Did Sabra actually have a full taxidermied bird on her hat? 6/10