The Chase (1966)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 135m
Director: Arthur Penn
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Angie Dickinson, James Fox, E. G. Marshall, Martha Hyer, Janice Rule
Synopsis:
Bubber Reeves breaks out of the state farm and unwittingly heads in the direction of his home town, where he is awaited by the sheriff, distraught parents, his wife and her lover, and swingers out to see blood spilt.
Review:
The carefully nurtured hothouse atmosphere, and melodramatic contrivances, of this neglected film have in the past been focused on at the expense of its undeniable power, both in conveying a sense of unease and in producing in the viewer the very same righteous anger that it censures in its boozed-up, well-heeled troublemakers (though directed at them instead). It stands as a comment on the newfound affluence and boredom of that era, but the themes of racism and oppressive religion, as well as civic corruption, make it a damning portrait of American society from top to bottom, and one that has proved chillingly prophetic: anyone contesting whether so much animosity might reasonably be directed at smalltime larcenist Bubber Reeves need look no further than the fury of January 2020. (The experience was not a happy one for Penn, who saw some studio interference with his edit.)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 135m
Director: Arthur Penn
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Angie Dickinson, James Fox, E. G. Marshall, Martha Hyer, Janice Rule
Synopsis:
Bubber Reeves breaks out of the state farm and unwittingly heads in the direction of his home town, where he is awaited by the sheriff, distraught parents, his wife and her lover, and swingers out to see blood spilt.
Review:
The carefully nurtured hothouse atmosphere, and melodramatic contrivances, of this neglected film have in the past been focused on at the expense of its undeniable power, both in conveying a sense of unease and in producing in the viewer the very same righteous anger that it censures in its boozed-up, well-heeled troublemakers (though directed at them instead). It stands as a comment on the newfound affluence and boredom of that era, but the themes of racism and oppressive religion, as well as civic corruption, make it a damning portrait of American society from top to bottom, and one that has proved chillingly prophetic: anyone contesting whether so much animosity might reasonably be directed at smalltime larcenist Bubber Reeves need look no further than the fury of January 2020. (The experience was not a happy one for Penn, who saw some studio interference with his edit.)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 135m
Director: Arthur Penn
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Angie Dickinson, James Fox, E. G. Marshall, Martha Hyer, Janice Rule
Synopsis:
Bubber Reeves breaks out of the state farm and unwittingly heads in the direction of his home town, where he is awaited by the sheriff, distraught parents, his wife and her lover, and swingers out to see blood spilt.
Review:
The carefully nurtured hothouse atmosphere, and melodramatic contrivances, of this neglected film have in the past been focused on at the expense of its undeniable power, both in conveying a sense of unease and in producing in the viewer the very same righteous anger that it censures in its boozed-up, well-heeled troublemakers (though directed at them instead). It stands as a comment on the newfound affluence and boredom of that era, but the themes of racism and oppressive religion, as well as civic corruption, make it a damning portrait of American society from top to bottom, and one that has proved chillingly prophetic: anyone contesting whether so much animosity might reasonably be directed at smalltime larcenist Bubber Reeves need look no further than the fury of January 2020. (The experience was not a happy one for Penn, who saw some studio interference with his edit.)