LIVE FREEBIE OR DIE HARD.....WE RENEW OUR OLD FRIENDSHIP WITH "FREEBIE AND THE BEAN"

FREEBIE AND THE BEAN (1974) we consider the penultimate film in a sub-genre that flourished in the 1970's (and later violently fine-tuned into films like the "Lethal  Weapon" series).....the rogue cop action/comedy.  These movies followed the explosive world wide success of "The French Connection" featuring Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle, a furious, driven cop who, in pursuit of his drug kingpin quarry, leaves a monumental trail of collateral damage, including a Federal agent he accidentally kills.
     
          So just imagine the possibilities of stuff like this played for laughs.....yowza.

           You don't have to imagine with "Freebie and the Bean", which features James Caan and Alan Arkin as its title characters, two bickering, hot-tempered, trigger happy San Francisco detectives. Their single minded quest to take down a racketeer coincides with the added hubbub of the Super Bowl in town....and the boys proceed to inflict more random damage on San Francisco and its innocent, hapless residents than the earthquake of 1906.

           The spectacularly violent chaos orchestrated by director Richard Rush("The Stunt Man") and his stunt coordinator Chuck Bail dares you to laugh at a rollicking symphony of death and destruction.....Freebie and Bean conduct numerous demolition derby car chases on busy streets, engage in blazing shootouts in hotel lobby atriums and other public places, and hurl themselves into  crunching hand to hand punchouts in crowded restaurants. (One of their crazier car chases plows into a marching band, scattering broken bodies like bowling pins......our heroes ignore the outraged bystanders pounding on their windshield - they're too busy comically arguing while their car's stuck in a ditch....) Halfway through the film, Rush and Bail unleash their big yock showstopper....Caan and Arkin sail their car over a freeway ramp and smash into the third floor apartment of an only mildly startled elderly couple. Later on, Rush tries to top this sequence by using no less than Evel Knievel as Caan's stunt double, riding a motorcycle across the tops of cars stuck in a traffic jam.

          All this jolly mayhem, which you're supposed to giggle at,  culminates, naturally, in a ladies room at the Super Bowl, where Caan finally meets his match in the film's last minute unlikely villain....an elegantly murderous transvestite.

         As in a lot of 70's films, there's no pre-calculation or high gloss to "Freebie". Despite the carefully orchestrated action sequences, the movie maintains a raggedy, slapped-together quality, as if everyone's making it up as they went along.....Caan and Arkin's chatter has the edgy, slipshod sound of improvisation....and playing their sputtering, astounded foils is a seasoned roster of well known character actors of the period...(Alex Rocco, Mike Kellin, Valerie Harper, Loretta Swit, Paul Koslo and much beloved Jack Kruschen as the targeted crime boss)

         Similar movies abounded in that era (including "Busting" with Elliot Gould and Robert Blake) but none of them displayed the haywire moral compass and epic disregard for life and property as "Freebie And The Bean".....a near perfect time capsule example of 1970's comedy action movies. For those qualities alone, we freely crash 4 stars **** into 'Freebie'.