BEFORE: Marlon Brando carries over for his third film in a row, and the end of the Brando chain is also the start of a week-long chain featuring another prominent actor - the "Sundance Kid" himself.
THE PLOT: The escape of Bubber Reeves from prison affects the inhabitants of a small Southern town.
AFTER: Putting films in succession, more or less at random, sometimes creates some interesting contrast - but by comparing and contrasting, occasionally I gain some insight to the human condition, or perhaps the zeitgeist of the culture that created a particular film. Such is the case when I compare "The Wild One" with "The Chase". Both films have Marlon Brando as a central character, but in 1953's "The Wild One", he's a rebellious youth (OK, sort of, he was 39) and in 1965's "The Chase", he's a town sheriff. He went from bucking authority to BEING the authority.
It's also notable that in "The Wild One", a small California town is beset by rampaging bikers - but in 1965's "The Chase", a small town goes crazy after a man escapes from prison, and (presumably) heads back to the town he came from - vigilante justice, combined with a bunch of teenage townies with nothing better to do, leads to the same result, chaos in the town. But in the first case, the chaos comes from an outside force, an uncontrollable gang - while in "The Chase", the danger comes from the townspeople themselves - we have met the enemy, and they are us.
So, what changed between 1953 and 1965? Why are townspeople portrayed as innocent in the earlier film, and corrupt and bloodthirsty in the later film? Could be random, sure, but I'm going to point my finger squarely at events such as the Kennedy assassination, which also gets sort of visually checked at the end of this film in a way that I won't reveal. But Brando's Sheriff Calder, after realizing his place as a puppet of the town oil-man/banker, Val Rogers, suddenly realizes that he doesn't want to be part of the problem any more, and actually cares about whether escaped convict Bubber Reeves can be caught alive and returned to prison safely. This displays a distinct lack of faith in government institutions like courts and jails, an overall dissatisfaction or cynicism with the way the system works, or perhaps fails to.
I'm sort of simplifying the situation here, because it seems pretty complex, and there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered, like what was Bubber Reeve's original crime? And was he guilty of that crime, or not? And if he only had 1 year to go on his sentence, why did he escape prison? And why is the film called "The Chase" if nobody ever chases anyone? They just sort of stay in one place and wait for Bubber to show up - if he'd headed for Mexico, he might have made it.
There's also a lot going on in this small town, in that everyone seems to be sleeping with someone other than their wife or husband, or else they're sleeping with someone else's wife or husband. So again, this symbolizes an overall dissatisfaction with the institution of marriage, which as we all know is the foundation of small-town life. And if no one's really happy, why can't they take steps to make themselves happy? Maybe that's what all the affairs do, in the end...
But in addition to being a town full of secrets and unanswered questions, it's also something of a powder-keg. Once the public finds out that Bubber Reeves has escaped prison and might be heading home, they use this as a chance to gather in the town square, drink and socialize. And when word gets out that he might be hiding in the junkyard, everyone drives over there to shout his name, sing protest songs and toss flares at a bunch of oil and gasoline-soaked junk piles. Yeah, there's no way that can go south at all...
The most touching moment comes when Bubber is briefly reunited with his wife, and without any words exchanged at all, he figures out from the situation that she has emotionally moved on while he's been in jail. If you pause the film at just the right second, I bet you can witness the moment when a man's heart breaks. Bubber's a real trouper, though, and in the course of a minute he does several emotional reversals, to the point where he says he's OK with the new situation, when clearly he's anything but. Love triangles have been a dime a dozen around here in the past few months, but no others have carried this much emotional heft.
Also starring Robert Redford (last seen in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"), Jane Fonda (last seen in "California Suite"), E.G. Marshall (last seen in "Interiors"), Robert Duvall (last seen in "Something to Talk About"), Angie Dickinson (last seen in "Sabrina"), James Fox (last seen in "The Remains of the Day"), Clifton James (last seen in "The Man With the Golden Gun"), Janice Rule, with a cameo from Paul Williams (last seen in "Smokey and the Bandit II")
RATING: 5 out of 10 junked cars
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