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Mister Freedom
France 1969
produced by Guy Belford, Christian Thivat, Michel Zemer for Films du Rond-Point, O.P.E.R.A.
directed by William Klein
starring Delphine Seyrig, John Abbey, Donald Pleasence, Jean-Claude Drouot, Serge Gainsbourgh, Yves Lefebvre, Rufus, Sabine Sun, Rita Maiden, Colin Drake, Pierre Baillot, Raoul Billerey, Philippe Noiret, Sami Frey, Catherine Rouvel, Monique Chaumette, Yves Montand, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Odile Astie, Albert Augier, Jean-Luc Bideau, Jean-Claude Bouillaud, Michel Creton, Guy D'Avout, Albert Dray, Marcel Gassouk, Michèle Loubet, Henry Pillsbury, Hugues Quester, Eric Wasberg, Simone Signoret
written by William Klein, music by Michel Colombier
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Mister Freedom (John Abbey), the all American superhero in a red, white
and blue football uniform, is called to Freedom headquarters, where his
boss Doctor Freedom (Donald Pleasence) informs him about the (alleged)
spread of Communism in France, and since the French superhero Captain
Formidable (Yves Montand in a mini-role) has just been killed by baddie Red Chinaman, it
falls upon Mister Freedom to preserve the Freedom in France - or at least
what the Americans understand as freedom, since Mister Freedom is a
racist, misogynist and egomaniac bastard who tries to bluntly force his
ideas of freedom on the French, and when somebody opposes him - even if
its Jesus (Sami Frey) -, he lets his fists or his guns do the talking.
Soon enough all of France is in an uproar against the Freedom
Movement, so eventually, Mister Freedom sees himself forced (?) to
bomb 50 present of the country to Kingdom Come, just to teach these
Frenchies a lesson and make them see how important his vision of freedom
is ... as a result, everyone turns against him, even his French liasion
officer and girlfriend Marie-Madeleine (Delphine Seyrig), and the whole
thing ends with his headquarters being destroyed and his army slaughtered,
and as retaliation, Mister Freedom has the country nuked ...
As a satire on American Imperialism, this film is just a tad too blunt
and too self-assured while not being all that good in delivering its
subtler tones and comic moments - but that said, many of the film's ideas
like the US-embassy being just a supermarket are nothing short of great
(even if even this idea gets a bit overstrained in the course of events).
What makes the film remarkable though is that while it was conceived as
a Cold-War-satire, it hasn#t lost any of its relevance nowadays, when the
USA under George W.Bush has started an unprovoked war against Iraq and now
wonders why it's so hard for the Iraqis to just respect their ideas of freedom
... To a great extent, the film looks like an exact satire on the Iraq
war, only done 24 years earlier. Maybe someone should have showed the Bush
administration the film before they made their big mistake ...
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