The first thing to understand about Husbands is that it contains a large amount of improvisation, a practice connected to Cassavetes' belief that his role as a director was to stay out of the way of his actors. Collaboration was involved in making the film, setting various dialogue, and plotting out actions in front of the camera. It is clear from watching the included special feature, where Husbands is discussed by Gazzara and others, that Cassavetes approached each film as a unique experience. Not content to stick to pat story and supporting dialogue or camera work, Cassavetes' vision seems to be more about pulling emotion from his characters. Gazzara, Falk, and Cassavetes create their roles during Husbands, but also create the film itself in their improvisation. The rawness of emotion in this film is a product of people being allowed to express themselves, put into situations where they lose themselves and show us a true face.
The plot or story is something that today would make a good buddy flick or film about discovering true love in the aftermath of tragedy. Three friends take the death of their friend as a trigger for escape from normality and run off together for several nights of debauchery, drunkenness, and ultimately a trans-Atlantic flight toward their inevitable bottoming out. Along the way, we're shown very unseemly aspects of their lives that aren't explored as central plot items, but take us further away from the notion of what it means to be married, responsible, and the head of one's family. Husbands is largely a play on its own title, showing men as beasts of burden that act badly and betray everything that they work to attain. There's a horror-movie aesthetic at work in Husbands, watching people do stupid, stupid things and just wanting to grab them through the screen and say, "Don't do it, dummy!" You won't necessarily have fun watching this one, but fans of Cassavetes or independent cinema will find lots of meat on the bone before the final credits roll. Regardless of your interpretation, Cassavetes achieves with Husbands the major feat of remaining controversial all these years later. Just as post-grrl rockers Le Tigre devoted an entire song to asking "What's Yr Take on Cassavetes," viewers of Husbands will be debating the film's messages on masculinity, mortality, and fidelity for at least forty more years. Recommended.
