You have to be of a certain mindset to enjoy this film, much like other New Wave directors of the late 60's and early 70's. John Cassavetes was certainly ahead of his time in many ways, but his films are not for everybody. A talented trio of actors, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara and Cassavetes, seem to be making up the dialogue as it goes along, dealing with three men facing life without a friend who has just passed away on the day of the funeral. They deal with their grief without dealing with it and thus spend a drunken day traveling through New York City, creating lots of chaos in and out of bars, and while some scenes are amusing, others are repulsive and require a finger on the fast-forward button or your legs to start moving if you are in a revival house.

There will be several camps for and against this, and certainly as someone who appreciates a unique view of life, I got more than my money's worth here. In fact, I wanted to give the money back because after an intense scene in a bar with a sing-along, I couldn't deal with the obvious outcome of one of the man getting drunk and losing his cookies in the bathroom. It's bad enough that they have to humiliate a woman trying to get her moment of singing into the spotlight, but they get into her face and it's amazing that she didn't slug any of them or burst into tears and run out. From there, their behavior just gets worse, and I found myself fidgeting and continuously looking at the remainder of time that the film had left.

The story is about the incidents surrounding an event, not really a plot line, and that in itself is fine. But who wants to spend more than two hours watching a bunch of grown men not only making fools of themselves but breaking down on city streets? They don't fall apart out in the open, but you can see through their actions that that's where their feet are taking them towards. I don't criticize the film for wanting to show a break down through a male point of view, as that is brave, but the way it is done is not something that needs to be seen by an audience. After a while, it becomes tedious, and that leads into it eventually just becoming totally obnoxious.

Harry (Ben Gazzara),Archie Black (Peter Falk),and Gus Demetri (John Cassavetes) are best friends leaving the funeral of their dead friend. The men are husbands and fathers of families. They go on a drinking binge and rebel against their settled lives.

These three terrific actors are doing their best drunk acting. They are also doing angry acting, masochistic acting, and chauvinistic acting. The interesting part is that they are able to maintain their charismatic appeal. I don't hate them even as I don't approve of them or their self-pitying descend. John Cassavetes' filmmaking is simply allowing these guys and himself to go off. There is a great pathos and beauty with these characters despite their self-destructiveness and abusiveness.

A common friend's sudden death brings three men, married with children, to reconsider their lives and ultimately leave together. But mindless enthusiasm for regained freedom will be short-lived.

This film brings together John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk as actors on one screen. No other film has this trio, and here we have it in spades. That alone makes the film worth watching, because the way these guys interact is quite fun to watch.

Critic Jay Cocks wrote, "Husbands may be one of the best movies anyone will ever see. It is certainly the best movie anyone will ever live through." He described it as an important and great film, and as Cassavetes' finest work. Roger Ebert, on the other hand, disliked the film greatly (despite being a Cassavetes fan in general) and Pauline Kael described the movie as "infantile and offensive."