Projected by the Northwest Chicago Film Society
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Admission: $5
THE CHASE
Directed by Arthur Penn • 1966
A bold and somewhat irresponsible diagnosis of a good half-dozen uniquely American illnesses, The Chase is an epic serving of Southern Gothic updated for an age of civil rights and Cinemascope. It’s Saturday night in Tarl, Texas and the usual barbecues and wife swaps take a back seat to the collective anxieties unleashed by the prison break of “Bubbers” Reeves (Robert Redford), the local bad boy who may harbor a sound grudge against a prominent town father. Only Marlon Brando’s professional martyr Sheriff Calder stands between the townsfolk and a junkyard cataclysm. As a follow-up to producer Sam Spiegel’s Lawrence of Arabia, The Chase manages a crazy but equally prestigious pedigree: Lillian Hellman adapts Horton Foote’s play, hot shot director Arthur Penn works with his largest and messiest canvas yet, and the unstable all-star constellation mixes rising talent (Jane Fonda, Robert Duvall, Angie Dickinson) and declining veterans (Miriam Hopkins, Bruce Cabot, Grady Sutton). Uncomfortably in tune with a violent and complex contemporary landscape, The Chase was a much-mocked flop (Judith Crist called it “a mishmash of Peyton Place sociology, Western mythology, and Deep South psychology”) gone from theaters by the time that Summer 1966 brought fresh news of riots in Chicago and Cleveland. (KW)
135 min. • Columbia Pictures • 35mm Vault Print from Sony Pictures Repertory
Cartoon: Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner in “Fast and Furry-ous” (Chuck Jones, 1949) – 35mm Technicolor – 7 min
