The film was released theatrically in the United States on December 10, 1969, and also premiered at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. Reviewers praised its direction, screenplay, depiction of the Depression era, and performances (especially of Fonda, York, and Young). It received nine nominations at the 42nd Academy Awards including: Best Director, Best Actress (for Fonda), Best Supporting Actress (for York), Best Adapted Screenplay, with Young winning for Best Supporting Actor. As of 2024, it holds the record for obtaining the most Oscar nominations without receiving one for Best Picture.
Plot
Robert Syverton, a homeless man, recalls the events leading to an unstated crime. As a boy, he witnessed a horse who had broken its leg shot and put out of its misery. Years later, during the Great Depression, he wanders into a dance marathon that is about to begin in a shabby ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier. Couples are competing for a $1,500 cash prize and hoping to be spotted by Hollywood celebrities and talent scouts in the audience. Robert is recruited by Rocky, the contest's promoter and emcee, to be the partner of a world-weary, bitter young woman named Gloria Beatty after her previous partner is disqualified for bronchitis. Other contestants include retired sailor Harry Kline, emotionally fragile aspiring London actress Alice, her partner and aspiring actor Joel, impoverished farmer James, and James' pregnant wife Ruby.
Early in the marathon, the weaker pairs are eliminated quickly. Rocky observes the vulnerabilities of stronger contestants and exploits them for the audience's amusement. The arena uses quack doctors to cover up the extreme physical and mental damage to participants. Frayed nerves are exacerbated by the theft of one of Alice's dresses, which Rocky uses to create artificial drama and entertain the audience, and Gloria's displeasure at the attention Alice receives from Robert. Robert ends up pairing off with Alice, and Gloria takes Joel as her partner, switching to Harry after Joel leaves for a job.
Weeks into the marathon, to spark the spectators' enthusiasm, Rocky stages a series of derbies in which the couples race in tandem around the dance floor, with the last three pairs eliminated. Harry dies of a heart attack mid-lap, and Gloria avoids elimination by dragging him across the finish line. Rocky "disqualifies" Harry, concealing his death from the audience, and the medics remove his body from the dance floor. When Alice suffers a nervous breakdown, a sympathetic Rocky comforts her and removes her from the competition to receive genuine medical care. Lacking partners, Gloria and Robert team up once again.
Rocky suggests Gloria and Robert get married during the marathon, a publicity stunt guaranteed to earn them cash and gifts from supporters such as Mrs. Laydon, a wealthy woman who sponsors them throughout the contest. When Gloria refuses, Rocky reveals the invoice sheet: expenses will be deducted from the prize money, meaning even if the pair manage to win, they will leave with nothing. Dejected, Gloria and Robert withdraw from the competition and leave the dance hall.
As the two walk out onto the pier, a despondent Gloria confesses to Robert how empty she feels and that she is tired of life. She takes a gun from her purse and points it at her head but cannot bring herself to pull the trigger. Desperate, she begs Robert to shoot her, which he does. Police officers arrive to arrest Robert and remove Gloria's body. Asked why he did it, Robert tells the police that she asked him to, adding, "They shoot horses, don't they?"
The marathon continues with the few remaining couples, having already reached 1,491 hours.
In the early 1950s, Norman Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin were looking for a project on which to collaborate, with Lloyd as director and Chaplin as producer. Lloyd purchased the rights to Horace McCoy's novel for $3,000 and planned to cast Chaplin's son, Sydney, and newcomer Marilyn Monroe in the lead roles. Once arrangements were completed, in 1952 Chaplin took his family on what was intended to be a brief trip to the United Kingdom for the London premiere of Limelight. During this trip, in part because Chaplin was accused of being a Communist supporter during the McCarthy era, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover negotiated with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to revoke his re-entry permit and the film project was cancelled. When the rights to the book reverted to McCoy's heirs sixteen years later (he had died in 1955), they refused to renew the deal with Lloyd, since nothing had come of his original plans.[3]
A script was written by James Poe, who wanted to direct. The rights were bought by Palomar Pictures, whose president was then Edgar Scherick. Scherick offered the project to the producing team of Bob Chartoff and Irwin Winkler, who were enthusiastic, but felt the script needed a rewrite and that they would struggle to make the film for Scherick's desired budget of $900,000. They also had concerns about Poe's ability as a director and worried that he was too arrogant.[4]
Mia Farrow was interested in starring, but Scherick felt her fee of $500,000 was too high. Eventually it was agreed to show the script to Jane Fonda, who was interested. Michael Sarrazin was borrowed from Universal to play the male lead. Scherick eventually agreed to raise the budget to $4 million. Martin Baum became head of ABC Pictures, and Winkler says Baum arranged for Scherick to be fired. Baum wanted the second female lead to be played by Susannah York, though Poe had promised the role to his then-girlfriend. Winkler says it was Baum who suggested Red Buttons and Gig Young, and pushed for Poe to be fired. The producers were reluctant especially as Jane Fonda liked Poe and had director approval. Winkler arranged for Poe to direct a screen test for Bonnie Bedelia with Fonda; the test did not go well and Fonda became less enthusiastic about Poe's capabilities as a director. Poe was fired from the project.[4]
The main candidates to replace Poe were William Friedkin, Sydney Pollack, and Jack Smight. According to Winkler, Smight wanted $250,000, Friedkin wanted $200,000, and Pollack was willing to do it for $150,000; thus, Pollack got the job.[4]
Fonda said she was originally unimpressed by the script, but her husband Roger Vadim, who saw similarities between the book and works of the French existentialists, urged her to reconsider.[5]
Meeting with Pollack to discuss the script, she was surprised when he asked for her opinion. She later said, "It was the first time a director asked me for input on how I saw the character and the story." She read the script with a critical eye, made notes on the character, and later observed in her autobiography, "It was a germinal moment [for me]... This was the first time in my life as an actor that I was working on a film about larger societal issues, and instead of my professional work feeling peripheral to life, it felt relevant." Troubled about problems in her marriage at the time, she drew on her personal anguish to help her with her characterization.[6]
During filming, there was an issue with York, who wanted a guarantee she would be able to make Country Dance. When this was not forthcoming, it seemed she would have to be replaced and Pollack suggested Sally Kellerman. However, York relented and agreed to make the film.[4]
The film uses the unusual technique of flashforward (glimpses of the future). It occurs throughout the film, as passages appear foreshadowing the fate of Robert, just before the tragic ending. Costar Young was noted for his deep characterization of Rocky: he patterned his character after the bandleader and radio personality Ben Bernie, and used Bernie's famous catchphrase, "Yowzah! Yowzah! Yowzah!", for the character in the film.
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack features numerous standards from the era. These include:
The film premiered at the Fine Arts Theatre on December 10, 1969.[10]
Reception
Box office
The film was a box office success, grossing $12.6million in the United States and Canada on a $4.86million budget, generating theatrical rentals of $5.98million making it the 16th highest-grossing film of 1969.[2][11] It grossed $28,000 in its opening week.[12]
Critical response
The film was screened at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition.[13] In the United States, the film was applauded for portraying the Depression era.
Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four and named it as one of the best American movies of the 1970s:
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is a masterful re-creation of the [dance] marathon era for audiences that are mostly unfamiliar with it. In addition to everything else it does, "Horses" holds our attention because it tells us something we didn't know about human nature and American society. It tells us a lot more than that, of course, but because it works on this fundamental level as well.[14]
The movie is far from being perfect, but it is so disturbing in such important ways that I won't forget it very easily, which is more than can be said of much better, more consistent films... The movie is by far the best thing that Pollack has ever directed (with the possible exception of The Scalphunters). While the cameras remain, as if they had been sentenced, within the ballroom, picking up the details of the increasing despair of the dancers, the movie becomes an epic of exhaustion and futility.[15]
Variety said, "Puffy-eyed, unshaven, reeking of stale liquor, sweat and cigarettes, Young has never looked older or acted better. Fonda... gives a dramatic performance that gives the film a personal focus and an emotionally gripping power."[16]
TV Guide rated the film four out of a possible four stars and said,
Although it is at times heavy-handed, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is a tour de force of acting. Fonda here got her first chance to prove herself as a serious, dramatic actress... Young is superb in his role, a sharp switch from his usual bon vivant parts... Pollack does one of his best jobs of directing, even if his primary strength lies in his rapport with actors. The look of the film is just right and Pollack skillfully evokes the ratty atmosphere amid which explosive emotions come to a boil... [It] remains a suitably glum yet cathartic film experience.[18]
In 1996, Steve Simels of Entertainment Weekly observed, "Sydney Pollack's dance-marathon movie has probably aged better than any American film of its time."[19]
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 1999.[29] It was later reissued on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on October 19, 2004. Kino Lorber released the film for the first time on Blu-ray on September 5, 2017.[30]
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