La jauría humana

A town in the southern United States is presented as a kind of microcosm in which hypocrisy, class struggle, lust, the cult of power and money, jealousy, but also dignity, common to all societies, coexist. As the minutes go by, the townspeople become increasingly brutalized and debased, on a Saturday night that will end in tragedy. Robert Reford's character is a born loser, who has escaped from prison and returns to the only place he knows, his hometown, where his wife Jane Fonda lives, or his parents, rude people who have not given him the affection necessary to make him a worthwhile man. Marlon Brandon and his spouse Angie Dickinson, they are without a doubt the most humane couple in that 'wretched' town. The direction is sublime, with no concessions to any kind of unneeded 'joy'.

What starts as a simple prison break turns into an incredibly tense emotional thriller in The Chase. With an all-star cast and a perfectly eerie tone set by director Arthur Penn, you'll be kept on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

Robert Redford and his cellmate break out of prison, but when his cellmate kills a man and flees the scene, everyone thinks Robert Redford is the murderer! He tries to make his way back to town to see his wife, but when the town residents get wind of his plan, they all panic. E.G. Marshall, a very important figure, is worried about his son's safety, since he's having an affair with Redford's wife, Jane Fonda. Robert Duvall, whose wife is having an affair with Richard Bradford, is worried because he knows a secret about Redford's crime. Redford's parents, Miriam Hopkins and Malcom Atterbury, feel guilty about not hiring him a lawyer before. Ken Renard knows where he is, and knows he'll get harassed because of it. And finally, Marlon Brando, the sheriff, tries in vain to keep the peace.

Lillian Hellman's script, based on Horton Foote's play, is very well-written, with plenty of characters to root for and against. Marlon Brando's character is by far the most interesting and likable, and even though he isn't usually cast in peace-keeper roles, he's very convincing as he's pulled by all sides and still tries to maintain law and order. This is a pretty heavy movie, so be prepared. There's infidelity, violence, and racial harassment. But if you tend to like dramatic films from the 1960s, rather than the fluffy ones, you'll probably enjoy The Chase.

I was interested to watch 'The Chase' for three reasons. First Brando. Brando is regarded by most movie fans as one of the greatest actors of all time, but people usually only mention a handful of his films - 'A Street Car Named Desire', 'On The Waterfront', 'The Godfather', 'Last Tango In Paris' and 'Apocalypse Now'. Without a doubt they are all fine movies but what about his equally worthy performances in his lesser known films (e.g. 'One-Eyed Jacks', and 'Burn!')? Secondly, Arthur Penn. An extremely underrated director in my opinion, especially for his almost forgotten 'Mickey One' and 'Night Moves'. Thirdly, the first rate supporting cast which includes Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, E.G. Marshall, James Fox, Jane Fonda, Angie Dickinson and Clifton James. Apparently there were lots of behind the scenes problems with this movie, but despite a few flaws it's definitely worth watching. The sexual and racial themes were pretty daring for the mid-60s, and while I can see what some people are saying about its "soap" feel, it's quite compelling. Brando plays a small town farmer turned sheriff who is despised by many of his contemporaries because they think he is the puppet of the local millionaire Val Rogers (Marshall). Rogers' son Jake (Fox) is having an affair with a local woman (Fonda) who is married to a convict Bubba Reeves (Redford). Bubba escapes from prison and an innocent bystander is killed by his fellow escapee. Bubba initially plans on heading to Mexico, but he desperately returns to his home town for help, not realizing that he is being hunted as a murderer. News of his escape causes tensions to explode in the town, with catastrophic results for everyone. Brando is terrific throughout, and reason enough to watch this, but Fonda is surprisingly good, Robert Duvall is memorable as a cuckold, and character actor Clifton James ('Cool Hand Luke', 'Live And Let Die', 'The Last Detail') almost steals the movie as a hot headed drunken redneck. 'The Chase' may not be as great as it could have been, but I still think it deserves more attention than it gets. Brando fans shouldn't overlook this one!

I had never heard about The Chase. Rented it from the local library, since it starred Marlon Brando and Robert Redford. Just watched it this morning. It blew me away. Without a doubt it is the best movie I have seen in 2009, and one of the movies to remember.

It does have some problems with editing and music at the outset and feels oddly paced in the first half hour, but when it finds its tone and picks up the pace, it's a true roller coaster ride of emotions.

The characters are archetypes, and the story aims more for dramatic effect than realism.

Brando is fine as the honest Sheriff, and Dickinson puts in excellent performance as his supportive wife. Redford is the outlaw on the run as an escape convict, even though he seems to be one of the most decent people around. Jane Fonda is his wife, who has fallen in love with the town's prince, played by James Fox who is on his own parallel escape from his father's (E.G. Marshall) money and materialism. Robert Duvall also gives a nice little supporting performance.

The villain is mob behavior, corruption, and a society that looks for pure pleasure instead of some sense and meaning. Honest and decent people are on the run from society's destructive tendencies, and the only one to protect the innocence of society is a single Sheriff, who does everything in his power to protect the law that nobody respects but himself.

Perhaps I am giving The Chase such a high rating partly because I had never heard about it before, and was completely blown away. It contains a lot of complex characters, and feels in the opening more like a play than a movie, but if you give it a chance, you may be pleasantly surprised.

I think it should belong to the Western genre, even though it takes place in the 60's. It got guys in cowboy hats, an outlaw, a sheriff, a rich man that is taking over everything, some romance, bystanders that aren't very innocent, and a wild bunch that happens to hide within a very disturbed society.

Highly recommended.

Much sexual water has gone under the bridge since the 1960s, and more than a few installments of "The Playboy Philosophy." So now, at the millennium's turning, a tale in which the prejudices, cynicism and sexual infidelities of a small southern town's dissolute ruling class figure prominently seems dated, even quaint. Yet such is the terrifyingly plausible spiral into anarchy depicted in 1966's The Chase that Arthur Penn's controversial film remains a disturbing piece of cinema. A thinner (but still imposing) Marlon Brando plays Sherrif Calder, a lone, laconic voice of reason in a town rapidly going insane on a hot summer's night. E.G. Marshall is Val Rogers, bank president and town monarch, suitably surrounded by fawning lackeys such as Ed Stewart (Robert Duvall, uncharacteristically loathsome as a milquetoast cuckold aching for revenge). The spark for the climactic firestorm is the return of "Bubba" Reeves, who has escaped from prison after being sent away for joy-riding in a stolen airplane. Everyone assumes he is coming back to avenge himself on Rogers' son, who has been keeping company with Reeves' wife Anna (Jane Fonda). The film's weakest performance is, arguably, turned in by Robert Redford, who is much too pretty and soft-spoken to be convincing as the fugitive hellion, Bubba. Overall, however, The Chase features some memorable performances, including those of Brando, Duvall and Janice Rule as Duvall's slutty wife, Emily. In addition to the fearsome inevitability of its violence, The Chase is notable for the horrific realism of the beating inflicted on the sherrif by a couple of corporate good 'ol boys - almost certainly the most graphic beating Hollywood had ever dared to put on film, and possibly unrivalled to this day for its sheer ferocity. Critics may have made much of the film's flaws, but as a study of a dysfunctional society poised to explode, The Chase still stands up as a sobering and powerful movie experience.