THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY?

US, 1969, 118 minutes, Colour.
Jane Ponda, Michael Sarrazin, Suzannah York, Gig Young, Bonnie Bedelia, Red Buttons.
Directed by Sidney Pollack.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is a very pessimistic film. It is a glimpse of one aspect of the Depression, the Dance Marathons, that attracted desperate people eager to win big money prizes and to get three meals a day while they were in the contest. The compere of these Dance Marathons was a key man, keeping the partners moving, whipping up enthusiasm in the crowds who paid up to watch, thinking up new gimmicks to keep the crowds coming.

The film confines itself to one of these marathons, a difficult task for the director who has to keep his audience interested in the narrow confines of the dance floor and the dormitories where the participants try to rest. He also has to establish his characters by conversation and action within the marathon. The film succeeds here.

The interest is in a central couple, the hard-bitten, cynical Gloria (Jane Fonda) and the rather naive and gentle Robert (Michael Sarrazin) who has nothing to do and is invited in when Gloria's partner is excluded from the marathon. Contrasts of characters come with glimpses of other participants, Alice from London, hoping the Hollywood talent scouts will spot her; Sailor, ageing, humorous, trying to win; Ruby, pregnant but kept going by her husband. Gig Young acts the central role of the compere, a hardened cynic who knows his trade and how to handle people. Gig Young won an Oscar for his performance as the compere; Jane Fonda was nominated (she won other awards for her role) as was Susannah York.

The film is a grim comment on America, the world and human nature and offers no hope or salvation for its participants.

1. What it the- meaning of the title of the film? How is it illustrated during the opening credits? How is Robert as a man and as a boy linked to this meaning? Why does Robert say these words when he is arrested at the end? How do they apply to Gloria? Do they apply to the other characters in the film? (Gloria says that the only difference between the dancers and cattle is that cattle don't know they are lined up for slaughter.)

2. What impression of the Dance Marathons do you have after seeing the film? Do you believe that this is how it was? What was wrong with them? What effect did they have on the participants, the audience? (Comment on the use of the song, "Easy Came, Easy Go".)

3. Why did people go in the Marathons? Do people like torturing themselves? Do audiences feel better after watching people suffer? (Is it too far-fetched to compare these Marathons with Roman circuses Why?)

4. What comment does the film make on the U.S., its style, its beliefs in itself ("forget the old Depression") , the ballyhoo? Can you imagine these marathons done in the same style in any other countries?

5. Was this dance floor meant to be a 'microcosm' of our world – a leader who calls the tune and makes inhuman demands on the poor who have to submit or else they are counted out and who entertain the rich, who throw money to them as if to animals in a zoo?

6. How pessimistic is the film? Does it offer any hope or salvation for any of its characters? All seem to be beaten; their ends are madness, death, prison. Waff the finale credible? Did Robert have enough motivation to kill Gloria?

7. What did you think of the flash-backs which turned out to be flash-forwards? Were they puzzling or did you work it out? Did they mean that Robert was doomed beforehand to prison?

8. Did you like Gloria? Did you sympathise with her? What was her background? Why was she so cynical? Why did she despair - was she a loser? Crying when her stockings tore? Her partner walking out on her? Being asked to marry? Finding out about the fraud with the prizemoney? Was her suicide convincing?

9. Did you like Robert? Was he too naive, gentle? Note his being asked to be Gloria's partner; his continual desire to see the sun and the sky; his discovery of Alice's dress; his shooting Gloirat did he understand Gloria - of, the flash-forwards and his remark "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

10. How different from Gloria was Alice? Why did she go mad?

11. Did you like Sailor? Why? What impression did his death make on you, his trying to keep going so they raced around the floor?

12. Why was the pregnant Ruby introduced into the film? What comment did her presence make on the marathons and the depression?

13. What kind of character was the compere - cynical, (the man who really knew what the marathon issues were all about), corrupt, a showman? He said his father was a fraud faith-healer - how was he similar to his father? Would you say the film implied that the compere is a symbol of the type of men who call the tune of the world?