Blu-ray, DVD Release: Husbands

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 9, 2020
Price: DVD $22.99, Blu-ray $27.99
Studio: Criterion

The trailblazing independent auteur John Cassavetes (Shadows,  A Woman Under the Influence) pushes his raw, uncompromising emotional realism to its limit in 1970’s Husbands, an unflinching portrait of masculinity in crisis.

Cassavetes joins Ben Gazzara (Saint Jack) and Peter Falk (The In-Laws)—both of whom would become key collaborators of the director’s—playing a trio of middle-aged Long Island family men who, following the sudden death of their best friend, channel their grief into an epic, multiday bender that takes them from Manhattan to London in a desperate, debauched quest to feel alive.

By turns painfully funny and woundingly perceptive, this self-described “comedy about life, death, and freedom” stands as perhaps the most fearless, harrowingly honest deconstruction of American manhood ever committed to film.

Here’s what’s in the new Criterion editions:

* New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
* Audio commentary from 2009 featuring critic Marshall Fine
* New interviews with producer Al Ruban and actor Jenny Runacre
* New video essay featuring audio recordings of John Cassavetes in his own words exploring the actor-director’s spirited approach to acting
* The Story of “Husbands”-A Tribute to John Cassavetes (2009), a half-hour program featuring Ruban, actor Ben Gazzara, and cinematographer Victor J. Kemper
* Episode of The Dick Cavett Show from 1970 featuring Cassavetes, Gazzara, and actor Peter Falk
* Trailer
* An essay by filmmaker Andrew Bujalski