Husbands – DVD Review

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husbands

You really have to be in the mood for a John Cassavetes directed indie film. He didn’t make escapist entertainment. He didn’t dazzle the audience with fast-paced montages accompanied by the latest hits. He didn’t bust out the warm fuzzy scenes to make audiences feel secure with the characters. He didn’t create easy plots with cheerful finales. He defined himself as an indie filmmaker as a guy who worked outside Hollywood boundaries. His movies weren’t a calling card to agents that he was ready to helm a superhero flick. His indie films weren’t dazzling popcorn thrillers, but improvised emotional meltdowns. Husbands is the perfect example of a film that no studio would make, but one eventually distributed when they realized there was an audience for challenging cinema. This is a raw film emotionally and technically.

The story opens with vacation snapshots of Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, and John Cassavetes with their fourth pal. There’s fun and joy in this quartet’s antics with their families. The pictures cut into a funeral. Their friend is dead. Gazzara, Falk and Cassavetes are left rocked by this unexpected turn of events. None of them have contemplated their mortality until this moment. After the funeral, the trio spend a long time at a bar. The drinking becomes a prolonged soul searching. They get emotional. Is this all there will be to their lives? They can’t just go back to their homes and wives. They hop a plane to London for a swinging time with gambling and high class hookers. Will their escapade allow them to go back to their wives? Or will they drift around Europe imagining themselves as American playboys on the prowl?

Gazzara, Falk and Cassavetes are a Tinker to Evers to Chance of thespians. They feed off each other in these scenes. The actors shared a similar background. Looking at them together on the screen, you don’t wonder how they could friends. They appear and act like they’ve known each other since grammar school. When they get physical with each other, it’s almost a lifetime of roughhousing in their actions. The film lets scenes play out longer than what’s normally given in films. There’s almost a documentary level of filming the actors. You’re never sure when a scene is going to end. It’s hard to imagine that this film would even come close to working if it was remade with the cast of The Hangover.

Husbands also plays differently on the DVD since it’s running time is 142 minutes long. The old VHS version ran 132 minutes. It’s hard to say what mood you must be in to fully appreciate the film. Perhaps the mood to just sit back and absorb versus being force fed. The three guys go into dark places inside themselves and each other. There’s no soundtrack to give musical cues to make us understand these guys with notes. It’s raw silence when they don’t openly sing the songs inside their heads. While the original title was Husbands: A Comedy About Life, Death and Freedom, there’s little outright laughter. It’s a comedy of crisis that Cassavetes explores with his two friends. It’s an independent masterpiece.


The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The transfer looks amazing. The film was shot on the fly with a lot of improv so there’s plenty of times when the camera has to catch up with the performers in the frame. Don’t be shocked when things go out of focus. But the trio are a bit out of focus as they deal with grief and mortality. The audio is Dolby Digital Mono. The levels are good although there are moments the actors move away from the microphone. The subtitles are in English.


Audio Commentary from Marshall Fine. author of Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented the Independent Film. He points out how the dead friend was played by John’s brother-in-law in the vacation snapshots.

The Story of Husbands: A Tribute to John Cassavetes (29:46) gives us a perspective on how the film came about through interviews with Ben Gazzara, producer Al Ruban and Victor Kemper, the director of photography. Ruban admits that the casting came before the story. There’s plenty of improv in the film. There’s a discussion that instead of doing takes, Cassavetes would have the entire 1,000 feet of film go through the camera. He didn’t like to call cut. They shot 1.3 million feet of film. Gazzara declares he never had marks on the floor. There was a spontaneous nature to the whole film. Gazzara’s favorite cut of the film was four and a half hours long.

Theatrical Trailer (3:45) is “what wives don’t know.” This is perhaps the best cut of the film since it does summarize the film so efficiently. It also has background music.


Husbands is the prime example of what Cassavetes did in his cinema. For the casual movie viewer, this is the best film in his filmography to watch. Falk, Gazzara and Cassavetes reminds us of the joys and tensions in lifelong friendships. The documentary will help you understand his techniques.



Sony Pictures Home Entertainment presents Husbands. Starring: Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, and John Cassavetes. Directed and Written by: John Cassavetes. Running Time: 142 Minutes. Released on DVD: August 18, 2009. Available at Amazon.com

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.