They Shoot Horses comfortably fit into this climate. In retrospect, Sydney Pollack seems like an odd choice to direct They Shoot Horses. No real patterns or inclinations had become apparent in his career. This was the first movie that he both produced and directed, and it's one of his very best efforts. In no scene is this clearer than the derby sequence.
Competitors fall to the floor, their limbs convulsing.
Pollack's camera weaves between the dancers, staring at their glassy eyes and their clenched jaws. It's one of the most grueling episodes ever captured on film. Pollack and screenwriters James Poe and Robert E. Thompson rarely let us far away from the dance floor. Soon after the opening credits, we become locked inside the dance hall. For Robert, the movie provides brief flashbacks, as well as flashforwards, but even he emerges from nowhere.