SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

ElMaruecan82 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!

Wuchak "They Shoot Horses Don't They?" is based on the 1935 book of the same name and is a realistic look at those grueling dance marathons during the 30s broadcast on radio. Jane Fonda stars as an embittered biyatch and Michael Sarrazin as her naïve partner. Other down-and-out contestants include Red Buttons, Susanna York, Bruce Dern and Bonnie Bedelia.Gig Young stands out as the charismatic MC who justifies the marathon and constantly makes brutal exploitation sound like good fun. For instant, he constantly refers to the desperate contestants as "kids" when most of them are anything but. To him it's not really a contest, but rather a spectacle designed to make Depression-era viewers feel better about their own lives. No one wins in the truest sense since the winners' expenses are taken out of their prize money and what they "win" after a couple of months of exhausting dancing (!) wouldn't amount to much or be proper compensation for their considerable time and energy. Thus the "haves" exploit the "have-nots" to keep the other "have-nots" placated. You could view the dance marathon as a microcosm of society: Life is a rigged game where those in power make the rules and the poor can't win for losing, no matter how hard they try or how closely they follow the rules.However, there's another view that can be derived from the proceedings: The dance isn't really rigged because the winners – those who endure to the end and refuse to give up no matter what – DO win a prize even if their expenses are taken out. These expenses could be considered "taxes" withdrawn from the person's hard-earned income by "Big Brother," liberals who "take care" of the proletariat without their approval. As such, they can still win and get ahead if you don't give up.Regardless of how you interpret it, I like how the movie takes you back to the troubled times of 1932 and educates you on something you wouldn't otherwise know much about. It's a unique, realistic drama with a potent ending. I also appreciate the Southern Cal coastal locations. I was surprised at how good this movie is.The film runs 129 minutes and was shot on the Santa Monica Pier, CA, and Burbank Studios.GRADE: B+

Rockwell_Cronenberg In They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, an extensive dance marathon slowly turns into a brutal exploration of the human spirit. Just about the entire film takes place within the confines of one building, the setting for the marathon lasting weeks, with a group of varied characters coming together in an attempt to outlast the rest for the grand cash prize. It's an interesting premise and has been used several times, mostly for comedic purposes, but the idea of it holds so much dramatic potential. Playing it for comedy would be easy, but the script by James Poe and Robert E. Thompson, adapted from a novel by Horace McCoy, goes for the harsh reality of it all and what comes out is a grueling, tragic display.The experience these characters put themselves through is torturous, always putting on a show for the crowd and at the mercy of the judges and Gig Young's announcer Rocky. It's like watching animals in a zoo, slowly being pushed down to their dying breath. The film provides an interesting social commentary in the way that the crowd starts off minimal, only a few spectators in the stands as the participants are relatively fresh and alert, but as the days go on and their hope dwindles the crowd grows and grows. They want to see the chaotic potential of the marathon, they want to see these human beings brought to their breaking point, and they get that in spades.Focusing on the young Robert (Michael Sarrazin) and Gloria (Jane Fonda), two loners who partner up for the contest, the film explores some dark themes through their experience of the contest and the downward spiral they are pushed through. There are flashes to Robert being arrested for an unknown crime that we see several times throughout the film, which provide an interesting look at his character and a curious mystery to try and decipher, but the primary focus of the film is on those themes of bringing a person to their breaking point and seeing what comes out as a result.The performances are uniformly strong, from the powerfully broken Fonda, to the borderline psychotic Susannah York, to the energetic and determined Red Buttons, but special note should be given to Young who is charismatic and malicious as the host of ceremonies but in his moments out of the spotlight presents a sort of bitter melancholy towards the world that adds another layer to his character. Pollack's direction here is understated but absolutely remarkable. He doesn't use a lot of flash or technique, but he seamlessly gives the film the sensation of it being a marathon itself. You can feel the days and weeks pressing on as they grow weaker, more tired and more hopeless.By the time the final act comes, the audience is in as much as a weary daze as the participants are. It all comes around to it's final sequence, which is tragic beyond the definition of the word. The revelations are powerful and finding out the true meaning of the title is a revelation for the ages. A strange, unique and utterly brilliant work.

Dave from Ottawa The glam-shot lobby posters were misleading. This is powerful and uncompromising movie-making of the sort that only existed for a few years between the family friendly mid-60s and the blockbuster-driven late 70s. It features the role that got Jane Fonda away from her Barbarella-style sex-kitten image to emerge as one of the great movie actresses of the age. Fonda is Gloria, a hard-edged, world-weary woman, who has been lied to and used for so long and fallen so far down on her luck that she finds herself competing in one of those grueling, spirit- breaking, mind-destroying dance marathon contests that proliferated for a few years during the Depression when folks would do anything for money and which serves as an allegory for the age. The contest is shown in all of its harsh and ugly details. Competitors dance until they drop, getting counted out on the floor like KOed fighters, eat while dancing, even try to sleep against one another while their feet keep moving. They wash their hair and clothes in the ballroom sinks, try to sleep on narrow, stinking cots during the rare rest periods, and keep moving, always moving, for two months of unending misery. As cynical MC Gig Young (Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor) points out, the spectators are not there to see a contest - they came to see folks worse off than they are. The film is shot in suitably harsh tones with unflattering lighting to point up the suffering on the actors' faces and uses semi-darkness to maximize the claustrophobic feeling of being stuck in the same building for so long and never seeing the sun. Michael Sarrazin plays a naive nice-guy who wanders in off the beach and finds himself in the contest. His is the viewpoint character, but Sarrazin himself never had much presence and is of little individual interest. Fonda and Young anchor the picture as victim and victimizer, in a literal dance to the bitter end. Some reviewers found the ending predictable and unnecessarily grim and tragic. Yet, the Depression itself had much of the grim inevitability of Greek tragedy, and one might argue that it is simply appropriate to all that came before. My view is that this is one of the best movies that came out that year.