I've seen movies that were so-so, left me feeling indifferent, or were completely boring. This one was maddeningly unsatisfying, as the first half was so good, bringing tears to my eyes, while the second half was absolutely awful.
After an excellent start, including an incredible, well staged recreation of the Oklahoma land rush and a vivid account of life in a growing frontier community, Cimarron bogs down and never recovers.
Glenn Ford is fantastic and likable as an extroverted dreamer, who despite many disappointments, tries to have a positive affect on the people around him, making for a very poignant hour or so, until it becomes way too apparent that the town portrayed in the movie is absolutely loaded with unpleasant characters and no matter what Ford does, his efforts always lead to terrible and unsatisfying conclusions, with no one in the film ever achieving true happiness or triumphing in any way!
This eventually turns into a lame, schmaltzy soap-opera that meanders and becomes quite tedious, with Maria Schell as Ford's wife, becoming increasingly shrill, while Ford begins to drift in and out of the picture, finally disappearing for good.
Instead, watch How The West Was Won, another multi-generational salute to the old west, that actually has a little triumph to go along with the tragedy or even the 1931 version of Cimmaron, which isn't that great, but is still preferable to this.
After an excellent start, including an incredible, well staged recreation of the Oklahoma land rush and a vivid account of life in a growing frontier community, Cimarron bogs down and never recovers.
Glenn Ford is fantastic and likable as an extroverted dreamer, who despite many disappointments, tries to have a positive affect on the people around him, making for a very poignant hour or so, until it becomes way too apparent that the town portrayed in the movie is absolutely loaded with unpleasant characters and no matter what Ford does, his efforts always lead to terrible and unsatisfying conclusions, with no one in the film ever achieving true happiness or triumphing in any way!
This eventually turns into a lame, schmaltzy soap-opera that meanders and becomes quite tedious, with Maria Schell as Ford's wife, becoming increasingly shrill, while Ford begins to drift in and out of the picture, finally disappearing for good.
Instead, watch How The West Was Won, another multi-generational salute to the old west, that actually has a little triumph to go along with the tragedy or even the 1931 version of Cimmaron, which isn't that great, but is still preferable to this.