the chase (1966)            

 

After watching The Chase, I was struck by two thoughts: 1) why was this film not watched more than it is and 2) David Lynch and Sylvester Stallone have both probably watched this movie and liked it.   Released in 1966 The Chase stars Marlon Brando , Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Robert Duvall, Angie Dickinson and E.G.Marshall .   The film also stars Bruce Cabot (King Kong 1933) and a young Paul Williams (Phantom of the Paradise ).   The Chase was directed by Arthur Penn about a year before he hit it big with Bonnie and Clyde ; the film was written by Horton Foote.   Foote also wrote a novel version and a play version of the chase.

            The film is more of a character study than it is plot driven:   Redford plays Bubba Reeves, a local hood (who seems to be fairly well liked), has escaped from the pen and is heading back to his Texas hometown.   It's sort of a peyton place meets a jailbreak movie where everyone back in town is   either excited about the celebrity convict on the run (think of the oj crowd on the expressway cheering oj on or the cult status that built up around charles starkweather during his murder spree) or they are fearful of Bubba's return.   E.G. Marshall is the town oil baron and banker; Penn sets it up early with visuals that display a “oilman” sign in the background in numerous shots.   The semiotician knows quickly that Marshall is the big man in town around whom everything revolves.   You ask Mr. Marshall's permission before you take a crap it appears early on.   He seems like a benevolent master who buys his migrant workers televisions for them to watch during their time off.   There is a birthday party in Mr. Marshall's honor the audience learns early on; the audience also learns that not everyone is invited to Mr. Marshall's party.

            Thematically speaking, the film deals with paranoia, social stratas , booze, race relations and infidelity.   Duvall does a great job playing the impotent banker who fears Bubba's return.   Fonda play Bubba Reeves' small town hot as a firecracker on the fourth of july type wife who has at the very least fallen in like with E.G. Marshall's son after bubba went away for a long time.   Marshall 's character is clueless as to the affair and he is probably the only person in town who does not know about his son's secret love.   Brando plays the honest sheriff just trying to get along and make enough money to buy back his family's farm.   Redford play bubba reeves; one of those decent enough criminals who nonetheless is chased a lot of townspeople, no matter that he's got some friends trying to help him.   The film does a very good job with some Vietnam War images/ analogies toward the end of the film when what is thematically the whole town is gathered around the junkyard closing in on Bubba and his friends. The jazz score and the drunken townspeople driving hot rod cars and Paul Williams on guitar singing, “we're coming to get you bubba reeves” are alone worth the dvd purchase.   To an extent that is less successful, The Chase makes a jack ruby analogy.