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They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Serpent's Tail Classics)

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The story follows the narrator, Robert Syverten, a naive young man in Hollywood who dreams of being a film director.

The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2012-2013: Completed Tasks - DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2011: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC Awards Winners". wga.org. Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05 . Retrieved 2010-06-06.The depression of the 1930s led people to desperate measures to survive. The marathon dance craze, which flourished at that time, seemed a simple way for people to earn extra money dancing the hours away for cash, for weeks at a time. But the underside of that craze was filled with a competition and violence unknown to most ballrooms. Linda McQuaig's 1995 book Shooting the Hippo, about the supposed and actual causes of the large government budget deficit at the time, opens with a chapter entitled "They shoot hippos, don't they?" This was in reference to an influential media piece on Canada's deficit which attempted to draw parallels between the Canadian situation and New Zealand's budget crisis a decade earlier, during which the New Zealand national zoo lost its government subsidy and shot its hippos. Festival de Cannes: They Shoot Horses, Don't They?". Festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on January 23, 2013 . Retrieved April 11, 2009.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? was written in 1935, in the depths of the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, dance marathons were a craze because they allowed people who had no money or prospects to attempt to make money by dancing until they dropped from exhaustion. In the interim, they received free food and sometimes were sponsored to get new shoes and clothes (as the characters in the book hope to be). For many unemployed people, dance marathons were their best hope. This is true of Robert Syverten and Gloria Beatty, the unemployed wannabe actors at the center of the story. They enter the contest because they hope to earn money, and their participation also symbolizes that they have nothing else to do. 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. Two young people, Gloria and Robert, meet on the street in Hollywood. Both have ambitions of getting into the movies, she as an actress and he as a director, and both have been deeply disappointed. Neither has any money nor any real prospect of success, and so Gloria persuades Robert to participate in a dance marathon that is being held on the Santa Monica pier. The principal attraction of doing so is that you have a place to sleep and free food for as long as you last in the contest. And if you should somehow survive the ordeal long enough to win, the prize is a thousand dollars. As an added incentive, the promoter promises that important Hollywood people will be in the audience and perhaps some of the contestants will be "discovered" and offered a job in the movies. While I intend to review the novel on its own merits, I can’t help but remark on some differences between the novel and the 1969 film. The film did not have a murder occur before Robert shoots Gloria that ended the contest and the film also did not emphasize the Morals League and their attempts to get the City Council to shut down the contest. The film made some changes and added a few characters that brought depth and, in some ways, made improvements on the novel. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 1999. [24] 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. [25] Legacy [ edit ]a b "Box Office Information for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?". The Numbers. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014 . Retrieved February 25, 2012. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They is a novel that speaks to our times: we are inundated with reality shows, where fame and fortune, tragedy and despair are brought to us on a whim and often in the public eye. The public’s livelihoods and fates are broadcast for the world to see, and this sells. Turner Classic Movies observed, "By popularizing the title of McCoy's novel, [the film] gave American argot a catch-phrase that's as recognizable today as when the movie first caught on." [8] See also [ edit ] They Shoot Horses, Don't They?". TV Guide. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012 . Retrieved April 10, 2008. I don’t mean to denigrate the power of McCoy’s novel. The entire concept and the hapless characters of Gloria and Robert are his inventions. The climactic scene where Gloria pulls out the pistol, hands it to Robert, and asks him to do her a favor is one of the most moving passages. Robert observes that in her death she is finally at peace and smiling with what’s left of her face.

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