Ya gotta have a gimmick -
Worses': the pain of life
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Movie Review
by KELLEY BAKER
They Shoot Horses Don't
They? is well worth , the ac
claim and the nine Academy
. Award nominations it has
received (most often, A.A.
nominations can be taken as a
reverse index of a movie's
vsluc)
Based on a 1935 novel o the
same name by Horace McCoy,
Horses literally drags you down
. into the depths of the
Depression. The setting is a
1932 Hollywood dance
. marathon the couple that
danced the longest won a $1500
prize and these contests
went on for months. Con
testants were fed seven times a
day and were given a ten
minute rest period every two
hours.
The film follows the dancers
through their months of agony
to crushing despair. In a "New
York Times" interview, Direc
tor Sydney Pollack said he
originally hadn't wanted to
direct the film. "I don't really
believe there's no justice. I'm
not an existentialist, I'm an
optimist. I don't find man's
situation hopeless. Basically
the film shows a girl who blows
her brains out because she
can't bear the pain of living.
Painful as life is, I can't im
agine getting out of it."
"Horses" is excellent therapy
for those with a Mary Poppins
view of the world and those
who think that The Sound of
Music is one of the best films
they've ever seen. Charles
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Champlin of the Los Angeles
Times criticized the film,
saying that "Bed berl and
pellagra are laugh riots com
pared to They Shoot Horses
Don't They?' " And, in the
"National Review", Stanley
Kaufman accused Pollack of
turning a pretty grim novel into
a grimly pretty picture.
But, as Pollack peels back
the layers of skin, he reveals
the strengths and dignity of the
contestants as well as the
cruelty and brutality of the
marathons. Underlying the
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brutality of the dance contests
is the brutality of war as well
as the de-sensitizing effects and
strengths that both evoke.
Pollack commented that
"There is a poverty of spirit
today as well as a poverty of
body. Human nature doesn't
change. The elements in human
nature that produced the dance
marathon still exist. That kind
of exploitation still goes on. But
today it isn't expressed in the
form of a dance marathon."
Gig Young has shed the
handsome image of old and
practically wallows In his role
as the promoter-emcee of the
contest. His performance is
excellent as is Suzannah York'd
as an English actress who Is in
the contest to be "discovered"
by Hollywood producers.
Jane Fonda has already won
the New York Film Critics
Award for her part as
midwestern girl who has coma
to California because it's a
better place to starve than
Texas has now been nominated
for an Academy Award.
There are some weak
moments in the film: (1) the
flash-forwards intrude on the
action and are unnecessary for
foreshadowing or to build
suspense and (2) the opening
slow motion shots of the boy
and the horse look like a TV
commercial for some shampoo
the closer he gets . . .
But these are small
blemishes compared with the
power of expression and beauty
of presentation of They Shoot
Horses Don't They? Yowza,
yowza, yowza, and the
marathon of life goes on.
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PAGE 6
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 1970
