Episode 196: Cimarron

"The movie Cimarron, which was released in 1931, won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year. (Did you know this?) It's great blessing, Cimarron -- which was based on the novel Cimarron, written by Edna Ferber. But you'd never know it's a blessing if you relied on the critics. Cimarron has become notorious in recent times for its racial and ethnic stereotyping. When you read contemporary descriptions of this movie, it's as if you're being told to put your hands in front of your eyes and also cup them around your ears. Yet the amazing thing is that Cimarron is actually the opposite of what it's accused of being. It's actually a definitive portrait of "Radical Hospitality", as the pharisees and hypocrites are all smote; and the outsiders and excluded people are all promoted! Cimarron depicts the triumph of the "minority" in life. You've got to see it. But only if you aren't carrying so much presuppositional baggage that your eyes are already closed and your ears already shut. Cimarron is a portrait of that great House for All Sinners and Saints. Oh, and there's a mistake at the end of the cast: The music is not by Chrissie Hynde. It's by Talk Talk.