THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? (1969)

Hey!

Today, there is a famous movie:

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

This is a 1969 American drama film directed by Sydney Pollack.

The screenplay by James Poe and Robert E. Thompson is based on the 1935 novel of the same name by Horace McCoy.

It focuses on a disparate group of characters desperate to win a Depression-era dance marathon and the opportunistic emcee (MC) who urges them on to victory.

It stars Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, Bruce Dern, Bonnie Bedelia, and Gig Young.

Young won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, while Fonda and York were nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.

 

THE STORY:

Robert Syverton (Michael Sarrazin), who had once dreamed of becoming a great film director, recalls the events leading to an unstated crime.

In his youth, he saw a horse break its leg, after which it was shot and put out of its misery.

Years later, in 1932 during the Great Depression, he wanders into a dance marathon about to begin in the shabby La Monica Ballroom, perched over the Pacific Ocean on the Santa Monica Pier, near Los Angeles.

He is recruited by MC Rocky (Gig Young) as a substitute partner for a cynical malcontent named Gloria (Jane Fonda), when her original partner is disqualified because of an ominous cough.

Among the other contestants competing for a prize of 1,500 silver dollars is Harry Kline (Red Buttons), a middle-aged sailor; Alice (Susannah York) and her partner Joel (Robert Fields), both aspiring actors; and an impoverished farm worker James (Bruce Dern) and his pregnant wife Ruby (Bonnie Bedelia).

Early in the marathon the weaker pairs are eliminated quickly, while Rocky observes the vulnerabilities of the stronger contestants and exploits them for the audience’s amusement.

Frayed nerves are exacerbated by the theft of one of Alice’s dresses and Gloria’s displeasure at the attention Alice receives from Robert. In retaliation, she takes Joel as her partner, but when he receives a job offer and departs, she aligns herself with Harry.

Weeks into the marathon, in order to spark the paying spectators’ enthusiasm, Rocky stages a series of derbies in which the exhausted contestants, clad in track suits, must race around the dance floor, with the last three couples eliminated.

Harry has a fatal heart attack during one of the races, but the undeterred Gloria lifts him on her back and crosses the finish line. Harry dies as Gloria drags him.

Alice, who witnesses his death, has a breakdown and is taken away.

Lacking partners, Robert and Gloria again pair up.

Rocky suggests the couple marry during the marathon, a publicity stunt guaranteed to earn them some cash, in the form of gifts from supporters such as Mrs. Laydon (Madge Kennedy).

When Gloria refuses, he reveals the contest is not what it appears.

Expenses will be deducted from the prize money, leaving the winner with close to nothing.

Shocked by the revelation, the couple drops out of the competition.

The two leave the dance hall and stand on the pier, overlooking the ocean.

Gloria confesses how empty she is inside and tells Robert that she wants to kill herself, but when she takes out a gun and points it at herself, she cannot pull the trigger.

Desperate, she asks Robert, “Help me.”

He obliges, and shoots her in the head, killing her.

Questioned by the police as to the motive for his action, Robert responds:
“They shoot horses, don’t they?”

The marathon continues with its few remaining couples, including James and Ruby.

The eventual winners are not revealed.

THE MOVIE: