MovieChat Forums > Simpatico (2000) Discussion > Why did she shoot the horse?

Why did she shoot the horse?

posted 13 years ago by IMDBmurphy
9 replies | jump to latest

Simpatico's forthcoming destiny was to be euthanized anyway ... wouldn't this have been more humane?
Or why couldn't Rosie just keep him until the natural end of his days? Completely needless, if you ask me.

[–] HellsBelle666 12 years ago

So I just caught this on late night.

I suppose she shot him because he was going to meet a grim fate after being sold.

But he would have made a nice riding horse :(

And talk about a *beep* way to shoot a horse, it was quite horrible to watch.

[–] IMDBmurphy 11 years ago

Sorry, didn't get your reply at that time.

AFAICR Simpatico was going to be euthanized (as said before).
So wouldn't this have been more humane than just being shot?
That was the question which originally bugged me ...

[–] headset001 11 years ago

She was not enjoying life and she realised that Simpatico was not going to enjoy life, either, no running, no sex, no interest in it, put for sale ...

It is a reflection of her own life, a metaphor for the movie. Of course it makes no sense strictly materially speaking, she could have just kept the horse.

[–] IMDBmurphy 11 years ago

As said before, Simpatico was going to be euthanized anyway.

So again, wouldn't this have been more humane than being shot?

[–] Mad_Monkey 10 years ago

Do you know what euthanized means? Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering.
Shooting horses was a common way to euthanize them at one time.
It's a quick and humane way to do it.

[–] IMDBmurphy 8 years ago

Sorry, but several dictionaries provided me with the following meanings only:

• to put an animal down (by injection)
• to put to sleep (animal)

Not my fault. Apparently there's no word for exactly that in English, like the given translation in my language (which is literally "put to sleep") is restricted to this meaning only. One would never put someone "to sleep" with a gunshot.

[–] Mad_Monkey 8 years ago

My apologies, you seem to speak english very well so I did not realize you were not a native english speaker.
I guess "put to sleep" is the humane way of saying killing an animal. It sounds less harsh that way.

[–] IMDBmurphy 8 years ago

Thanks for your compliment, it's appreciated.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure about this usage of "put to sleep"; being a non native speaker, I've never heard it in the context of killing an animal other than by injection, and all the dictionaries were confirmative of this notion. Which doesn't mean I can't see this expression being used in the figurative sense depending on the situation and the speaker, but discussing euthanasia itself that seems a bit too far fetched to me in this case.

[–] Edward_de_Vere 11 years ago

The movie was about people putting their dark past behind them in different ways, and people who at last can stop lying about themselves and who they are. Vince (Nick Nolte) finally gets up the courage to stop living in the past, and gets up the courage to destroy his photos and videotapes. Lyle stops pretending that he deserves his success in life and realizes that if he could just as easily and deservedly been in Vince's shoes. He also admits to Rosie that the fuss around Simpatico's sale is itself a work of fraud: he's sterile, he'll be euthanized soon, and the buyers will still make a killing with insurance. By shooting Simpatico, Rosie put in end to the latest in a long string of lies.