They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Rating:
Summary: School of Hardest Knocks!
Review: Not for the squeamish or those looking for "a good time" in movie entertainment. Set in depression era L.A. at an endless dance marathon, Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin play variations on down-&-outers of the period. Jane's a would-be acrtress who's done a little extra work & now wants more; Michael is just a farmboy cajoled into the dance marathon by emcee Gig Young. Young gives a wonderful performance as the sardonic, wicked emcee -- more vocal & abrasive than any other character in the movie! Young won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his job handling the mike & the dancers. There isn't much real dancing -- the characters are endlessly exhausted and weary from staying on their feet trying to win measly prizes along the way & wishing to win the big final prize. Big climactic scenes: the heal-and-toe race to eliminate dancers & what drives Suzannah York's character over the edge! Other standout performances are by Red Buttons, as an old-time sailor who's tough as nails; Suzannah York, as a fey British high-society actress who gets taken down quite a few notches; also, look for Al Lewis, the grandfather from the ol' Munsters TV show, as assistant emcee at the dance marathon. More actor trivia: the actor who played the Sargent on the first years of Hill Street Blues is also a dance floor bouncer. Other miniscule roles with big actors: Allyn Ann McClearie as Buttons's girlfriend/partner; Bonnie Bedalia & Bruce Dern as the expectant couple struggling to stay afoot against all odds. For serious trivia nuts, anyone who knows who Paul Mantee is will recognize him as one of the other dance floor bouncers!

The movie was made in 1969/70 and it's full of sixties angst and morbid ideologies about the plight of man & "man's inhumanity to man" (vis-a-vis the Vietnam War period). On its own, "Horses" has stood the test of time & looks tough & coarse today with outstanding performances all around. If you can take all the heartache, you'll find a strong metaphorical film here! I remember how controversial this movie was when it came out. It's still abrasive, but see if our society has changed at all in it's view of the subject matter. This is for people who don't mind a depressing dose of reality drama. Oh, almost forgot: there's the film's theme song "Easy Come & Easy Go" which languishes around the background and adds eerie resonance to the whole film! When will REM record this & crank up more sixties ennui! Peace, brothers & sisters!

Rating:
Summary: Spinning like the wheel of fortune/this one ends in tragedy
Review: One of the most common motifs of the Middle Ages was that of the wheel of fortune. The apex being the best of luck, good fortune and plenty. The low point being misery or that of the dispossessed. The idea that one could at one time or another end up anywhere on the wheel must have been great solace to those who felt they were at the bottom.

In Sydney Pollack's 1969 film, `They Shoot Horses, Don't They?' we are given this idea of life in a microcosm. The film, set during the Great Depression is a perfect representation of the same kind of desperation felt during the Middle Ages (or any age, for that matter). This film looks at the Great Depression, and the gimick of a Dance Marathon as a depiction of times in history when the fear of utter loss is very acute. The people facing this challenge are represented in the film by the marathon dancers. The dancers are an ensemble cast including: Jane Fonda as Gloria Beatty, Michael Sarrazin as Robert Syverton, Susannah York as Alice LeBlanc, Red Buttons as `Sailor,' Bonnie Bedelia as Ruby, Bruce Dern as James, and other minor characters.

Of course, certain people have always seemed to be outside of the desperation of life. There are peoples whose fortunes seem set, and sometimes may even seem to be puppet-masters pulling the strings. This was represented in the film by the characters such as Gig Young as `Rocky,' and his partner Al Lewis (III) as `Turkey.' Even an audience members seemed to be one of the quasi-puppet-masters (the audience were people who paid to come see these grueling marathons as entertainment) most notably represented by Madge Kennedy as Mrs. Laydon. In this respect it reminded me of Greek Tragedy (mainly the Ilyad,) with the non-dancing cast as part of the pantheon of gods. Sometimes they are empathetic to the mortals (the cast on the dance floor). Just as in the Greek stories, the gods are pulling for their own personal favorite.

This film is an example of good acting. The acting is so critical to the enjoyment of an otherwise very depressing story. Each of the actors was completely believable in the part the played. No one's acting was `over the top.' I would note however, that Jane Fonda's character, Gloria, was a bit too void of emotion, other than bitterness, until the very end. Her story-telling scene with her second partner was delivered a little too flatly. On the positive side, it she is also in one of the best scenes in the film, which I will address in a minute.

It was the lesser characters that really brought the most credibility to the story and the film. Each of the folks were merely background and then, we are sucked into the film, just as though we were in the audience of the dance hall, they'd pass near... where we could almost hear their individual stories... just for a moment, and then they'd swirl, sway or stagger away... back into oblivion.

As we watched the film we can feel their desperation. In the scenes of the track, One might get the sense, `that's what I am doing. I am one of them... a hamster on the treadmill, all for the next silver dollar. For someone else's entertainment...'

The female character I liked the most was a difficult decision. The Mrs. Laydon character (fits the Greek Goddess Hera role, to continue my earlier analogy...) sat with her kerchief waving, her eyes full of compassion. Alice LeBlanc, the platinum coifed, her eyes hollow as she finally lost touch with the only thing she had to cling to... her hope for stardom extinguished in the shower, just before she is escorted out, `exit, stage right...' As touching and real as these two women played their parts, I felt that Rocky had it right when he told Gloria, `I may not know a winner when I see one, but I sure know a loser...' and Ruby was certainly not. Ruby was determined to give the baby she was carrying a fighting chance in life... even off screen, you could sense her determination. So, Ruby gets my vote for most convincing female role.

The male character that provided the best acting was tough, but the competition was not as stiff as competition between the women. Rocky played the Zeus role to a `T'. But it was the feisty determination and ultimate collapse of `Sailor' that won me over. His character was perhaps the most human of the men. He really wanted to win it, you could sense that. At the same time he was not above feeling for some of the people he was competing against, encouraging them.

I enjoyed the picture, and I found it relevant to today's marathon. The silicon-valley is full of folks all competing for that somewhat empty promise and the same dollar. One of the wisest scenes of the movie was the dialogue between Rocky and Gloria. She enters his office to ask him to change the rules. He's busy at something else. She asks what he's doing and he points out that he's been keeping tabs on everyone. The prize will be reconciled after the bills are exacted. This is life. Anyone who's had a run of misfortune could relate to that. I was reluctant to watch the film after all these years, especially with my aversion to Jane Fonda. Nevertheless, it was perhaps one of the best films of the late sixties/early seventies.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most overlooked classics from the 60's.
Review: Sydney Pollack has given the world some of most memorable and engrossing films ever such as "The Way We Were," "Out of Africa," "Tootsie", and "The Firm." However, most seem to forget about this little masterpiece he helmed back in 1969, about a dance marathon that causes more disillusionment that being told your life is a worthless shame. Jane Fonda heads out the cast as a struggling actress who seeks out the dance marathon as a means of survival during the Great Depression. Marathons of this type were popular, luring in poor folks to see who would be willing to go so far to win a cash prize. Susannah York is another actress from Hollywood who has had her share of bad luck and it gets worse and worse as the marathon wears on. Red Buttons is a sailor who has seen his share of human loss and heartache but matters to almost nothing when he sees what this marathon will do to its contestants. Gig Young is well-cast as the scheming marathon promoter who loves to sit back and watch the people collapse and give up. He puts the show on soley for human spectacle and idiotic display. What he does to select contestants will have you loathing and seething with hatred for his character. He is so convincing in the role it won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Young, who was a major comedy star back in the 1940-50's, was sinking into deep melancholy over life and his work and the Oscar did little to nothing to help him. In 1978 he shot his wife and then himself, always convinced that he was the result of an accidental pregnancy. However, despite this pitiful knowledge, he has given the entertainment world some of the best work we've ever seen, including his own TV show in the 50's in which he went behind the scenes of movies in production.

This film was shot entirely in sequence and Pollack had his cast rehearse and dance for 12 straight hours before he put them in front of the camera, so you are basically seeing it as it was filmed. The editing makes it look more frenzied and more grueling to watch, especially those derby scenes. Human cruelty never looked more artistic or more disheartening. Dance marathons were eventually banned by law and this film shows just why that happened.

Nominated for nine Academy Awards---Best Director (Pollack), Actress (Fonda), Supporting Actor (Gig Young, who won the Oscar), Supporting Actress (York), Screenplay Adaptation from the novel by Horace McCoy, Art Direction, Costume Design, Music Score Adaptation, and Film Editing. It is a travesty that it was not nominated for Best Picture. This is one of those little known films from the dusk of Hollywood's Golden Age and should not be missed. It should be revived for a whole new generation to discover and be mesmerized by.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most overlooked classics from the 60's.
Review: Sydney Pollack has given the world some of most memorable and engrossing films ever such as "The Way We Were," "Out of Africa," "Tootsie", and "The Firm." However, most seem to forget about this little masterpiece he helmed back in 1969, about a dance marathon that causes more disillusionment that being told your life is a worthless shame. Jane Fonda heads out the cast as a struggling actress who seeks out the dance marathon as a means of survival during the Great Depression. Marathons of this type were popular, luring in poor folks to see who would be willing to go so far to win a cash prize. Susannah York is another actress from Hollywood who has had her share of bad luck and it gets worse and worse as the marathon wears on. Red Buttons is a sailor who has seen his share of human loss and heartache but matters to almost nothing when he sees what this marathon will do to its contestants. Gig Young is well-cast as the scheming marathon promoter who loves to sit back and watch the people collapse and give up. He puts the show on soley for human spectacle and idiotic display. What he does to select contestants will have you loathing and seething with hatred for his character. He is so convincing in the role it won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Young, who was a major comedy star back in the 1940-50's, was sinking into deep melancholy over life and his work and the Oscar did little to nothing to help him. In 1978 he shot his wife and then himself, always convinced that he was the result of an accidental pregnancy. However, despite this pitiful knowledge, he has given the entertainment world some of the best work we've ever seen, including his own TV show in the 50's in which he went behind the scenes of movies in production.

This film was shot entirely in sequence and Pollack had his cast rehearse and dance for 12 straight hours before he put them in front of the camera, so you are basically seeing it as it was filmed. The editing makes it look more frenzied and more grueling to watch, especially those derby scenes. Human cruelty never looked more artistic or more disheartening. Dance marathons were eventually banned by law and this film shows just why that happened.

Nominated for nine Academy Awards---Best Director (Pollack), Actress (Fonda), Supporting Actor (Gig Young, who won the Oscar), Supporting Actress (York), Screenplay Adaptation from the novel by Horace McCoy, Art Direction, Costume Design, Music Score Adaptation, and Film Editing. It is a travesty that it was not nominated for Best Picture. This is one of those little known films from the dusk of Hollywood's Golden Age and should not be missed. It should be revived for a whole new generation to discover and be mesmerized by.

Rating:
Summary: Soul shattering
Review: The Great Depression, always written with capital letters to denote the seriousness of the event, led to great problems far beyond our borders. One of the causes of the Second World War originated in a Germany plagued by economic problems far worse than what America went through. But things were bad here, too. Although far more people kept their jobs than ones who didn't, millions of Americans queued up in soup lines, wandered the country in search of work, and couldn't pay their bills. The New Deal, despite the fawning adoration these policies receive today, did little to alleviate economic woes in the long term. Some turned to crime to make ends meet, hence the rise of Dillinger and the other famous bank robbers, but some resorted to competing in particularly grotesque public spectacles referred to as dance marathons. A grinding trial of endurance for participants, dance marathons saw couples signing up to dance for extended periods of time, sometimes up to a month or longer with only short breaks for food and sleep, in order to win a bundle of money. Audiences showed up to watch, bet on, and cheer these unfortunate wretches. Fortunately, states eventually passed laws banning these scurrilous events.

"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" is a cinematic adaptation of a Horace McCoy novella of the same name. The star of the picture is Gloria (Jane Fonda), a world-weary young lady who signs up for the latest contest because she has nothing left to live for. Needing a partner, she spies a shy young fellow named Robert (Michael Sarrazin) watching the proceedings from a distance and convinces him to join up as her dance mate. Competition looks fierce, though. Sailor (Red Buttons) and his partner Shirl (Allyn Ann McLerie) look like they might put out some effort despite their advanced age. So do James (Bruce Dern) and his wife Ruby (Bonnie Bedelia) who, although pregnant, helped her man win a contest in another state. One individual who definitely looks like she won't make it is glamour girl Alice (Susannah York), whose interest lies in dolling herself up like a movie star in order to draw attention from any potential talent agents in the audience. Presiding over this gladiatorial madness is the cynical emcee Rocky (Gig Young). He stands at a microphone on the stage belting out hour after hour of running commentary on the contestants, inventing wild stories about their backgrounds in order to pump up the audience. His sole purpose in life is to put on a good show, and he won't allow any of the dancers to do anything that jeopardizes that goal.

Once the contest begins, what follows is an experience that leaves the viewer as emotionally and physically drained as the contestants. Hours turn into days, days into weeks as the participants grind away on the dance floor. Couples start to slip away, either quitting and walking off voluntarily or collapsing in a heap on the floor. Tensions pull the dancers apart, with new couplings made, broken, and reformed as time goes by. When attendance starts to lag, Rocky and his cohorts, including Al Lewis and Michael Conrad as Turkey and Rollo respectively, institute a fun new game, the Derby. This barbaric ritual requires the surviving contenders to trot madly around the outer edge of the dance floor, with the woman holding on to the man's belt, in a heel and toe race of exhausting dimensions. It's a nifty way to fire up the crowds as well as pare down the number of couples. It's also one of the sickest things you're likely to see in a film. No wonder that Gloria begins to lose all hope of ever emerging from the hole that constitutes her existence. Her exchanges with Rocky take on unsavory aspects as she fervently attempts to stay in the game. It's almost as though she senses what her fate must be if she fails to win the prize. When she finally learns the truth behind the dance contest, she must make a decision of life and death importance for both her and Robert.

Every performer with significant screen time turns in a stellar performance. It's Hanoi Jane and Gig Young that steal the show, though. I hate to admit it considering her unofficial status as a traitor to the country that allowed her to live in comfort her entire life, but Fonda really drives it home with her portrayal of the exhausted Gloria. The bitterness in her eyes and her icy tones convincingly convey the impression of a human being dangling at the end of her shattered life. Just as good, if not better, is Gig Young. His is a more challenging part in that he must simultaneously express the mentality of a ruthless self-promoter while occasionally showing us his concern for the contestants, and even then you're never quite sure whether he provides comfort because of a kind heart or whether it's just another ploy to keep the show going. Whatever the case his scene with a delusional Alice ranks as among the best in a movie loaded with unforgettable moments. The talent aside, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" works so well because the film uses the cruelty of the dance marathon as a metaphor for the callous disregard people show for the less fortunate.

I'm slightly disappointed with the MGM DVD version. The only extra on the disc is a trailer, surprising considering how many Academy Awards this film won the year it came out. I've heard of an earlier Anchor Bay release with better audio and better extras, so hopefully that disc or a similar version will receive a reissue at some point in the future. I find it difficult to believe Hanoi Jane wouldn't want to do a commentary for the film, unless she's one of those people who refuse to comment about her work. I recommend both the film and McCoy's searing novella.






Rating:
Summary: Jane Fonda proves her acting ability in this performance.
Review: The horrors of the depression era are portrayed in this adaptation of Horace McCoy's play. At times it is difficult to observe the torment and despair of not only the main character, but also, the secondary characters. Their pain can be felt by the viewer. The final scene is one of the most memorable in motion picture history. This film is a classic and should have swept the Oscar race in 1969.

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the worst movie of all time!
Review: The only movies that may be worse would be Accidental Tourist or maybe Blair Witch Project. It's tough to pin down what exactly made this movie so bad. Thats probably because every facet of it STUNK SO BAD! All I know is that I wasted 2 hours of my life of this tripe, 2 hours that I'll never get back. Go ahead and rate my review as unhelpful if you must, but DON'T SPEND MONEY ON THIS FILM!

Rating:
Summary: An Awful Movie
Review: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is an awful film. It is about as interesting as watching water boil. It is also unhistorical in that the 1930's are depicted as a time of prosperity even though in real life that was the decade of the Great Depression.

There is no real depth to the plot. Nor is there anything exceptional about either the direction, photography or the soundtrack. Jane Fonda is badly miscast in this role and she delivers her lines poorly. None of the performances in this movie are especially good.

In sum, this is a movie to avoid.

Rating:
Summary: An Awful Movie
Review: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is an awful film. It is about as interesting as watching water boil. It is also unhistorical in that the 1930's are depicted as a time of prosperity even though in real life that was the decade of the Great Depression.

There is no real depth to the plot. Nor is there anything exceptional about either the direction, photography or the soundtrack. Jane Fonda is badly miscast in this role and she delivers her lines poorly. None of the performances in this movie are especially good.

In sum, this is a movie to avoid.

Rating:
Summary: Dark, Depressing, Meaningful
Review: This could become one of your favorite movies. The symbolism is great