Freebie and the Bean

Dir: Richard Rush

1974

*****

The precursor to the buddy/buddy cop movie. Without Freebie and the Bean there’d be no Tango & Cash, no Lethal Weapon, no Last Boy Scout, no Bad Boys, no 48 Hours, no Running Scared, no Rush Hour, no Midnight Run and no Red Heat. There probably wouldn’t be K9 or Turner & Hootch either and the film really opened up the possibilities as far as stunts are concerned, with films like The Blues Brothers and Smokey and the Bandit taking notes. It’s influence goes beyond that though and the impromptu conversations in Pulp Fiction, although highly scripted, always makes me think about Freebie and the Bean. It is a funny film that took films such as Bullit, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The French Connection (to some degree) and mixed them all together with a Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau comedy. It very funny but it is a tough humor, cop humor, and essentially a genre was born. Peter Hyam’s Busting also has to share credit, but neither film is thought of whenever a new buddy cop film is a hit. You can pretty much file Freebie and the Bean under ‘forgotten classic’, even though it did pretty well and even got its own (doomed) TV series. I think maybe the problem was that all involved didn’t realise what a great film they’d made. James Caan and Alan Arkin are both outstanding as fast-takin’, wise-crackin’ police detectives and the film only became an action comedy after the pair met for improvisational sessions leading up to filming, where they would explore a more comedic approach to their characters’ relationship. The film has comedy, action, comedy-action, some quite serious scenes and personal extras that gave the characters some life. The characters weren’t formed out of a hobby, interest, social problem or whatever, they were real guys who had unreal experiences that felt real because they were. Arkin later described the film as ‘absolute garbage’ and that he only did it for the money. He and Caan were said to be sore after seeing just how much of the film ended up being about the stunts and less about their performances. However, in retrospect it is genius, an original for 1974 and the formula has rarely been bettered, not for want of trying. There is also a really strong plot among the action and the comedy that I think is often forgotten. The end of the film gets really serious, sure there is a scene halfway through the film where Bean and Freebie essentially murder a guy, but the finale really gets you in the gut. Dare I say, there is also a Hitchcockian element to it, hidden in all the palooza. Caan, Arkin and director Rush are all geniuses as far as I’m concerned, I don’t think any of the film can be claimed as serendipitous or luck, Rush knew what he was doing and Caan and Arkin were on top of their games. However, I don’t think anyone could have ever guessed what they had essentially created, although mention the film these days and many film fans wouldn’t know either. It’s a lost classic, remembered by a dwindling few, even though it’s one of the greats of the early 1970s and one of the most influential films of all time.