Movie Notes: Mr. Freedom

June 24th, 2008

= 1 star

Starring John Abbey, Delphine Seyrig
Directed by William Klein

Synopsis

Mr. Freedom (John Abbey) is a dork-tastic American super hero, sent to defend France against the French Anti-Freedom organization. Unfortunately, he behaves like a stereotypical American and destroys half of France.

The Good

• Klein’s visual sense is pretty fantastic, creating nutty retro visual blasts resembling Yellow Submarine as filmed by Kubrick. Especially daffy is Mr. Freedom bursting into a rally wearing a super-hockey-football outfit, and an 8 1/2–esque arena pit where various freedom fighters train in muddy chaos.
• Some blunt yet humorous satire: Mr. Freedom sleeps with a gun in his hand and wields it crassly on a maid. The American embassy is a grocery store featuring blond, dancing models decked in stars and stripes. Our hero is referred to as Mr. Free-“dumb.” And yeah, eventually bricks-for-brains goes too far, demonstrating quite literally the stupidity of war as a solution to everything.

The Bad

• Unfortunately, Klein’s bizarre visuals only go so far — it can’t cover up the utter lack of plot, poor pacing (essential for humor), one-dimensional characters, and the stream of consciousness dialogue — whenever Mr. Freedom opens his mouth, out emerges the secret weapon of bore-“dumb.”

Conclusion

Mr. Freedom occasionally hits home when it links American stupidity, pointless consumerism, and the American military complex, but overall, it takes too long to get its point across, and rarely does it in an entertaining fashion. Still, fans of obscure, underground film who are willing to tolerate bore-“dumb” for moments of zany brilliance may find something to enjoy.

IMDB: Mr. Freedom
Wikipedia: Mr. Freedom
Rotten Tomatoes: Mr. Freedom