Husbands
Screening on Film
Directed by John Cassavetes.
With John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara.
US, 1970, 35mm, color, 131 min.
With John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara.
US, 1970, 35mm, color, 131 min.
Cassavetes directed himself for the first time in this portrait of three husbands (played by Cassavetes, Falk, and Gazzara) shaken by the death of a mutual friend. The men go on a drunken bender that takes them to London, where they gamble and pick up women before returning to New York and their families. What’s at stake in this mid-career work from the father of American independent cinema is the raw power of the characters’ desperation. The men are funny, flawed, and searching, their quest indicative of Cassavetes’ desire to show the “tough and crazy” truth of human behavior—and his faith that “if the feelings are true and the relationship is pure, the story will come out of that.”
