"They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" --a movie that is disturbingly like the present time.

[raccoon]

I saw it when it first came out, and remember a lot of it, considering how long ago I saw it. I usually don't remember many details from a movie I've seen recently.

Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it again, but although it is a great movie, it is very depressing.

(Although the following is from the Wikipedia article about the novel, it's also true of the movie.)

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (novel)

“The basic image is the dance contest as life for the poor and luckless in the Depression. It is draining, degrading, and fixed. They dance hour after hour to get enough to eat. They are barely human, like racehorses, sponsored and cheered on. They will almost all be losers. If they last long enough, they can hope for sponsorships from local business owners. They are profoundly desperate, but maintain dreams of steady jobs or, like Robert and Gloria, work in Hollywood, which is seemingly so close.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Shoot_Horses,_Don't_They%3F_(novel)

[Vidar]

1. It does make a good parable for today.

[Berry Cool]

2. Too MANY Depression stories make good parables for today!

I find it scary that I can relate now to the Okies in The Grapes of Wrath!

[Jim__]

3. I think I remember that movie.

I remember a movie with a big dance contest where people danced 'til they were dead on their feet. I don't remember too much else.

But, I agree. I see a lot of people getting desperate for money these days. It's sad. I thought we had moved past that type of desperation in this country. One more accomplishment of the Reagan years.

[watrwefitinfor]

4. See it again!

It's every bit as good as you remember, and more.

Wat

[earth mom]

5. I can't believe I've never seen it. Putting it on my netflix queue right now. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

6. A great motion picture!

Directed by Sydney Pollack, with amazing performances by all, especially Gig Young, Red Buttons,Jane Fonda and Michale Sarrazin.
I love this film. Everyone should see it.

[LeftinOH]

7. That one is a parable for life in general- regardless of the era...

Gig Young won an Oscar portraying the godlike MC -then a few years later shot his wife and then himself. Al Lewis ('Grandpa' in the Munsters) was also in it. Jane Fonda recalled in her autobiography that Al Lewis turned her on to herbal vitamins, which she had in her possession when some time later- and she was arrested for drug smuggling. The charges were later thrown out- because the pills really *were* just vitamins.

[Javaman]

8. That is one powerful movie and were are movies like that today?

I always ask myself, were are those type of social commentary type films today?

They are out there, but they take the form of snarky documentaries cut to pieces in mtv style edits that only present information in sound bytes no longer than 30 second spans. Yes, the complete work is usually pretty damn good, but the viewer leaves the theater so shell shocked and depressed, that hope if any left in their psyche has left the building. The feeling of powerlessness pervades, which is far from the filmmakers intent.

Movies of the type as "they shoot horses, don't they?" and "the grapes of wrath" are out there, but they play in limited release "art house" theaters. Those two movies mentioned above, played in main stream theaters to huge audiences when originally released. Why aren't there any present incarnations now?

Because, in our over the top, special effect laden, block busters only need apply, 10 dollar ticket ,300 million dollar budget, ear splitting sound, era of movie experience; the "major" studios, are all about getting butts in the seats and don't want nor believe the need to educate people with stories that show just how shitty things really are. That doesn't sell tickets! Sadly, they are misguided.

Look at movies like, "to kill a mocking bird" or "in cold blood". Brilliant novels, brought to the screen by competent compassionate people who understood the importance of telling a story for the stories sake and gravity of the material, rather than for pure spectacle.

Our current "main stream" theatrical releases would be relegated to "B" picture status 30 years ago. (I'm not talking about the current crop of animations - they are on par with some of the best story telling to have hit the theaters).

Because digital effects are all the rage, much of the current crop of films suffer from marginal acting, marginal scripts and marginal directing, which again, because they are digital, get launched to the head of the line. (I fear what 3-D will bring us)

If it doesn't explode, doesn't have massive effects and is complex in it's telling; forget about ever dreaming of a wide release.

I listen to a great podcast called "The Business". It's all about what is currently going on in Hollywood production. What seems to be a constant drum beat brought up time and time again by the hosts, is the lack of adult drama. Every film, with the exception of the art house productions, appears to be aimed at the lowest common denominator. Those are the ones that get the major release in to 4000+ theaters, but the ones that actually tell a story, ones that actually would have the effect of requiring critical thought, they get sometimes, at the most a 300+ theater release.

Don't get me wrong, I love a great action adventure movie, everyone needs a Twinkie now and then. But one can not survive on twinkies alone.

However, the films that move you or stories that make a social comment are generally out of the reach for most theater goers, so as a result, the violent digital films with generally no substantial value, are the daily affair for the masses at their local theater chain.

I, being the former film maker, ruminate daily about how, today, there needs to be a movie that deals with our current mess. I love micheal moore, don't get me wrong, but we need to have an adult discussion about our problems. To me, flashy cartoony, 30 second snips of grief followed by outrage then file footage assembled to extract emotion from the masses, is not what I'm talking about. What he does, he does well, I'm harking back to a day, when the story is what mattered.

Documentaries certainly have their place and are certainly needed, but there is some intrinsic value to a hard hitting drama in the vein of Erin Brockovich, Silkwood, the China Syndrome or Network, that deals with issues in a dramatic form. Far more people empathize with that and I don't care what your political affiliation is. (I think that is part of the problem, no one wants to feel anymore. To understand another's plight)

What if there was a story of an average family and the turmoil they experience with losing their home and being put out on the streets or a story of someone being so ill, with medical bills so high, that bankruptcy and losing their home is their only recourse. Or a story of a woman or a man who is the sole provider for their family. They get laid off in a market with no hope of rehire for the foreseeable future.

These are the stories that need to be made. Metaphors work wonderfully, but they are more powerful if it is something the average person can directly relate to, rather than wars fought on other worlds.

Is it impossible to make movies like "The Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, Coming Home, or Platoon" today? Sometimes a good hit upside the head via blunt stories is what is needed to shock our society. I'm not talking one block buster, but a social film-making movement.

Todays landscape is certainly ripe with more than enough real stories to pull from. Much like "The Grapes of Wrath", Which was a compilation of sorts, also could be put together that follows one families plight. And their story being the story of millions just like them, would be (as always) if done well, would do more to motivate people than flowery speech's or digital explosions on far off worlds.

I got out of film-making because I got tired shooting one crappy film after another. Stories with contrived plots, dreamed up by a vain director sporting stars in their eyes, who had no life experience to speak of other than someone else footing the bill for his or hers failures.

Yeah, I'm old, yeah, I'm cranky, but I think I might have finally hit upon something that will give me the purpose I have been searching for, for sometime now.

[raccoon]

11. Great post, and I totally agree! I used to go to the movies fairly often.

Not any more!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

9. Yes, one of the greatest films from Hollywood's second golden age

between 1967 and 1977, approximately.

Hollywood produced a significant number of movies for grownups in those days--

Bonnie and Clyde
Network
Klute
Annie Hall
The Conversation
The Parallax View
Three Days of the Condor
Chinatown
Don't Look Now
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Little Big Man
Midnight Cowboy
The Producers
Bullitt
In the Heat of the Night
Five Easy Pieces
A Clockwork Orange
Bananas
The French Connection
The Last Picture Show
Carnal Knowledge
The Godfather
Badlands
Mean Streets
Paper Moon
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
Dog Day Afternoon
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
All the President's Men
Taxi Driver

Star Wars, fun as it was, appeared to usher in an era of movies that consist mostly of special effects.

[watrwefitinfor]

12. Excellent list. More personal favorites:

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?
Catch 22
Sugarland Express
The Way We Were
The Last Detail

Foreign movies like:
Z
King of Hearts

Comedies like:
Cat Ballou

Musicals like:
Marat/Sade

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Excellent additions

A person interested in film who is too young to have seen these in theaters would be well-advised to use these lists as the basis of a Netflix queue.

[the jungle]

10. Working poor

The total U.S. Gross Domestic Product is about $14 trillion. The bonuses given Wall Street bankers for 2009 are around $140 billion. So, 1% of our total economic output for 2009 is going to the banking crooks’ pockets – not even the banks themselves – just the bankers!

The message we’re getting from Washington simultaneously: Screw the working poor and their healthcare. Let ‘um die. We can’t afford health insurance reform!

The Grapes of Wrath — what a read! Viewing the book with current economics in mind, one finds parallels to our present society are that are stunning. We are again ignoring and lying to an entire group of people just because they are poor. Steinbeck, now there was a great American. Man that guy could write!

We need to start asking Republican leaders and candidates this one simple question. What is your health care plan? We should tell the candidates that they want to know because working Americans who don’t have insurance are dying as a result.

If this question is asked enough times until November, it could have an effect. America does want health insurance reform. Plus it really makes Republicans squirm, and that is fun.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Here is the Republican's health care plan (as gleaned from online comments in newspapers)

1. Sell insurance across state lines
2. Limit malpractice lawsuits
3. Kick out all the illegal immigrants
4. Don't cover people who smoke, are overweight, or chemically addicted

Those, in essence, are their only ideas.

[Retrograde]

13. 1930s Reality Show?

Haven't thought of this movie in years, but since you bring it up, I see parallels between marathon dances and today's reality TV. People are trying for a brief shot at the limelight by subjecting themselves to national attention and ridicule, risking health and reputation for a small chance of fame and fortune.