Friday, November 21, 2008

THE RIFLEMAN RECOMMENDS:

MR. FREEDOM

Life gets pretty lonely out here on the range. Seldom anyone to talk to, much less any kind of entertainment. That's why I was so delighted when I recently discovered a parcel from an old trail mate in the post. Inside, The Delirious Fictions of William Klein. The fine folks at Eclipse have released a boxed set containing the three fiction films of noted shutterbug and expat filmmaker William Klein. All of ‘em are worth a watch. But my favorite by far is Mr. Freedom, Klein’s ferocious satire of American foreign policy in the 1960s (and, by extension, the 1980s and the early 2000s).

It’s impossible not to laugh at the wild, amped-up buffoonery as uber-American superhero Mr. Freedom becomes a one-man occupying force to rid France from the red Commie scourge. But every laugh comes with an uncomfortable pang of recognition. One can’t help but see George W. Bush as the titular red, white, and blue clad bubba, his unhealthy idealistic balance of jingoism and xenophobia threatening to destroy everything he professes to defend.

In this so-called year of change, Klein's poisonous cynicism is almost enough to knock the idealism right out of you by bolstering the distressing old adage "the more things change, the more they stay the same." In four decades, it’s only the style and not the substance of Mr. Freedom that has aged. Its trenchant humor remains thoroughly current. While recent events suggest that America just had a collective laugh at Mr. Freedom in all his incarnations, I'm pretty sure Klein, like me, is a "see-it-to-believe-it" kind of guy.

1 comment:

Michael Koresky said...

Mr. Freedom is amazing...like Monty Python with a social conscience and heavy-duty political intent. A favorite moment: when Mr. F sprouts stigmata when he's feeling unappreciated for all his sacrifices. Love it. John Abbey, FYI, who plays Mr. F, was incidentally in Playtime. God knows who he was in it...I guess Guy in a Blue Suit, Number 4.