The Freshman: A Comedic Send-Up of The Godfather
Introduction
"The Freshman," directed and scripted by Andrew Bergman, is a comedy that uses Mario Puzo and Francis Coppola’s "The Godfather" as its starting point. The film presents a lighthearted take on the mafia genre, featuring Marlon Brando in a role that playfully echoes his iconic portrayal of Don Corleone. The film stars Matthew Broderick as a film student who gets caught up in a series of bizarre events involving a mob boss. This 1990 film offers a quirky and unconventional comedic experience, marked by strong performances and a unique premise.
Plot Overview
The story revolves around Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick), a fresh-faced NYU film student from Vermont. Shortly after arriving in New York City, Clark is robbed of all his possessions by a fast-talking petty thief named Vic (Bruno Kirby). Desperate to recover his belongings, Clark encounters Vic again and is offered a job by Vic's uncle, Carmine Sabatini (Marlon Brando). Sabatini, a shady Manhattan importer, bears a striking resemblance to Don Corleone in looks, dress, and speech, which becomes a running gag throughout the film.
Clark's first assignment involves picking up a package at the airport, which turns out to be a Komodo dragon, an endangered species. This sets off a chain of events that pulls Clark deeper into Sabatini's world, where he discovers an elaborate underworld involving high-rolling gourmets who pay exorbitant prices to dine on endangered species. The scheme involves the unwitting Kellogg and his student pal Steve (the talented Frank Whaley) in transporting animals - endangered species, to be exact - to the kitchen of Sabatini’s partner, chef Larry London (Maximilian Schell), who serves them to high-rolling gourmets for about $350,000 a plate.
Brando's Performance: A Self-Aware Parody
The heart of "The Freshman" lies in Marlon Brando's performance as Carmine Sabatini. Brando delivers a wonderful sendup of Corleone that manages to play off the Don's entrenched place in pop culture. This role allows Brando to playfully mock his iconic portrayal of Don Corleone from "The Godfather," offering a self-aware parody that is both entertaining and endearing. There’s a playfulness and an engagement here that wasn’t something Brando showed often.
Brando brings an easy air of great authority to Sabatini, reminiscent of Don Corleone. His performance is full of self-awareness and effortless gravitas. The real pleasures of this movie are watching Brando crushing walnuts while making people offers they can’t refuse or sitting at home with the Mona Lisa (the Louvre has a copy) or visiting Kellogg at school (“If this is college, I didn’t miss nothin'”) or ice-skating with surprising agility or just standing there bringing out the best in young actors like Broderick, Kirby, Miller and Whaley.
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Matthew Broderick: Holding His Own
Matthew Broderick, fresh from a string of successful films like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Biloxi Blues," proves to be a perfect foil for Brando. Broderick plays Clark Kellogg as a smart and polished, disconnected from the nature-fanatic stepfather (Kenneth Welsh) financing this indulgence. But he’s no street-smart Ferris Bueller rebel. He tries his damnedest to not get hustled on his way to the subway in Grand Central Station. Broderick’s performance is naturally likable and deftly understated.
Watch his attention to Brando, his reactions to his mercurial co-star’s tricks and surprises (walnuts). And savor just how good and confident of his skills this “kid” was, pretty much from the very start of his career, a teen phenom holding his own with The Greatest in a comedy that’s wearing its years with the effortless ease it summoned up the day it opened.
Supporting Cast: A Collection of Talents
The film boasts a strong supporting cast, each contributing to the movie's unique charm. Penelope Ann Miller plays Carmine’s smart, winsome but reconciled-with-dad’s-work daughter, Tina. Like Daddy, what Tina wants, Tina gets. Daddy wanted “The Mona Lisa.” The REAL one. Tina wants Clark.
Maximillian Schell vamps the hell out of the role of chef at Carmine’s “Gourmet Club.” BD Wong vamps up his turn as chef’s assistant. Bruno Kirby shines as the weasely Vic, while Paul Benedict delivers a memorable performance as the narcissistic film professor, Arthur Fleeber. The supporting cast are great, including Bruno Kirby, Paul Benedict, Jon Polito, and a hilarious cameo by Bert Parks, singing "Tequila" and Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" at a posh party.
Andrew Bergman's Direction: Comedy of the Peculiar
Andrew Bergman, known for his unconventional comedy talent, directs "The Freshman" with a focus on the peculiar and offbeat. Bergman, who scripted “The In-Laws,” and whose best film as writer-director was the feather-light rom-com “It Could Happen to You,” handled Brando well and challenged him (ice skating) in ways that should have delighted the “difficult” star, but which Brando would never admit. What he has created in “The Freshman” is a comedy of the peculiar, the oblique and the offbeat.
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Satire and Film References
"The Freshman" is filled with film references, particularly to "The Godfather." The professor has no interest in young Clark’s problems. A running gag begins, “the resemblance” of the hulking, imperious and mysterious Mr. Sabatini to “The Godfather.” That repeated joke joins every New Yorker’s amusing refusal to acknowledge where Clark is from - “Montana,” “Kansas,” Vermont - “Same difference.” - Vic’s pointless efforts to translate snippets of New York Italian that season the dialogue of everybody in this corner of Little Italy and later Carmine’s evasiveness about what he does for a living and what he wants Clark to do for him, which Clark questions constantly. You’re sure this pick-up and delivery from the airport business is on the up and up?
The film also makes references to Alfred Hitchcock, with nods to "Dial M for Murder" and "Foreign Correspondent." There are slight similarities to North by Northwest, which writer-director Andrew Bergman makes clear in the final scene set in a cornfield.
The Endangered Animals Subplot
One of the film's more controversial elements is the subplot involving endangered animals being served as delicacies to wealthy gourmets. It’s a queasy subject for comedy, though you haven’t known queasy until Bert Parks turns up to sing a lampoon version of his old Miss America theme to the endangered plat du jour on the evening’s menu, in this case a Komodo dragon.
Production Design and Cinematography
The film's production design, by Ken Adam, adds to the film's quirky atmosphere, particularly in the gourmet club set. William A. Fraker’s cinematography is also very good. I especially like the twilight shot of the Statue of Liberty and the stylized closing shot of the cornfield.
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