A curio from the late 1960s, Mr. Freedom is about a costumed super patriot who is sent to France in order to ensure that the Commies don't take it over and therefore the world. (Yes, it's an analogue to the Vietnam War.) The catch is that Mr. Freedom is more than willing to maim, rape, and murder anyone who doesn't agree with his particular brand of bringing true democracy to the masses, which makes him a bit more sociopathic than heroic. But them's the breaks, I suppose.Mr. Freedom (John Abbey) is in the employ of some faceless secret organization headed by, of course, Dr. Freedom (Donald Pleasance). The doctor sends the mister overseas to help the resistance, as if WW II were ongoing. The idea is that if the Reds capture France, then by the domino effect the rest of Europe will fall to the Iron Curtain - which here includes China. So how does Mr. Freedom hope to accomplish this? With guns, fists, and good ol' American know-how. His French contact Marie-Madeline (Delphine Seyrig) introduces him to the ragtag crew who hopes to forestall Communism - but could there be a spy among their midst? His costume looks like a combination of NFL player and Robocop. Soon all of the freedom fighters are similarly attired, which makes the whole outfit look like rejects from American Gladiators. Mr. Freedom has no time for nuance; he punches, shoots, kicks, and kills anything that seems anti-American. Seems legit. He's surrounded by stereotypes masquerading as symbols - China is represented by a giant dragon costume, of course. The movie, like its purported protagonist, ain't subtle. Mr. Freedom is sort of like the inbred half-cousin to Captain America; all machismo, no smarts, no figurative vision, and too damn angry.This was directed by one William Klein, whose IMDb page informs me directed quite a few documentaries - and not too many features. His fiction films were typically subversive, meant to satirize known conventions, whether they were the American stance on the war in Vietnam or the fashion industry. I'm not sure how well it was received in 1969, but Klein was so fearful about getting it shown anywhere that he opened it at the Avignon Festival. He was probably wise to do so. The movie is overbearing, crass, and pretty repulsive, even as satire. Phillipe Noiret, Yves Montand, and Simone Signoret each show up in brief roles or cameos, but I'd be willing to wager none was proud of it. Even worse, Abbey gives about as one dimensional a performance as possible; he plays Mr. Freedom as if he were the ROTC guy from Animal House, only not for laughs. Even the sexual scenes are drab. This is a colossal bomb.The overarching trouble with Mr. Freedom the movie is that the character's schtick runs thin about five minutes in and yet intensifies as the plot progresses. It's not long before he's fighting not just Commies but the French who aren't actively fighting with the freedom fighters, and later all of the French. I'm not sure if that's a commentary on how Americans overall view the French, but there you go. And, of course, since this is during the Cold War, there's a threat of using The Bomb to solve problems. You can probably guess Mr. Freedom's stance on that topic.

"So, the French are the white man's burden!" "Anti-Freedomism is at a new high." The above quotes are some of the funny lines from this strange piece of political satire. While I am an American and am reasonably conservative, this overtly anti-American film didn't offend me. After all, dissent is good and I could respect both William Klein's concept of a very flawed superhero as well as some of his points about American foreign policy circa 1969. This idea COULD have worked--even though it was bound to offend many viewers. And, while it DID start well, the entire film turned out to be a mess simply because the satire falls flat again and again--mostly due to very poor writing, acting and horrible production values. To put bluntly, many of Ed Wood's films looked better! Too bad, as this piece of commentary might have had a lot more impact if the film simply didn't look so craptastic. This film is one of the best examples of a movie that was a great idea and had great moments--but had absolutely nothing else going for it.The film is not as relevant as it used to be and I assume it would mostly be a welcome film for people who were alive during the 1960s as well as fervent America-haters--who love the idea of any film that works this hard to make fun of the United States. And, quite frankly, some of the points the film made WERE pretty clever and on--it's just too bad the film had nothing--absolutely NOTHING else going for it. Cheap and wildly uneven--this film is one that actually would probably be best viewed while under the influence.

Wow!! To my taste this is far funnier and less campy than Dr Strangelove. Talk about the arid intellectual- Dr. Strangelove pulls his punches and spoons-out his laughs. Mr. Freedom has the bold "logo-rhhea" power to come out and blame The Reds *AND* The Blacks for all his troubles- Not fun or funny? Maybe Kubrick makes better 'cinema'- or maybe he's just lingering over mild material. Klein is committed, overt; profoundly radical. I've seen nothing like this script, but overall- especially the direction, invention & conviction- it reminds me of "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension". Except where Americans describe Buckaroo as "agreeably insane", Mr. Freedom comes from some different country. OTOH- None of these films depend on any nuance. It is probable that the first 40 minutes are the most astounding of Mr. Freedom's bizarrely breathless life. After that we're asked to buy into the TV-Batman premise; then we proceed along an escalating series of staged confrontations- offering no development 'per se', but plentiful poignant wordplay. Whole pages of the script are totally "quotable", but possibly poisoned. So if one isn't angered by our corporate-imperialist history in Europe (i.e., the Cold War ('Red Chinaman', 'Mr. Moujik' ('peasant' in Russian)), the 1960's Marseilles underground (represented as Mafia lowlife "Mr. Drugstore" (Turk Sweet, anyone?))) & some very similar Euro-Colonialist history - then yeah, it'll all sound 'stupid'. Well the fun here is part surreal/comics- but it's *All* satirical- i.e., depends on deeper connections. And "literate" is Problem #1 for USA-educated, Depression-Generation video-gamers. A grounding in international politics just won't match the power-fantasies of Fox-TV Gulf-war coverage for jingoistic thrill-kills/per-minute. But anyone who reads to stay awake should appreciate Director William Klein's ambitious coup. Anyone ready for 'System of a Down' or 'Rage Against the Machine' etc. should score (& another historic value IS the scrappy score by Serge Gainsborough (also seen at the piano)). Vive the French Anti-Freedom League! Vive Paris 1968!

This satire on the American persona starts off as a biting attack on the jingoistic way we Americans force ourselves on others onto and treat other people at home, and mostly abroad. Mr Freedom, a boneheaded superhero is sent to rid France of communist infiltration. As he attempts to swing France back into American influence he battles his Soviet counterpart and the evil Red China Man.After the first half hour, during which most of the points are made, this film circles around itself in total confusion before collapsing into total incomprehensibility. It looks like someone took huge chunks out of this film. I've seen some people listing the this film as having a full running time of 115 minutes. If thats the case see that version and not the 95 minute English one since it probably makes more sense.Frankly this is a major disappointment since the film would seem to have become timely again with what is going on in the Iraq. Instead its a major misfire that is rightly not well known in America.7 out of 10 for curiosity and for some truly wonderful moments, mostly in the first half. See it if you like misfires or want to see how the world has come full cycle, just prepare to be confused regarding the plot.