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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 9780790748368
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0790748363
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 31, 2006
Running Time: 123 minutes
Sales Rank: 18519
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: February 09, 1931
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Spaces were neither wide nor open in most early Sound Westerns. Not so in Cimarron. It starts with one of the most renowned giddy-ups in cinema history: a thundering recreation of the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush. From there Cimarron, based on the bestselling epic by Giant and Show Boat novelist Edna Ferber, traces the generations-spanning saga of that land. There rugged Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) and his resourceful pioneer wife Sabra (Irene Dunne) sink roots, persevere, give shape to their dreams. It's a saga of change, told with an authenticity that moviegoers who had lived through that era recognized - and told with a skill that earned it three Academy Awards * including Best Picture!
Amazon.com:
This epic Western won the 1931 Academy Award for Best Picture. Heartthrob Richard Dix plays Yancey Cravat (yes, really, that's his name) a frontiersman, newspaper editor, and former gunslinger who's studly enough to fill in as preacher or lawyer should the situation demand. Yancey brings his young bride Sabra to the wild Oklahoma territory to taste the adventure, crusade for social justice, and leave his family for years at a time. Modern viewers will have trouble making it past one or two horrifying racist caricatures at the start, made doubly odd because of the film's intended message of tolerance. Once it gets underway, though, Cimarron can be quite a bit of fun. Most of its pleasures are of the guilty variety--Dix's performance in particular is endearingly huge--but there are a few genuine highlights. The Oklahoma Land Rush sequence is still exciting and wet blanket Sabra turns out to have far more gumption than anyone imagined. --Ali Davis
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A Creaky Western Saga
It's hard to believe this 1931 relic won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wesley Ruggles' clumsy production of Edna Ferber's "Cimarron" survives only as a curio. The western saga opens with a rehash of the Oklahoma land-rush sequence from William S. Hart's 1925 classic "Tumbleweeds" and goes downhill fast. Richard Dix's cartoonish portrayal belongs in the School of Bad Acting, but Irene Dunne makes the most of her first starring role. In retrospect, "Cimarron" might have worked better as a silent film.
Rating:  - Early Irene Dunne in Classic Western
This is a sprawling epic version of Edna Ferber's novel. It starts with the original Oklahoma Cimmaron land rush (1889) and ends in during the height of the oil rush (1930).
This is a great movie about the a part of US history that most people have only heard breifly about. And like Ferber's more famous book Show Boat, this film takes on civil rights - this time the rights of native Americans and the rights of women (Sabra is elected to Congress.) It even touches slightly on anti-semitism.
This also marks the second film for Irene Dunne. While she will have better roles in the future, this film shows her raw talent.
My big question is why haven't they restored this film? There are constant scratches throughout the film and certain scenes are shakey. This can be corrected with today's computer technology. This film won three Academy Awards including Best Picture, Screenplay and Interior Decoration. Plus Dix, Dunne, director and cinematographer received nominations. (This was massive because there were only 8 categories that year!!)
DVD EXTRAS -
Short Subject - The Devils Cabaret (1930) - this is a sixteen minute early color short subject (actually red is the only color in it because it was the easiest to produce.) The novelty is in the color technique not the actual short.
Cartoon - Red Headed Baby (1933) - this is a six minute Merrie Melodies cartoon that takes place in a Santa-esque toy factory.
Rating: - Great technical achievements, but lacking in other areas
Cimarron was an early talkie that made great strides in sound, allowing natural interaction between the cast and a more natural movement of the camera, allowing the filming of some truly spectacular scenes.
The shots of the Oklahoma Land Rush stampede involve ground-breaking sound and cinematography that make it one of the most realistically shot scenes up to that time. Other well filmed scenes include those of Osage's dusty streets with the camera tracking the main characters as they walk along while hundreds of extras bustle about them, showing the life of a busy boom town shortly after the land rush. Unfortunately, this is pretty much where my praise of this film ends.
This film stars Richard Dix as Yancey Cravat, a man who was born under a wandering star. Unfortunately, that didn't stop Yancey from taking a wife and having children, it just stopped him from taking any responsibility for that same wife and children. Through the years, Yancey chases one hair-brained scheme after another while his long-suffering wife Sabra (Irene Dunne) takes responsibility for the newspaper Yancey started but abandons time and again. Sometimes Yancey's adventures keep him home, other times they take him away for years at a time. The film focuses on Yancey's adventures, while the whole time I'm wondering what Sabra is up to. In modern times, her story is much more compelling and sympathetic.
Richard Dix's performance is quite hammy by modern standards. You'll find yourself ... Read More
Rating: - America's Ideals Displayed!
"Cimarron" (1931) won three Oscar & had four nominations more, IMHO deservedly. Even if we regard it with modern eyes and some characters seem cartoonish as Isaiah's presentation, nevertheless the boy is endowed with the same pioneer spirit as Yancey Cravat and with the same heroic mettle.
The whole film is an epic poem to America's best ideals: independent pioneer spirit, equality for all creeds, equality for all ethnic groups, equality of opportunities for everybody, freedom for all well-meaning people, press freedom and tolerance for sexual behavior.
The story follows the life and deeds of Yancey Cravat and his family in Oklahoma territory and his struggle to publish an independent newspaper, presented in significative episodes from 1889 till 1930.
Richard Dix playacting may give the impression of overacting but the viewer should take into account that at 1931 role-play was still strongly influenced by silent-movie stereotypes and all in all he gives a vivid characterization of the hero.
Irene Dunne gives a very much sober interpretation; however both of them were nominated to Best Actress and Best Actor Oscar award.
For film-loving people the whole opening sequences of Oklahoma Land Rush are just glorious, full of action and stamina not to be usually seen!
I think this movie deserves, in justice, to be called a classic. Enjoy it!!!.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.
Rating: - An historical curiosity, perhaps, but little else
My girlfriend suggested we start NetFlixing movies that won the Best Film Oscar, hence my introduction to this odd little time capsule from the '30s.
This is a film that has not aged well, and let me be clear that I am not referring to things such as its cinemetography, but to its story and character portrayals. There actually is very little plot in this, but it seems to be more of a prolonged character study of the main character, Yancy. Sadly, this is one of the weakest features in the film, as the character is such an unbelievably larger-than-life superman that I found myself at first unable to take him seriously and eventually actively disliking him.
Yancy actually reminded me of Captain Kirk, for not only does Richard Dix's over-the-top overacting forshadow Shatner, but Yancey is somehow a master of all trades and situations that he insists on handling himself. The bank's getting robbed? Yancy springs into action and single-handedly stops them. Someone needs a spontaneous sermon? Yancy's the man to give it. Who will come to the (legal) defense of an unjustifiably persecuted strumpet? Yancey's your man. Et cetera, ad nausium. Despite all this (ahem) positive aspects, Yancy is shown (by today's standards) to be an insensitive husband with the attention span of a gnat on crystal meth.
In all honesty, one of the reasons the film held my interest was I was curious to see if Yancy would get any kind of "come-uppance." Sadly, he doesn't, which makes me think that ... Read More
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