Do you want to see ‘Husbands’?

Husbands (1970)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 19
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 7

No consensus yet.

No Score Yet...

Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 3

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 1,943

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

John Cassavetes wrote and directed this look at three middle-aged men thrown into a midlife crisis when one of their mutual friends dies. Harry (Ben Gazzara), Archie (Peter Falk) and Gus (John Cassavetes) attend the funeral of their buddy David Rowlands (Stuart Jackson); all three are starting to feel the pressures of their advancing years, while Harry is having serious problems with his marriage. After the funeral, the three men decide that they need to get away from it all for a while, and

PG-13, 2 hr. 30 min.

Drama, Classics, Comedy

Directed By: John Cassavetes

Written By: John Cassavetes

In Theaters: Dec 8, 1970 Limited

On DVD: Aug 18, 2009

Columbia Pictures

Cast

Ben Gazzara
Harry
Peter Falk
Archie
John Cassavetes
Gus
Jenny Runacre
Mary Tynan
Jenny Wright
Pearl Billingham
Noelle Kao
Julie
John Kullers
Red
Delores Delmar
The Countess
Peggy Lashbrook
Diana Mallabee
Eleanor Zee
Mrs. Hines
Claire Malis Callaway
Stuart's wife
Lorraine McMartin
Annie's mother
Edgar Franken
Ed Weintraub
Sarah Felcher
Sarah
Antoinette Kray
"Jesus Loves Me"
Gwen Van Dam
"Jeannie"
John Armstrong
"Happy Birthday"
Eleanor Gould
"Normandy"
Joseph Boley
Minister
Judith Lowry
Stuart's grandmother
Joseph Hardy
"Shanghai Lil"
K.C. Townsend
Barmaid
Annie O'Donnell
Nurse
Gena Wheeler
Nurses
Alexandra Cassavetes
Xan
Nick Cassavetes
Nick
Frederick Draper
Leola Harlow
Leola
David Rowlands
Stuart Jackson
Reta Shaw
Annie
Charles Gaines
Jenny Lee Wright
Meta Shaw Stevens

Critic Reviews for Husbands

All Critics (22) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (8) | DVD (3)

It is almost unbearably long. It is a narrative film without any real narrative, and although it is a movie about three characters, those characters are seen almost exclusively in terms of their limiting relationship.

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Vincent Canby

New York Times

Top Critic

John Cassavetes' Husbands is disappointing in the way Antonioni's Zabriskie Point was. It shows an important director not merely failing, but not even understanding why.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

This 1970 film is John Cassavetes's most irritating, full of the male braggadocio and bluster that mar even some of his best work. But it's impossible to dismiss or shake off entirely.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

... a personal, provocative and uncompromising vision and a daring journey into the psyche of American men.

January 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Turner Classic Movies Online

| Comment

Sean Axmaker

Turner Classic Movies Online

Husbands is devoid of story but filled with a present-tense vitality and emotional honesty

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com

| Comment

Paul Brenner

Filmcritic.com

Cassavetes' most dangerous and unfiltered expression of masculine anxiety -- a raw, deliberately off-putting masterpiece.

August 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly

| Comment

Sean Burns

Philadelphia Weekly

as a time capsule rendition of men being boys, it certainly has an inherent intrigue, but it is not one of Cassavetes' strongest films

August 25, 2009 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk

| Comment

James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

This is a Cassavetes kind of mid-life crisis: they indulge their worst, most selfish instincts as they attempt to outrun their fears of mortality and frustrations of compromised lives.

August 17, 2009 Full Review Source: Seanax.com

| Comment

Sean Axmaker

Seanax.com

The history of American male aggression and insecurity comes filtered through Cassavetes, Falk and Gazzara's bravado. Better than authentic, they're fascinating.

August 5, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Press

| Comment

Armond White

New York Press

Most of Cassavetes's cinema verite films as a director are invariably accused (and with some justification) of being rambling, self-indulgent, and unfocused, but it is precisely those elements that make his best work so affecting and memorable.

August 30, 2006 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

Michael Scheinfeld

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Intense, moving Cassavetes classic.

July 6, 2006 Comment

Steve Crum

Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers

An overlong improv piece that when it's not tedious or startling settles on showing the emptiness of suburban life for three married New York commuters.

November 26, 2005 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Largely dismissed in 1970, Husbands is not one of the helmer's best films, but a flawed Cassavetes is still worth watching and this mid-career work offers a poignant, utterly frank and harsh look at men's innermost anxieties and insecurities.

July 1, 2005 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Husbands

View All

I am a huge Cassavettes fan and am the first one to say that this film is not for everyone. There are sections of this film (like most of his films) that people will find boring and way over the top, but it's something I find enduring and really enjoy watching. This is one of the first times where I have actually

October 20, 2009