The Chase is a 1966 American drama film directed by Arthur Penn

Arthur Penn

Arthur Hiller Penn was an American film director and producer with a career as a theater director as well. Penn amassed a critically acclaimed body of work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...

, about a series of events set into motion by a prison break. Since one of the two escapees is Charlie "Bubber" Reeves (played by a then-unknown Robert Redford

Robert Redford

Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

), the escape causes a stir in a nearby town where Bubber is a well-known figure.

The film deals with themes of racism

Racism

Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 (including scenes in which black men are harassed by white men), sexual revolution

Sexual revolution

The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...

 (many of the characters are openly engaged in affairs), small-town corruption (the sheriff is falsely assumed to be in the pocket of the man who helped appoint him), and vigilantism (in the form of townspeople who openly defy the sheriff in their search for Bubber). The movie is perhaps best known for a scene in which the sheriff played by Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

 is brutally beaten by three of the vigilantes; Brando would later cite this scene as an example of Method acting

Method acting

Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances...

.

The film boasts an all star cast headlined by Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando

Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

. Other notable cast members are Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

, Robert Redford

Robert Redford

Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

, Angie Dickinson

Angie Dickinson

Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...

, Miriam Hopkins

Miriam Hopkins

Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...

 and Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall

Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....

.

Paul Williams

Paul Williams (songwriter)

Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...

 thought this movie would be his big break, but after working on the film for 3 months, he had just a small part.

Featured cast

Actor	Role
Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...	Sheriff Calder
Jane Fonda Jane Fonda Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...	Anna Reeves
Robert Redford Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...	Charlie 'Bubber' Reeves
E. G. Marshall E. G. Marshall E. G. Marshall was an American actor, best known for his television roles as the lawyer Lawrence Preston on The Defenders in the 1960s, and as neurosurgeon David Craig on The Bold Ones: The New Doctors in the 1970s...	Val Rogers
Angie Dickinson Angie Dickinson Angie Dickinson is an American actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films, including Rio Bravo, Ocean's Eleven, Dressed to Kill and Pay It Forward, and starred on television as Sergeant Suzanne "Pepper" Anderson on the 1970s crime series Police Woman.-Early life:Dickinson, the second of...	Ruby Calder
Janice Rule Janice Rule -Early life and career:Born in Norwood, Ohio, her career included stage, screen and television work. Rule studied ballet and began dancing in Chicago nightclubs in her teens. She soon attracted attention in Hollywood and made her film debut in 1951...	Emily Stewart
Miriam Hopkins Miriam Hopkins Ellen Miriam Hopkins was an American actress known for her versatility in a wide variety of roles.Hopkins was born in Savannah, Georgia, and raised in Bainbridge, a town in the state's southwest near the Alabama border...	Mrs. Reeves
Martha Hyer Martha Hyer Martha Hyer is an American actress.She attended Northwestern University and was a member of Pi Beta Phi fraternity. After completing her education, she next appeared in The Locket in 1946...	Mary Fuller
Richard Bradford Richard Bradford (actor) Richard Bradford is an American actor, known for his lead role as former CIA agent turned private eye McGill in the British TV adventure series Man in a Suitcase, made by ITC in 1967....	Damon Fuller
Robert Duvall Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....	Edwin Stewart
James Fox James Fox James Fox, OBE is an English actor.-Early life:James Fox was born in London, England to theatrical agent Robin Fox and actress Angela Worthington. He is the brother of actor Edward Fox and film producer Robert Fox. The actress Emilia Fox is his niece and the actor Laurence Fox is his son. His...	Jason 'Jake' Rogers
Diana Hyland Diana Hyland Diana Hyland was an American actress best known for her television appearances and occasional films.-Career:Hyland made her acting debut in 1955 in an episode of Robert Montgomery Presents...	Elizabeth Rogers
Henry Hull Henry Hull Henry Watterson Hull was an American character actor with a unique voice, most noted for playing the lead in Universal Pictures's Werewolf of London .-Life and career:Hull was born in Louisville, Kentucky...	Briggs
Jocelyn Brando Jocelyn Brando Jocelyn Brando was an American film, stage and television actress.Her film debut came in the war movie China Venture with Edmond O'Brien and Barry Sullivan. Her best-known movie role was as detective Glenn Ford's doomed wife in the gangster film noir The Big Heat...	Mrs. Briggs
Katherine Walsh	Verna Dee
Lori Martin Lori Martin Lori Martin was an American actress, born as Dawn Catherine Menzer.-Early career:...	Cutie
Marc Seaton	Paul (as Marc Skaton)
Paul Williams Paul Williams (songwriter) Paul Hamilton Williams, Jr. is an Academy Award-winning American composer, musician, songwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for popular songs performed by a number of acts in the 1970s including Three Dog Night's "An Old Fashioned Love Song", Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World",...	Seymour
Clifton James Clifton James George Clifton James is an American actor. He is probably best known for his role as the bumbling Sheriff J.W. Pepper alongside Roger Moore in the James Bond films Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun and his role alongside Sean Connery in The Untouchables .-Personal life:James was...	Lem
Malcolm Atterbury Malcolm Atterbury Malcolm Atterbury was a stage and vaudeville actor who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is probably most well known as Bixby in Wagon Train and Lee Reinhard in Dragnet...	Mr. Reeves

Critical reception

Upon release, the film garnered generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 reports that 80% critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.5/10.

Box office

The Chase opened to poor box office. Although there was an all star cast, it did not attract the success and audience it needed.

External links

• DVD Savant comprehensive DVD review by Glenn Erickson
  Glenn Erickson
  Glenn Erickson is an American film editor and film critic. He started in the film industry in 1975 as an editor of low budget films and later worked in minor technical crew capacities in such major films as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941...
  
  
• Movie Poop Shoot - DVD DiaTribe Read the second review on this page by D. K. Holm