Husbands

Director John Cassavetes' 1970 Golden Globe nominated Husbands—subtitled “a comedy about life, death and freedom”—follows three married longtime friends (Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, and Cassavetes), who react to the death of the fourth member of their fun-loving quartet by indulging in their most selfish instincts while trying to outrun both their fear of mortality and the frustrations of compromised lives. The buddies' collective mid-life crisis is the kind of situation often found in Cassavetes' work: personal, discomforting, intimate films about troubled relationships in the modern world. The men carouse in all-night drinking binges, rush off for a weekend of gambling and cheating in London, and slip into boyish sniggering whenever the situation gets too personal (only while safely hidden in a barroom toilet do they give vent to their fears). As with most of Cassavetes' projects, the script was reworked through rehearsals and improvisations with actors investing themselves deeply in their characters' dramatic crises. The result is a mix of idiosyncratic insight and raw emotion pouring out in startling moments between long, rambling, often uncomfortable conversations that are as much about what is not said as what is, brought to life by raw, intense performances and volatile ensemble chemistry. This DVD restores all 142 minutes of Cassavetes' original version (cut by the studio for wide release), and features richly informative supplements, including audio commentary by Cassavetes biographer Marshall Fine, and an excellent retrospective documentary featuring new interviews with Gazzara, producer Al Ruban, and cinematographer Victor Kemper. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)