Poetic Film Review: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
Beneath sun-bleached piers where hope corrodes,
a generation stumbles, ghosts in marionette code.
Their parents’ wars were sepia-toned lore—
dust bowls, breadlines, cracked celluloid dreams
smoothed by Hollywood’s morphine sheen.
But the ’60s cracked the lens, let truth bleed through:
a dance hall purgatory, fluorescent and cruel.
Keep moving, the emcee croons, teeth like casino chips.
Feet blister to the waltz of Easy Come, Easy Go,
derbies spin slow-motion, a carousel of woe.
The ocean glints beyond—freedom’s mirage—
while shadows stretch long on sweat-slicked floors.
Here, hunger’s tango grinds bone to dust,
a $1,500 prize for the last of the husks.
Alice unravels, threads of Hollywood lace;
Harry, salt-stained, bows out with grace.
Gloria’s snarl curdles to a whisper: Shoot the horse.
Mercy’s bullet echoes—a flashback’s noose—
no redemption arcs, just the choke of the noose.
The crowd’s applause, a metronome’s lie,
as capitalism’s teeth gnaw the light from their eyes.
Chaplin’s ghost might’ve softened the blow,
but ’69 stripped the Code, let the raw marrow show.
Pollack’s lens, clinical, cold as a surgeon’s blade,
frames the dance as our never-ending parade.
Now, screens glow with the same desperate twirl—
reality TV’s grind, Instagram’s swirl.
The gig economy’s marathon, feet forever sore,
content our new derby, humiliation’s encore.
The music plays on, jaunty, obscene—
we’re all Rocky now, chewing the unseen.
They Shoot Horses—not a film, but a psalm,
where the dance never dies, and the music’s a bomb.
Boomers saw caution; we see our own face—
the grind goes viral, despair’s marketplace.
The pier still stretches, the crowd still roars,
and the question remains: When do we end the floor?
(Note: The review in its original form can be read here.)
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