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Stanley Kubrick Called This "The Best Movie of 1974."

posted 3 years ago by ecarle (14979)
3 replies | jump to latest

You could look it up. I found references to this quote in a few internet articles on Freebie and the Bean, though I couldn't find the original quote itself.

To me...it makes sense.

Freebie and the Bean has a lot in common with two Kubrick films made BEFORE it...and one Kubrick film made AFTER it, to wit:

Dr. Strangelove : Male-centric, lots of episodic comedy mixed with lots of nightmare reality.

A Clockwork Orange: Alex and his Droogs are merciless, beating up weaker people all the time in a film that has a comic edge...and pretty much lets Alex get away with it. Freebie and the Bean are not as "artful" but they sure do beat a lot of people up, knock over(and in one case shoot) innocent bystanders, and wreck peoples cars.

The one AFTER it?

Full Metal Jacket. The mean, macho verbal and physical humor of Freebie and the Bean shows up in Full Metal Jacket, particularly with the Drill Sergeant in the first half, and with the machine -gunner in the second half ("How can you shoot women and children?" "Its easy..I just lead them a little slower.")

The balls-to-the wall comic meanness of Freebie and the Bean probably got Kubrick where he lived (Alan Arkin's Hispanic cop "the Bean" even yells at all of his kids to get out of the house the moment he gets home.) But the film is also filled with cinematic pyrotechnics(all those GREAT car chases) and it moves at top speed.

Or maybe Kubrick liked it for some other reason...

[–] Redsfan001 (6145) 3 years ago

One of the most interesting "Similar movies" lists I've seen.

[–] SickSpazmoid (843) 3 years ago

This is strange, because I think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of his favorite movies and it is also from 1974. Maybe he have watched it later.

[–] ElizabethJoestar (946) 3 years ago

I'm always amused by Kubrick's tastes. It's like half the usual arthouse material you would expect and half crowdpleasing popcorn movies.

For example, he made a list of favorite films in 1963 and it included Roxie Hart, a Ginger Rogers comedy from the early 1940s. Not knocking it of course (I like Roxie Hart more than its bigger, flashier remake Chicago), but it is amusing since Kubrick is seen as so chilly and intellectual by most.