NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (April 2020): Criterion have transferred John Cassavetes' Husbands to 1080P Blu-ray. It is advertised as a "New 4K digital restoration". It is a large advancement over the 2009 DVD with more realistic colors (especially skin tones) and much tighter in the film's intense close-ups (over 5X the bitrate of the SD transfer.) It shows consistent textures and the HD video, housed on a dual-layered disc with a high bitrate (for the almost 2.5 hour film), is excellent - very impressive in-motion.

NOTE: We have added 46 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. There is no 'score' but there is some singing in the bar scenes; Show Me the Way to Go Home sung a cappella by Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair etc.. It all sounds clean with occasional intentionally scattered (vérité) dialogue in spots. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' / 'B' Blu-ray.

The Criterion Blu-ray offer the same commentary from Marshall Fine author of Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented the Independent Film. It's incredibly informative and professional - I was very impressed with the extent of detail he was able to offer about Cassavetes and the production. He seemed to know many details about the cast as well as the story. He rarely takes a breath in the 2.5 hours and I found it well worth listening to. Criterion also include, from the last DVD, The Story of Husbands: A Tribute to John Cassavetes which runs 1/2 hour with input from Producer Al Ruban, Gazzara and DoP Victor Kemper with lots of anecdotes on production and on Cassavetes the man. Extras also include the same long theatrical trailer.

There are additional (2020 produced) supplements - a new 25-minute interview with producer Al Ruban who recalls his experience working on Husbands and the creative charisma of John Cassavetes. For Husbands' London sequence, director-actor John Cassavetes cast three women for a series of intimate scenes. In this new 18-minute interview, produced by Criterion in 2020, actress Jenny Runacre speaks candidly about her experience working opposite Cassavetes. I enjoyed the new 13-minute video essay by filmmaker Daniel Raim featuring audio recordings of actor-director John Cassavetes discussing his approach to working with actors, and lastly, is a 1/2 hour episode of The Dick Cavett Show from 1970 featuring Cassavetes, Gazzara, and actor Peter Falk to promote the release of Husbands. They remains off-the-cuff and playful in the interview. The package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by filmmaker Andrew Bujalski.

Shot with a lot of his own money, script written by himself, and filmed, often, at his own house - Cassavetes purely defines the 'independent film' with Husbands. He constantly re-edited for over a year. The Criterion Blu-ray is a must-own for fans of the director - the father of US Indie cinema. Husbands a subtly impacting experience - one that stays with you long after it's over... Our highest recommendation! 

Gary Tooze

***

ON THE DVD (2009): It is advertised by Sony as being the original full-length version and it runs almost 2.5 hours.

The image quality belies the vérité roots - it's not especially sharp - the camera is quite kinetic but the dual-layered DVD produces a consistent image that may have had a tinge of black level boosting. Essentially it looks acceptable and probably close to its original appearance. A higher resolution would surely have brought out more of the film's grain. 

Audio is a clear 2.0 channel supporting the dialogue in the film's realistic fashion - meaning it can intentionally sound a bit scattered. There are optional English subtitles.

It's great that Sony have put some effort into releasing this on DVD (the first time this is on DVD in NTSC). Cassavetes fans will definitely want to see this and judge for themselves how it fits into his oeuvre - it's a fairly subtle expression and the commentary is quite rewarding - well worth the price offered.    

Gary W. Tooze