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For this Sunday Kino Night, we’re starting with one of the classics of the New Hollywood era: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969). Set during the Great Depression, it centers on a sadistic competition for poor people to dance endlessly for a cash prize. Will they survive to the end? I guess we’ll find out. It’s pretty much God Damn America: The Movie, and arguably the magnum opus of director Sydney Pollack (otherwise best-known for Tootsie [1982]). Rave reviews everywhere for this one; it is often considered one of the best films of the 1960s.

After that is one of the highest-rated Brazilian films on Letterboxd, A Dog’s Will (2000), which was ranked #3 on the site’s Top 250 films of all time until a change in methodology last year. It is a fantasy-comedy in the vein of Terry Gilliam about a pair of petty swindlers who roam the Brazilian countryside, meeting strange people and finding themselves in many wacky and odd situations, all the while dealing with their dimming prospects of going to heaven. This is by far the best-known and best-regarded film of director Guel Arraes. Apparently, Brazilians love this movie and consider it a cultural icon. We have not touched much of anything from Brazil so far (Black God, White Devil [1964] is the only one we’ve watched, unless I’m forgetting something), so let’s give this one a whirl.

We’ll start at 9PM EST on Hextube, right here:

https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

  • They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?: https://letterboxd.com/film/they-shoot-horses-dont-they/
  • A Dog’s Will: https://letterboxd.com/film/a-dogs-will/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

  • They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/12332
  • A Dog’s Will: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/23391

CWs for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?:

  • Gaslighting.
  • Death of horse.
  • Discussion of sexual assault. Not depicted.
  • Gun violence.
  • Someone falls to their death.
  • Sad ending.

CWs for A Dog’s Will:

  • Death of dog.
  • Cheating.
  • Spitting.
  • Self-harm.
  • Homophobic slurs.
  • “Sexual content”. Looks pretty tame to me, though.

Links to movies:

  • They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?: https://vimeo.com/916526328
  • A Dog’s Will: https://vimeo.com/916374090