Freebie and the Bean (1974)

(On Cable TV, November 2022) I’m jaded enough about Hollywood history, seen enough of the classics, and read enough film histories that it’s rare for a film to surprise me as much as Freebie and the Bean. I was not expecting such a gleefully nihilistic slam-bang action movie featuring two amoral cops, nor its demented approach to car chases throughout San Francisco, or its utter lack of adherence to the now-familiar expectations of what a buddy-cop action movie should be. In retrospect, I should not have been that surprised: The early 1970s New Hollywood era was a time when anything and everything could go, and there was so much of that craziness going on that we may be forgiven for forgetting a few. Then there’s the fact that Freebie and the Bean is, to put it bluntly, not a classic. It wasn’t meant to be a film for the ages; it relied on a heavily reworked script, it focused on mid-budget populist entertainment and those are not necessarily the movies that linger in popular culture. But those mid-level movies are often fascinating to rediscover—they offer good production values and a sometimes far more evocative sense of their era than the timeless classics. Still, watching Freebie and the Bean when not expecting much more than a standard-issue cop thriller/comedy is eye-opening: Seemingly parodying the conventions of buddy-cop movies a decade before the genre was formalized, it features no less than James Caan and an explosive Alan Arkin as two corrupt policemen trying to arrest a racketeer despite outstanding threats on the criminal’s life. But plot is really not the reason why Freebie and the Bean is a refreshing watch—the three different car chases throughout San Francisco streets are. They’re notably mean-spirited, especially in a sequence when a criminal plows through a crowd and the policemen keep going after him without thinking too much about the casualties. This is entirely in-keeping with the film’s ultra-dark streak of humour. Considering that one of the policemen is a vice cop who openly takes bribes and the other is dangerously paranoid about his wife having an affair, they’re morally degenerate protagonists that test the notion of anti-heroes. The other thing that will make modern audiences twitch is the shaggy-dog resolution to the entire plot, which yanks the rug under viewers’ expectations in a nihilistic finale that makes the entire thing feel meaningless. And that’s not counting a far-too-violent final bathroom fight against a transvestite that would instantly get the film pilloried nowadays. In that context it’s a good thing that the film has three solid (exciting, well filmed, well choreographed) chase sequences—it gives you something to like (along with the dark comedy) even as the rest of the film seems purposefully designed to frustrate. What if a sour New Hollywood revisionist cop thriller crashed into a 1980s buddy-cop comedy? Watch Freebie and the Bean to find out.