When I am frustrated with modern movies I remind myself there are decades of films I haven’t seen. I was hopeful about this one, because of Fonda, Pollack, and Sarrazin, and looking forward to seeing a young Bonnie Bedelia. (The film is actually filled with lots of good character actors, even Grandpa Munster.)
The first thing I wondered was what does Hollywood have against Red Buttons? I mean how many different ways are they trying to kill this guy? Don’t get old in Hollywood in the 70s, I guess. The film had many good reviews, several noms and a few wins, and rightfully so. There is skill and talent on display, and people are doing what they do, well… but to what end? I don’t shy away from material that takes me to dark places. Into the forest, down a hole. Art is meant to be a mirror that tells us who we are, warts and all, yes? But I feel like there is a fundamental conflict in making nihilistic art. The impulse seems at odds with the philosophy.
I had the feeling that I was watching Pollack doing CABARET. Except that HORSES was made three years before. But there is a similarity in the cinematic language, the lighting, cutting and mise-en-scene. This period in history was clearly weighing heavily on what Hollywood was using for a mind during the 70s. Pollack even returned to it in THE WAY WE WERE. Did swing give birth to disco? Was it one war looking back on another to try to understand?
HORSES certainly has elements that echo war, if not outright suggest it.
The relentlessness of the contest could be seen to represent the relentlessness of mechanized war. The siren that calls the dancers back from rest periods, is an air raid siren. Even the dorm where they rest seems like a concentration camp. War is hell and so is dancing. But what am I left with?
Both CABARET and THE WAY WE WERE have romances that are doomed from the start. This could be seen as nihilistic. But both films also manage to end hopefully. We look at what we have been through and take it with us as we move on. HORSES doesn’t do that. All it does is present endless suffering. And I just don’t see the point of putting myself through that as an audience member. Reminds me of discussions I had around THE WHALE a couple of years ago. Interesting ideas, things to talk about, but ultimately I have no interest in seeing that film again, or this one. Scratch one off in the back catalogue and move on. Next!