They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Touches You

Redundant and unnecessary.

Absolutely Fantastic

During the Great Depression, participating in dance marathons was a very popular activity. Couples would enter and dance nonstop for hours, days, weeks, or months, and audiences would flock to watch and cheer on their favorite team. The winning couple would receive some prize money, and in the meantime, the contestants would be fed and sheltered for as long as they endured. If you've never heard of this, or you're not up on your 1930s history, you might want to read up on the horrors of the Great Depression before renting They Shoot Horses, Don't They? If you don't really understand how desperate and hopeless these dance contestants felt, you might not be able to appreciate Robert E. Thompson's and James Poe's screenplay. The characters in the film act like condemned gladiators who will do anything to entertain the crowd before getting thrown into the lion's den. They stay on their feet no matter the cost, whether it's their health or dignity. They sleep while dancing, leaning on their partners, and one woman enters the contest while pregnant because she has no other prospects.They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is incredibly bleak. There are no happy parts to the story; this isn't a two-sided view of the famous walkathons of the Great Depression. The camera captures the up close and personal horrors the contestants experience, backstage and in front of the audience cheering in the stands. The audience is shown cheering when horrible things happen to the dancers; they treat them like animals in a horse race. Sydney Pollack directed the movie, and while it would have been easy to film it in a sensational, flashy manner, he chose a bleak approach. The colors are muted and dusty against the cheery façade of the event, and the sweaty and haggard faces show through the performance makeup.Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, Red Buttons, Bruce Dern, Robert Fields, and Bonnie Bedelia are the featured dance contestants, and Gig Young is the MC. Everyone gives a superb performance, and Fonda, York, and Young were honored at the 1970 Oscars. Sydney Pollack was also nominated for his outstanding direction, as were the costumes, art direction, adapted screenplay, music, and editing. I've seen this film three times, but it isn't for everyone. It's extremely heavy and upsetting. But if you like movies that fall under the "people are terrible" mantra, like Network or The Great Gatsby, you'll be in a good position to appreciate this well-crafted film.Kiddy warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to some upsetting content, I wouldn't let my kids watch this movie.

Set in California during The Great Depression of the 1930's - "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is all about the wretchedness, and all the utter hopelessness of an era of impoverishment like none other in American history.Here the viewer is witness to every despairing detail of destitution. All so graphically depicted. All so clearly unfolded through the sad experiences of a pitiful collection of marathon dancers, each one at the utter brink of desperation.This is a dance marathon to beat all other dance marathons. To date it has been running now, non-stop, for 2 months, solid. It's guaranteed to be a real record-breaker.And, the one, final couple that remains on their feet to the bitter end, out-dancing all others, will be crowned the winners, receiving as their hard-earned reward a grand prize of $1,500. Not much money by today's standards, but, for the many who were absolutely poverty-stricken during The Depression, it represented a literal fortune.Yep. That's what "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is all about.

Watching Sidney Pollack's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", it is impossible not to think of reality shows and their piles of human souls desperate for success' shortcuts. Indeed, whenever there will be depression and desperation, such shows will exist. The only difference is that during the Great Depression, when Horace McCoy wrote the novel, there was no screen between the audience and the contestants, a thinner progress than the fact that, contrarily to Rome's gladiators, contestants didn't kill each other, though they seriously jeopardized their physical and mental health.The film centers on a Dance Marathon, one of the 30's crazes, set in a West Coast ballroom, the concept is so vicious that you wonder why sensitive people would go to such extremes. From a 2010's standpoint, it makes sense as there's no difference between this and programs like "Survivor" or "Fear Factor", and no more between the charismatic Master of Ceremony, played by Gig Young and a TV host who displays hypocritical empathy toward contestants while developing new tricks to increase their suffering. Watching Young's Oscar-winning performance, we wonder whether we should despise his cynicism or enthusiastically respond to his repeated "Yowsa!" Young embodies the bittersweet appeal reality TV shows, something that is part of human nature to which German language found a word for: 'shadenfreude'. When someone falls or fails, we're somewhat glad to be in the comfortable viewer's side. We don't like other people's successes, but any sight of a human being in a less favorable position is most welcome. That's how depressing a depression is, when we can't feel better for our own achievements, we do it by proxy, by enjoying someone's failure. Regarding the Dance Marathon, whoever will win the 1500 dollars prize will be less interesting than the dozens of delightful losers.Take the character Alice, played by Susannah York, she's a young actress coming with her partner, together they expect to catch the eye of a director. Alice is like today's wannabe Cyrus or Kardashian who don't believe in bad publicity and think fame precedes artistic achievement. Later, Rocky reveals that he deliberately took her dresses and make-up, because she was spoiling the game by not looking messy and exhausted as she was supposed to be. He says about the audience that they "just want to see a little misery out there so they can feel a little better maybe." This revelation will come as a shock to Robert (Michael Sarrazin), an aspiring director who naively thought he was in a contest, rather than a show. Like in Ancient Rome, those who don't have 'bread and wine' make the 'circus' to the haves. Seriously, did he forget he was sponsored? There are also two tragic characters: Kline, an aging sailor, played by wonderful character actor Red Buttons, the WWI veteran knows the marathon and teaches a few tricks to Robert. And there's a pregnant Okie farmer's wife played by unrecognizable Bonnie Bedelia (she was John McClane's wife in "Die Hard"), and entrusted with more than she can cope with, and nor her husband (Bruce Dern) or the doctors or Rocky think that she might endanger her kid's life or her own. The sight of this little heavy-loaded women forced to run that awful ten-minute derby is one of the most disturbing sights of the movie along with Kline's death, desperately dragged by Gloria Betty (Jane Fonda) till the finish line.The power of Pollack's directing is to switch from the contestants' perspective to Rocky's (and his partner played by Al Lewis). For instance, you see the participants groaning at the derby's white lines being painted and then you see the puppet masters of this tragicomedy, and you wonder why these people who can leave at any time let their health and sanity being sucked out by these heartless bastards in tuxedos. The reason is simple: the two points of view never meet, except for Robert and Gloria. And all naturally, they leave the show. When Gloria learns that the winner will pay the expenses, that's too much to accept, she understands that "the whole world is like central casting. They got it all rigged before you ever show up." As Gloria, Jane Fonda is the soul of the story, a perpetually malcontent woman whose participation was the last string on which to hang her faith on life. But while the film is mainly focused on Fonda, it starts with flashbacks from Robert's childhood - one involving a beautiful black stallion, falling and then mercilessly put out of his misery- and then it's punctuated with images of Robert being arrested and interrogated for what seems to be a murder. I thought that (accidentally) knowing Gloria would die, would spoil my enjoyment. As a matter of fact, from the title to the poster, and the arrest scenes, we understand that it's a matter of time before the contest finally get the most of her, and makes her death inevitable.This is not depression as an Era, or as the disillusioned New Hollywood movies that provided the great unequaled masterpieces of American cinema, but plain and bleak 'state of mind' depression. It's like a feeling of psychological claustrophobia in an agoraphobia-inducing world, too many people and not enough souls to reach or reach yours. The ball-room, with all its flashiness and shiny floor, is the extraordinary metaphor of this Depression, however you define it. And Fonda conveys her sadness so convincingly that we no longer feel sorry for her when Robert pulls the trigger. As he says to the disbelieving cops: "they shoot horses, don't they?". Gloria didn't break her leg though, only her spirit, and that's something you can't recover from."They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"is one of the most depressing movies I saw, even more because it hasn't lost one ounce of relevance, proving that History keeps repeating itself, staged by the worst of human nature. What an exhausting depressing, haunting and unforgettable movie!

Public spectacles that feed audience's schadenfreude have a long and sordid history. Before "reality" TV shows put damaged people (or actors portraying same) on display, there were public hangings and gladiatorial arenas. And, perhaps, dance competitions. A marathon dance contest that requires contestants to stay on their feet for weeks at a time could be an innocent test of endurance. But add corporate sponsors, a cash prize, and bleachers full of people seeking thrills and story lines, and it becomes something darker. On a story level, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is about the dehumanizing effects of the spotlight. On the level of the film's presentation, however, director Sydney Pollack and his actors ensure that the humanity of the characters takes center stage. If the final act is not entirely satisfying, perhaps it is because we the audience, like the onlookers at the dance competition, have improper expectations.