They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Starring:Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, Gig Young, Red Buttons, Bonnie Bedelia, Michael Conrad, Bruce Dern, Al Lewis (III), Robert Fields, Severn Darden, Allyn Ann McLerie, Madge Kennedy, Jacquelyn Hyde, Felice Orlandi, Art Metrano, Gail Billings, Lynn Willis, Maxine Greene, Mary Gregory
Director: Sydney Pollack
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

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In 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

Description

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: Klute

Customer Reviews:

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.......2007-07-02

Gritty and troubling, Pollock's devastating period film about the exploitative dance marathons of the 1930s is also a grim allegory of American competitiveness, epitomized in the crazed, go-for-broke Derby scenes. Adapted from a Horace McCoy novel, "Horses" was a sterling vehicle for "Barbarella" star Fonda, who proved she had the knack for serious roles with her impressive turn as a bitter, brazen woman with nothing to lose. Also playing against type are Gig Young, who won an Oscar for his role as the noxious ballroom host, and hoarse comedian Buttons, who's anything but funny as a crusty, battered veteran with a deadly ailment. For a cathartic ride on the dark side of life, let these "Horses" drag you away.

Still Non Anamorphic Widescreen.......2007-05-27

This is a great film filled with emotionally powerful performances. Jane Fonda should have won the oscar for this film, but the academy was probably busy giving best actress to someone else who should have gotten the award for another film. The fact that these dance marathons actually went on in our country, not so long ago, shows the sick and depraved mentality of our society in a way few films have. Anyone who has ever felt utterly hopeless about life should be moved to near devastation upon viewing the characters' desperate and futile attempts to hold on, to survive, to the tragic end.
This film was just rereleased on dvd in 2004(a time by which how many HD widescreen t.v.'s have been sold to the public?). Yet still no anamorphic widescreen transfer to properly fit the format for proper picture? What was the point of the new dvd? At least the original Anchor Bay release had an original featurette. Maybe now that Sony owns MGM they will give this classic film the proper dvd presentation it fully deserves. Here's to hopin'.

boring.......2007-05-06

we watched this movie because it is a classic. maybe it would have been different on a big screen, but i was bored. the 'message' of the movie is clear in the first 10 minutes and there are no surprises for the next hour and a half. yes, the system is bad. yes, we see different characters and observe their interactions, but it was rather predictable. the movie is very stagey, theatrical and dated. fonda is beautiful, but that's not enough to rescue it from being tedious.

Fonda Soars in an Evocative Microcosm of Depression-Era Hopelessness.......2007-04-01

Marathon dancing as a spectator sport during the Great Depression must have resonated with Vietnam War-era audiences who looked at the bloody carnage of that conflict on the network news every night. To a great degree, it still does today given the ceaseless appetite for reality TV. Just before his filmmaking career took off, Sydney Pollack helmed this powerful but relentlessly downbeat 1969 drama about one such marathon dance contest set in a decrepit dance hall on the Santa Monica Pier in 1932. Adapted by screenwriters James Poe and Robert E. Thompson, the movie takes the semi-famous 1935 Horace McCoy novel and highlights the microcosm that the author created to show how hopeless people felt during the depths of the Depression, none more so than Gloria Beatty, the embittered and failed wannabe actress desperate to win half the $1,500 grand prize.

In her breakthrough dramatic role, Jane Fonda brings an unmitigated feral quality to Gloria that must have been startling at the time since her previous two films were the lightweight "Barefoot in the Park" and the campy pin-up comic fantasy, "Barbarella". For all her outwardly aggressive behavior, Gloria could have been a completely detestable character, but Fonda makes her desperation and diminished self-worth palpable in surprisingly subtle ways. The other standouts in the cast are a very young Bonnie Bedelia as the extremely pregnant Ruby clinging in exhaustion to her husband, Susannah York as the unstable starlet Alice, Red Buttons as seen-it-all Sailor, and Gig Young who upturned his long-established light comedy image as the Machiavellian dance emcee Rocky.

You will likely recognize Al Lewis (Grandpa on "The Munsters") as Rocky's mercenary assistant Turkey and Michael Conrad (Sgt. Phil Esterhaus on "Hill Street Blues") as the cynical roller skating referee. The fly in the ointment is wide-eyed Michael Sarrazin, who plays the circumstantial protagonist Robert Syverton with an utter lack of depth. Pollack unfortunately uses a flash-forward technique with Robert which punctuates the story unnecessarily. However, when he sticks to the dance hall, he is quite masterful, especially in the two defining derby scenes where he fully captures the desperation of the contestants in a grueling, humiliating foot race. Harry Horner's period production and Philip H. Lathrop's darkly lit cinematography effectively evoke the sleaziness and claustrophobia within the hall in measured detail. There are no extras in the 2004 MGM DVD package.

Nihilism with an elegant hand.......2007-03-05

Everybody says how great this movie is, and one can see how the acting is first rate. The movie is very slow, but in this reviewer's opinion because the movie does not have a lot to say. It is a soul-deadening theme of how The System Is Screwing The Citizen. From the viewpoint of the Great Depression that's the essential leftist political viewpoint, which I don't share but can appreciate the thought. But unless the theme is "bring on the Revolution, tear everything down and start over", why make this movie?

I liked the main characters and just waited and waited for the storyline to have them do anything positive. They never do. The story ends with something I consider completely morally unacceptable -- I won't give away the suspense, but say that while it's not brother-sister incest it's something that offends me equally much. I can appreciate slow stories which this is, and moral ambiguity intrigues me, but this combination just pushes all the wrong buttons with this amateur reviewer.

Average customer rating:

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Still Non Anamorphic Widescreen
boring
Fonda Soars in an Evocative Microcosm of Depression-Era Hopelessness
Nihilism with an elegant hand

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Starring: Jane Fonda , Michael Sarrazin , Susannah York , Gig Young , and Red Buttons
Director: Sydney Pollack
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00000K3C6
Release Date: 1999-10-26