THE CHASE invites into a small Texas town filled with prejudice, violence, and frustrated love. The A-list cast includes Marlon Brando, E.G. Marshall, Robert Duvall, James Fox, Jane Fonda, Janice Rule, and Robert Redford. Local bad-but-not-really-bad-boy Bubber Reeves (Redford) escapes from prison, and the news he’s headed home throws the townsfolk into mob mode. The straight-arrow sheriff (Brando) sets out to round up Bubber before things get out of hand. Meanwhile, an oversexed housewife (Rule) cheats in public on her cowardly husband (Duvall); Bubber’s overwrought mother runs around town in hysterics; an over-protective father (Marshall) schemes to bust up the affair between his son (Fox) and Bubber's wife (Fonda); middle-aged men lust after teen girls and racists run rampant; and the sheriff has a fight off not only the town baddies, but Janice Rule as well - and director Arthur Penn skillfully weaves these and other subplots together, setting up a finale both tragic and inevitable. A social critique of the late 1960s, THE CHASE touches on gun control, abuse of power, sexual promiscuity, jealousy, greed, justice, and mob mentality. Plus, there’s the bloody "crucifixion-by-beating" scene that had been S.O.P. in Brando films ever since ON THE WATERFRONT. This is considered one of Marlon's last great performances (the others being, LAST TANGO IN PARIS and THE GODFATHER) and makes THE CHASE worth catching.
THE CHASE (1966)
Worth catching
THE CHASE invites into a small Texas town filled with prejudice, violence, and frustrated love. The A-list cast includes Marlon Brando, E.G. Marshall, Robert Duvall, James Fox, Jane Fonda, Janice Rule, and Robert Redford. Local bad-but-not-really-bad-boy Bubber Reeves (Redford) escapes from prison, and the news he’s headed home throws the townsfolk into mob mode. The straight-arrow sheriff (Brando) sets out to round up Bubber before things get out of hand. Meanwhile, an oversexed housewife (Rule) cheats in public on her cowardly husband (Duvall); Bubber’s overwrought mother runs around town in hysterics; an over-protective father (Marshall) schemes to bust up the affair between his son (Fox) and Bubber's wife (Fonda); middle-aged men lust after teen girls and racists run rampant; and the sheriff has a fight off not only the town baddies, but Janice Rule as well - and director Arthur Penn skillfully weaves these and other subplots together, setting up a finale both tragic and inevitable. A social critique of the late 1960s, THE CHASE touches on gun control, abuse of power, sexual promiscuity, jealousy, greed, justice, and mob mentality. Plus, there’s the bloody "crucifixion-by-beating" scene that had been S.O.P. in Brando films ever since ON THE WATERFRONT. This is considered one of Marlon's last great performances (the others being, LAST TANGO IN PARIS and THE GODFATHER) and makes THE CHASE worth catching.
