Why a 1970 film about three men in crisis polarized the world's top critics
In short: When three suburban friends face the sudden death of a peer, they embark on a reckless, booze-fueled escape to London. John Cassavetes’ 1970 drama Husbands captured a raw, improvisational midlife crisis that left audiences walking out of theaters and critics divided between calling it a masterpiece or unbearable trash.
John Cassavetes wrote and directed Husbands as a deeply personal exploration of mortality, inspired by the death of his own brother at age 30. The film follows Gus, Harry, and Archie—three successful, middle-class men who have been friends since school—as they grapple with the realization that their youth is vanishing. Following the funeral of their friend Stuart, the trio descends into a chaotic two-day bender that eventually leads them to London. There, they attempt to reinvent themselves through formal dress and encounters with young women, though their efforts remain painfully awkward and ultimately unsuccessful.
The production process was as unconventional as the film itself. Cassavetes built the characters around the personalities of his stars, Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk, and developed the dialogue through extensive improvisation. The filming process was lengthy, spanning from January 1969 to mid-July 1969. The final product was so sprawling that Cassavetes initially cut 85 minutes to meet a 140-minute contractual requirement. Following a wave of negative reviews and audience walkouts, the distributor, Columbia Pictures, slashed an additional 11 minutes from the theatrical release.
Critical reception was famously polarized. Jay Cocks of Time hailed it as Cassavetes’ finest work, while Roger Ebert famously retorted that Time had never given a better review to a worse movie. Critics like Pauline Kael and Vincent Canby lambasted the film as infantile and tedious, with some comparing the unedited, improvisational style to a big-budget home movie. Retrospective views remain mixed; while some critics still find it painfully drawn-out or misogynistic, others, like Richard Brody, praise it as a formally radical and deeply personal achievement. The original 11 minutes cut by the studio were finally restored for a 2009 DVD release, allowing modern viewers to experience the film closer to the director's original vision.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Husbands (film)
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