THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?

The rules of the dance marathon are simple:

1. Contestants get a 10-minute break every two hours.
2. If you lose your dance partner, you have 24 hours to find a new one.
3. You receive four regular meals and three snacks every day.
4. Nurses, trainers, and an in-house doctor are at the ready.
5. The prize for the last couple standing is $1,500.

One of the grimmest explorations of capitalistic desperation and human degradation ever made in Hollywood, THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? is at once an existential nightmare and a fairly authentic depiction of the grueling dance marathon craze in Depression-era LA. Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York and Bruce Dern are all dancers tasked with outlasting other couples by staying on their feet for thousands of hours in front of a live audience in the pursuit of a $1,500 prize. The contest’s promoter lays out the perverse appeal that the marathon holds for its spectators: “They just want to see a little misery out there, so they can feel a little better maybe. They’re entitled to that.”

A gut-wrenching contemplation on the fragile durability of hope in the face of life's ostensible futility, Sydney Pollack’s adaptation of Horace McCoy’s 1935 novel uses its allegorical setting to lay bare the way American society essentially amounts to just going around in circles for money and getting nowhere.

“We cannot let Mr. Beast ever see this film.” - Jay, Letterboxd