Freebie And The Bean

Freebie and the Bean (1974)

Runtime: 113 minutes

Directed by: Richard Rush

Starring: James Caan, Alan Arkin, and a bunch of 70's character actors

From: Warner Bros.

A movie with dated elements, but still the way that I'll tip my cap to the late Richard Rush.

I've been meaning to visit or revisit something from the director once I heard last month that he had passed away. I only saw Freebie and the Bean once before today, and that was many moons ago. By 2021 standards, the movie has plenty of material that will offend more sensitive types (after all, even the title is problematic, considering that Alan Arkin is playing a Mexican character...). Despite that and how loud the movie is-which more often than not would be tiring to me-I still enjoy the bats--- insanity of this motion picture.

The threadbare plot has James Caan and Arkin has undercover cops in San Francisco who have a love/hate relationship where it seems as if the latter usually wins out. They have to guard a mob boss during Super Bowl weekend; the big game is in the area. From that germ of an idea came a LOT of chaos in San Fran; the duo were like agents of chaos in that they made everyone else act loud, crazy, and cause plenty of wanton destruction all across the area. There are many car crashes, brawls, s--- getting destroyed, etc. A sequence in the middle lasts about 10 minutes long and is astounding in the amount of monetary damage that must have happened from just a would-be assassin attempting to elude capture. Some definitely won't like the amount of innocent bystanders that are collateral damage, or the number of offensive slurs that both title characters use. Heck, plenty won't like Bean's behavior as he believes his wife is cheating on him and eventually confronts her.

Despite myself, the movie is still rather entertaining due to all the chaos, all the dialogue that is funny without being too gross, and the absurd situations our “hero” duo find themselves in. Big assets include the cast (and not just Caan & Arkin. This also has plenty of familiar 70's character actors), the jaunty score, how well the action is staged and yes, the gigantic cojones it took to make such an outrageous movie. While not a movie I'll revisit often (it'd be too exhausting for me) it was a good idea to finally be able to sing its praises on Letterboxd. After all, of all the classics that came out in '74, allegedly KUBRICK said this was his favorite from the year.