They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
by Sydney Pollack
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DVD details
Actor: Gig Young, Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Red Buttons, Susannah YorkDirector: Sydney Pollack
Brand: FONDA,JANE
Producer: Irwin Winkler
Producer: Johnny Green
Producer: Robert Chartoff
Producer: Theodore B. Sills
Writer: Horace McCoy
Writer: James Poe
Writer: Robert E. Thompson
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
DVD Review: Masterpiece!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this film in December of 1969 when I was 16. It NEVER has left my mind and I watch it even now 4 or 5 times a year. It has a relentless beauty to it. The sight of Miss Fonda alone on the dance floor after her partner (Robert Fields) has left her--trying to contain herself by biting her lip--is one of the indelible moments of the cinema.
The silly folk who criticize the picture for the "flash-forward" technique employed throughout (and it became cool to do so BTW) obviously never read Horace McCoy's novel, because it was chaptered using cinema flash-forwards. I love all the acting but especially Jane's. Hardnosed, cynical, defeated by life, her Gloria is unforgettable.
DVD Review: A Depression-Era Dance Marathon Offers a Decidedly Pessimistic View of Life.
Summary: 5 Stars
"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" has the dubious distinction of being nominated for the most Academy Awards, nine, without receiving a nomination for Best Picture. Gig Young did win for Best Supporting Actor, though, and this is one of director Sydney Pollack's most memorable films. It is adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by Horace McCoy. In California of 1932, the seaside Pacific Ballroom holds a dance marathon in which couples compete for a $1500 prize. After her partner is rejected for health reasons, tough-talking Gloria Beatty (Jane Fonda) reluctantly accepts Robert Syverton (Michael Sarrazin) as a replacement. Robert just happened to come in off the street and was conscripted by the marathon's business-minded emcee Rocky (Gig Young).
These days, dance marathons are charity events that last only a couple of days. But they were a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s. These were not typical ballroom dancing contests. They were brutal endurance competitions for which the spectators paid good money to watch people suffer. Dancers got a 10-minute break every 2 hours, during which they slept, free food, but they had to eat it while standing and dancing, and the marathon went on for weeks for months. Last couple standing wins. They were especially popular during the Great Depression, because they offered free food and shelter, and a chance for unemployed Americans to win some money, as we see in the homeless couple James (Bruce Dern) and his pregnant wife Ruby (Bonnie Bedelia).
It's a fine ensemble cast, but at the emotional core are the equally cynical Gloria and Rocky, a young woman at the end of her rope and an older man who couldn't care less at this point in his life. Both strong characters but neither of them likable, because they treat others so poorly. It is a credit to the actors and director that this doesn't make them completely unsympathetic. Like them or not, we understand where Gloria and Rocky are coming from. That the monotony of the marathon and film's pessimistic tone are, themselves, unforgettable rather than stultifying is due to Pollack's skill. Like Rocky, he knows when to ratchet it up to keep the audience's attention.
When Horace McCoy's novel was published in France, it was embraced by the Existentialist school of thought as an absurdist perspective on the human condition. As it was written and takes place during the 1930s, it struck me as a leftist comment on the American rat race and perceived indifference of the capitalist economy to its human cost. The film is socio-political commentary, but its overwhelming theme is simply pessimism. The dance marathon is a microcosm of the human experience, and it is ugly. Losers and winners alike are chewed up. But the behavior is interesting, and that's what keeps the audience glued to the screen with our faces stuck in a grimace. The only bonus feature on the MGM 2004 DVD is a theatrical trailer (3 min). Subtitles are available in English, French, Spanish.
DVD Review: Hard To Watch, But A Memorable Story
Summary: 4 Stars
When I saw this movie in the theater about 40 years ago, I found it very interesting and one of those movies you don't forget about an hour after you leave the theater. This was a haunting type of story, especially when my folks, who went with me, informed me that these marathon type of dance contests really did happen. The characters might have been fictional, but not story of these awful contests.
Jane Fonda plays the central character, "Gloria Beatty," an angry-at-the-world and profane woman who certainly has a cynical attitude. It almost echoed her real-life persona at the time, but I won't go there. I was more fascinated with Gig Young's performance in this film as the ruthless dance promoter - emcee "Rocky." To me - and Academy Award voters - his performance stands out among all the others, even though everyone does an outstanding job. That includes director Sydney Pollack, who had only made a few movies until this one.
This is a sad tale of desperate people in desperate times trying to make a few extra bucks during the Great Depression years. Dancing in pairs, they literally risked their health by trying to stay on their feet by dancing longer than every other couple. One became mentally exhausted just watching these poor people on screen trying to survive these "marathons."
Like a lot of movies which deal with unpleasant topics, this is a haunting film that will leave you thinking about it for a long time afterward.
DVD Review: 4 stars out of 4
Summary: 5 Stars
The Bottom Line:
A movie so visceral and well-crafted that watching it almost becomes a painful experience, They Shoot Horses Don't They starts as a movie about a dance marathon during the depression but keeps getting better and better until it becomes something of a statement on humanity: don't miss it.
DVD Review: "Isn't THAT 'The American Way'?"
Summary: 4 Stars
What a movie. That is what I can say about watching "They Shoot Horses Don't They?" earlier today. As you know the movie is set during the tail end of The Great Depression in 1934 but like what director Arthur Penn did to "Bonnie and Clyde", director Sidney Pollock (I still can't get over him dying) uses that time to express the paranoia that was going on in America during the years after the Kennedy assassination in the 60's-and in some regard what is going on now as the 2000's is about to end. The cast is great-Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Gig Young, Bruce Dern (who already co-stared with Jane's brother Peter with "The Wild Angels" and "The Trip"), Red Buttons, Bonnie Belinda. But the real star definitely belong to Susannah York-who plays stage actress Alice. As you know she was noninated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this film, and she lost to Goldie Hawn for "Cactus Flower". I saw Hawn's movie and I could only watch the first 30 minutes because it was shockingly over the top (in some regards a microcausm of the 60's ending in chaos) while York's performance in this movie is so good that I'm shocked the Academy didn't give it to her especially the scene in which she is crying over where her dress was. I think she's the only British actress from the 1960's that takes my breath away and it would of capped a fitting end to it having started with "The Greengage Summer" in 1961 and then of course with "Tom Jones" two years later. To add insult to injury Gig Young won the Oscar for this movie when it should of been her, York wouldn't be nominated again, and the big kicker: The movie that Goldie Hawn won the Oscar was for a comedy; which as you know the Academy (any wonder they put the word 'science' in it?) has a taboo track record for that genre. As you know the movie ends with (spoiler) Sarrazin's character killing Gloria (Fonda) with a bullet to the head from the gun that she took from Young's character. How ironic considering they let the audience remind them how John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy got killed during the 60's. And it ends with the dance marathon continuing on not revealing who wins the money; as it remind me of a cliche that I came up to decribe the movies during the 1960's: Nobody won. I definally want some people to see this.
Description of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Nominated* for nine Academy Awards(r), this vivid (Cue), fascinating (Leonard Maltin) film stars Oscar(r) winner** Jane Fonda as a woman driven to seize her last best chance during the very worst of times. A brilliant (LA Herald-Examiner) achievement by director Sydney Pollack, it is a stunning period piece (Variety). In Depression-era America, desperation spawned a bizarre fad: the dance marathon. Couples competed to stay on their feet for thousands of hours, and audiences flocked to watch. But Gloria (Fonda) doesn't think of herself as a spectacle. She is a fierce, unforgiving contestant in a battle she's determined to win. At stake is much more than the $1,500 prize. The marathon is her only hope for dignity, accomplishment and salvation. *1969: Director; Actress (Jane Fonda); Supporting Actress (Susannah York); Supporting Actor (Gig Young, won); Adapted Screenplay; Art Direction; Costume Design; Editing; Musical Score **1978: Actress: Coming Home; 1971: KluteIn the dark years of the 1930s, dance marathons became popular as a way for desperate people to compete for prize money. Sometimes the events would drag on for weeks as contestants pushed themselves far beyond the point of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion, the dancers shambling around the floor in a half-dead stupor. People would then pay to sit in the bleachers, watch the event, and cheer on their favorites. They Shoot Horses is taken from hard-boiled pulp writer Horace McCoy's novel of the same name; Jane Fonda plays a bitter young woman paired up with Michael Sarrazin for the ordeal. Gig Young portrays the unctuous MC of the event, bringing equal parts compassion and sleaze to his role. Many of the film's images are unforgettable, such as "the derby," a heel-and-toe race around the dance floor with bouncy, lighthearted music to accompany the miserable spectacle. It's a powerful, tragic period piece that reminds us of the privations of the Great Depression. In the largest sense, the film has existential overtones that go far beyond the story of enervated dancers staying on their feet for a month or more. This film brought home a string of Academy Award nominations for the cast and director Sydney Pollack and a win for Young. --Jerry Renshaw
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