Husbands is devoid of story but filled with a present-tense vitality and emotional honesty
Husbands (1970)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:19
Fresh:12
Rotten:7
Average Rating:6.3/10
Synopsis: John Cassavetes continues to delve the depths of the human condition with this story of three men who embark on a journey to cope with the death of their best friend. Harry (Ben Gazzara), Archie... John Cassavetes continues to delve the depths of the human condition with this story of three men who embark on a journey to cope with the death of their best friend. Harry (Ben Gazzara), Archie (Peter Falk of COLUMBO), and Gus (Cassavetes) gather together to pay their respects and decide, on a whim, to travel to London to get away from the pressures of work and family. Upon arriving, they gamble and bring three call girls back to their hotel room; these actions unwittingly present them with individual life issues with which to contend. As usual with Cassavetes's films, there is no traditional narrative; rather, there is a series of seemingly insignificant exchanges that need to be processed moment to moment for the film to deliver its greatest impact. Superficially a comedy, HUSBANDS contains enough serious questions to keep it dramatic, making for a hysterical, challenging, and enlightening work. Collaborators Cassavetes, Gazzara, and Falk interact with an honesty enhanced by their being friends in real life, which allows their characters to emerge with truths inherent to these relationships. [More]
Starring: Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Judith Lowry
Starring: Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Judith Lowry
Director: John Cassavetes
Director: John Cassavetes
Screenwriter: John Cassavetes
Producer: Al Ruban, Sam Shaw
Reviews for Husbands
Cassavetes' most dangerous and unfiltered expression of masculine anxiety -- a raw, deliberately off-putting masterpiece.
as a time capsule rendition of men being boys, it certainly has an inherent intrigue, but it is not one of Cassavetes' strongest films
This is a Cassavetes kind of mid-life crisis: they indulge their worst, most selfish instincts as they attempt to outrun their fears of mortality and frustrations of compromised lives.
The history of American male aggression and insecurity comes filtered through Cassavetes, Falk and Gazzara’s bravado. Better than authentic, they’re fascinating.
Most of Cassavetes's cinema verite films as a director are invariably accused (and with some justification) of being rambling, self-indulgent, and unfocused, but it is precisely those elements that make his best work so affecting and memorable.
An overlong improv piece that when it's not tedious or startling settles on showing the emptiness of suburban life for three married New York commuters.
Largely dismissed in 1970, Husbands is not one of the helmer's best films, but a flawed Cassavetes is still worth watching and this mid-career work offers a poignant, utterly frank and harsh look at men's innermost anxieties and insecurities.
It is almost unbearably long. It is a narrative film without any real narrative, and although it is a movie about three characters, those characters are seen almost exclusively in terms of their limiting relationship.
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