This film might serve as a primer on how to waste talent. The cast includes Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford and a passel of other big names, but most of them cannot rise above the melodrama and caricaturization that "The Chase" offers in spades.
Redford plays Bubber Reeves, a convict who escapes prison and is on his way back to his hometown. Jane Fonda plays the wife, Anna Reeves, who is content to dally with the son of the big man in town while Bubber is absent. Brando is Sheriff Calder, who tries to maintain law and order as the town goes berserk in an orgy of racism, lawlessness, greed, sex, and power struggle.
The actors who acquit themselves the best are Fonda, Angie Dickinson---who plays the wife of the sheriff---and James Fox, who is Fonda's boyfriend.
The story is over-the-top melodramatic. About fifteen actors chew the scenery as the tempo of the narrative ramps up to a laughable level. This is "Peyton Place" meets "The Day of the Locust", culminating in a deadly carnival in a junkyard. As the officer said, there is nothing to see here, but the film does offer a long list of known actors, some in very minor roles, and it can be fun to try to pick them out.
Redford plays Bubber Reeves, a convict who escapes prison and is on his way back to his hometown. Jane Fonda plays the wife, Anna Reeves, who is content to dally with the son of the big man in town while Bubber is absent. Brando is Sheriff Calder, who tries to maintain law and order as the town goes berserk in an orgy of racism, lawlessness, greed, sex, and power struggle.
The actors who acquit themselves the best are Fonda, Angie Dickinson---who plays the wife of the sheriff---and James Fox, who is Fonda's boyfriend.
The story is over-the-top melodramatic. About fifteen actors chew the scenery as the tempo of the narrative ramps up to a laughable level. This is "Peyton Place" meets "The Day of the Locust", culminating in a deadly carnival in a junkyard. As the officer said, there is nothing to see here, but the film does offer a long list of known actors, some in very minor roles, and it can be fun to try to pick them out.