The First Western to Ever Win the Best Picture Oscar Sure Didn't Age Well
It was one of many films from the era that was racist and sexist.
Summary
- Cimarron won Best Picture in 1931.
- It falls far short of today's standards.
- Everything about it is wrong.
When Oscars season comes around, film buffs like to look back at some of the great pictures from years past. But the world has changed a lot since the golden age of cinema, and some movies haven’t aged well.
One example is Cimarron, the first Western to receive an Oscar.
What was Cimarron about?
Right off the bat, the "hero" sets out to make his fortune in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889, when the government gave away land once owned by Native Americans. And the movie is very much on the side of Yancey Cravat (played by Richard Dix) and his young bride Sabra (Irene Dunne).
Later in the movie, Yancey goes on another land rush, profiting from the exploitation of Cherokee land.
Blatant sexism
Cimarron is a lesson in how not to portray women in movies. The two main female characters, Sabra and Dixie Lee (Estelle Taylor), each convey a different aspect of the film's portrayal of women as weak.
Sabra begins the film as a feeble woman, protected from the rigors of life by her heroic husband. Yancey quickly comes to terms with the couple's move from a comfortable life in Kansas, while Sabra struggles.
The entrepreneurial Yancey eventually takes charge of the lawless town of Osage, including running its newspaper. When he leaves, he at least lets Sabra (now a mother of two) run the paper. Ah, female empowerment, huh?
Not really. He leaves behind a group of men to take care of Sabra. Of course, she's so helpless that she relies on them for everything.
The other woman, Dixie Lee, is a prostitute. Well, if she's not a man's wife, what else could she be?
Dixie shows some gumption at first, beating Yancey to the prime piece of land. Then she fades into obscurity and is shunned by society. This part of the story is never really explained. Dixie is arguably one of the most underdeveloped characters ever to appear in an Oscar-winning film, and you have to wonder about her real role in the plot.
A spoonful of chauvinism
As if belittling women weren't enough, Cimarron also celebrates toxic masculinity. Yancey somehow manages to be a newspaper mogul, lawyer, preacher, and war hero. He's also a terrible husband and father.
He can't help but go off for years at a time to increase his wealth and satisfy his own quest for adventure. To hell with his wife and children. They can stay at home while he goes off to show viewers what a fine figure of a man he really is.
It’s also racist
The film's presentation of land grabbing as legitimate is racist. The portrayal of its protagonist as a white savior is racist.
Then there's Isiah (Eugene Jackson), a black servant who accompanies the family on their journey. It's worth noting here that the mistreatment of black characters and actors in Hollywood at the time was horrific. This is not the only movie of that era that is openly and unashamedly racist.
Isiah is portrayed as a simple, subservient man. He's the butt of jokes, he treats Yancey like a god, and it's clear that he sees himself as unworthy and unequal. It would be hard to watch even if he had a character arc in which he rebels against the status quo. As a depiction of how far the world had to go to even begin to recognize racism as a problem, it's beyond cringe-worthy.
There's even an opportunity to show Sabra's racist tendencies. She doesn't like the fact that Yancey Jr. starts dating a Native American girl, who, by the way, is the only Native American character with any lines. The couple eventually marry, and there is a hint that Sabra may have accepted Ruby. Nevertheless, in the spirit of the movie, Ruby is portrayed as nothing more than an exotic sex symbol.
It's a movie of its time, but it's everything that was wrong with the film industry back then.