Husbands, by John Cassavetes (1970)

A common friend's sudden death brings three men, married with children, to reconsider their lives and ultimately leave together. But mindless enthusiasm for regained freedom will be short-lived.

Screenwriter John Cassavetes wrote the film's dialogue after doing improvisations with actors Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk. Reportedly, Cassavetes built the film's three main central characterizations around the real-life personalities of the film's three main actors one of whom included himself.

Director John Cassavetes had to cut the film's running time down about 90 minutes to 154 minutes due to contractual requirements with Columbia Pictures. Due to negative reviews and poor box-office, the studio then cut the film down a further 16 minutes to 138 minutes. The around 85 minutes of the original footage from the long cut have never been located.

Apparently, John Cassavetes spent nine months in the cutting room editing the film but is not billed as an editor on the picture.

This is the only film directed by John Cassavetes to feature both Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk, two of his most frequent collaborators.

This was the first film written and directed by John Cassavetes to be shot in color.

In the documentary, "A Constant Forge", Cassavetes said this was a very personal film for him; his older brother died at the age of 30, and he knew very well the effect losing a loved one.

First of three collaborations of actor Ben Gazzara and writer-director John Cassavetes, the others being Noite de Estréia (1977) and A Morte de um Bookmaker Chinês (1976) with Cassavetes not also acting in the latter. The pair also both appeared in two non-Cassavetes written and directed movies, Enquanto Viverem as Ilusões (1969) and "Capone"

This is one of few John Cassavetes-directed movies that does not feature his real-life wife, actress Gena Rowlands.

The production shoot for this film ran for around six months during the first half of the 1969 year.

Nick Cassavetes played uncredited a character, Nick, who had the same first name as his own. This was the first ever film that future actor-writer-director Nick Cassavetes and son of the film's writer-director and co-lead actor John Cassavetes, ever worked on. Like father like son, both in their careers are actor-writer-directors.

The film's subtitle was "a comedy about life, death and freedom", which if considered as part of the film's long or complete title, "Husbands - A Comedy About Life, Death & Freedom", as show-business trade paper 'Variety' reported with its review, makes the title at 8 words long the John Cassavetes film with the longest title of all, even longer than Uma Mulher Sob Influência (1974) (5 words) and A Morte de um Bookmaker Chinês (1976) (6 words).

A morte repentina de amigo em comum dos personagens de Cassavetes, Falk e Gazzara, leva os três, casados e com filhos, a reconsiderar suas vidas. Mas esse entusiasmo para uma nova liberdade vai ter vida curta.

Subs: English, Español, Português. Legendas em Português foram ressincronizadas via Point Sync com as legendas em Espanhol,  que pode, mesmo assim, ocasionar alguns problemas.

Copyrighted but allowed by the content owner to be published on YouTube.

LINK: https://youtu.be/sqQyEM3Q6mI