Released during the death throes of the studio-system era, the 1960 feature adaptation of Edna Ferber's Cimarron was subject to extensive editing and cutting that counted among the collateral damage Franz Waxman's remarkable score. Film Score Monthly's 2004 reissue restores Waxman's work to its original glory, and vaults it into contention among his finest cinematic efforts. A rousing Western score with an intimacy and emotional depth uncommon to the genre, Cimarron navigates between modernist impulses and classical conventions with surgical precision. Rarely has music so epic retained such a sense of self, never sacrificing Waxman's thematic idiosyncrasies and structural ambitions for the sake of scale. FSM's top-notch package also includes extensive liner notes and vivid sound -- a must-have for the serious soundtrack enthusiast.