They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

The material is simple and irresistible, and Sydney Pollack stages it well (though without transcending the essential superficiality of his talent).

A sordid spectacle of hard times, a kind of existentialist allegory of life.

The acting is strident and overblown, the narrative technique gimmicky and obvious, and the implication that the competitors' situation is a microcosm of a wider-reaching American malaise rather pretentious.

The movie is by far the best thing that Pollack has ever directed (with the possible exception of The Scalphunters).

Bleak but exquisitely fashioned.

In They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, agony, pain, endurance are not in the bodies of the actors nor somehow mysteriously evoked by their images. Instead, they remain locked in the camera, mechanical, the product not of human knowledge but of technology.

What has happened to Hollywood cinema that it seems impossible that a movie like this could be produced today? Spoiler: Hollywood infantilism.

To this day, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? holds the record for the most Oscar nominations (9) received by one film without Best Picture being among them.

...an intriguing premise that's employed to mostly spellbinding effect by Pollack...

With a masterful visual style, Pollack builds a shocking, almost existential portrait of the limits of the human condition and the socioeconomic setbacks of individuals who cannot escape the circle of misery. [Full review in Spanish]