Cast: Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Gig Young

Director: Sidney Pollack

Screenplay: Sidney Pollack

Running time: 2 hrs 7 mins

Genre: Drama



CRITIQUE:


1969 was a light-hearted year for films. At least the Academy Awards thought so. Favouring over buoyant studio entertainments such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello, Dolly! and The Wild Bunch, nonetheless impressive classics, none of the films really showed true grit (no pun intended for John Wayne’s acting prize for True Grit that year)and audacity than that year’s most overlooked movie, which is Sydney Pollack’s gruelling, disturbing work They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?


The twilight of the 60’s saw revolutionary films that purified and emboldened the voice of the counterculture, with Easy Rider’s freewheeling drug escapade and filth and Midnight Cowboy’s sneering on stereotypes. But compared to Pollack’s work, these are weightless subject matters. Indeed, Cowboy have depicted a touching friendship amidst a tragic destitution, which won an Oscar Best Picture along the way, but hardship was never portrayed as intense as desperate, deprived souls flinging themselves to a remorseless dance marathon which can cost them their lives for the cash prize of $1,500. This is during the Depression era of America, where people scrape for a living, fall into endless bread queues and money is very scarce. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? does not only exemplify to what extent humans can put their selves into at the times of crisis, but it also spits at the face of capitalism and the ruthless exploitation of humanity all for the sake of entertainment. We can only guess why the Academy favoured a lighter fare to this dark, depressing allegory of the zeitgeist.


But this should not prevent the film to be seen as truly a disquieting piece of filmmaking. Ordinary, poverty-ridden folks sign up to be contestants in a Chicago ballroom dance marathon. This is not exactly Strictly Come Dancing as much as Dancing To Death, where each couple have to dance all the time, at all cost, without sleep, rest or whatsoever, and even strut through their daily meals. The most harrowing part of the contest is the “Derby”, wherein couples have to race around the hall in five whole minutes like chickens in a cockpit arena whilst the audience cheer shrilly. It’s a disconcerting sight, but also one that could evoke anger from anyone who watches it with an ounce of humanity.


We witness the central protagonist Gloria Beatty, played to a compelling turn by Jane Fonda, an aspiring actress who is actually very rough-hewn on the edges, sarcastically bitter and world-wearily cynical, go through the contest with all spits and burning rage with the show itself. Yet she allows herself to be a part it. From the rest of the contestants, she’s the only one who really understands the ethos of the show and only the wants the money out of it. Fonda channels this wrath with a controlled performance, and lets her anger simmer underneath. And she does this excellently, veering from resentful to poignant the next minute, with sub-plots of her failed past life coming to the fore. This contest was her only hope. With her tolerance of her partner, an irritatingly naive farm lad Robert (Michael Sarrazin), she sustains herself throughout, but only to discover later on that none of the show truly sees what it is all about – a Sisyphean toil for nothing.


VERDICT:

A dark, often remorseless, depiction of Depression-era dance marathon. This isn’t Strictly Come Dancing as much as Dancing To Death, with a startling coda that says a lot about the ethos of show-making and the zeitgeist. Sidestepping its narrative flaws, it’s a bold piece of existentialist work, with an enthralling, fiery central performance by Jane Fonda.




RATING: A-