The Freshman

"He was on his way to the Dean's List, but he wound up on the hit list."

1990 1h 42m EN

😐

6.3

MID

★6.3TMDB · 322

ComedyCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After a film student gets his belongings stolen, he meets a mobster bearing a startling resemblance to a certain cinematic godfather. Soon, he finds himself caught up in a caper involving endangered species and fine dining.

“He was on his way to the Dean's List, but he wound up on the hit list.”

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Cast

Marlon Brando
Carmine Sabatini, aka Jimmy The Toucan
Matthew Broderick
Clark Kellogg
Bruno Kirby
Victor Ray
Penelope Ann Miller
Tina Sabatini
Frank Whaley
Steve Bushak
Jon Polito
Chuck Greenwald
Kenneth Welsh
Dwight Armstrong
Richard Gant
Lloyd Simpson

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Andrew Bergman
Writers: Andrew Bergman
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

36 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Andrew Bergman, shot by William A. Fraker. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by David Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Barry Malkin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick and Bruno Kirby carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "He was on his way to the Dean's List, but he wound up on the hit list.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0099615 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Andrew Bergman directs. William A. Fraker behind the camera. David Newman scores. Barry Malkin cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

136 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Directed by Andrew Bergman, shot by William A. Fraker. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by David Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Barry Malkin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick and Bruno Kirby carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "He was on his way to the Dean's List, but he wound up on the hit list.".
7IMDB entry: tt0099615 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 10 themes, including "movie business", "affection", "spoof", "dinner".

The technical file

Cinematography: William A. Fraker
Original score: David Newman
Editing: Barry Malkin
Production design: Ken Adam
Costume design: Julie Weiss
Makeup / hair: Colleen Callaghan
Sound: Michael Minkler
Stunt coordinator: David R. Ellis
Runtime: 102 min · 1h 42m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: The Freshman (1990)

Also by

Andrew Bergman

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-11-16
★ 6/10
Fresh or Ripe? The Freshman is a sort of comedy drama sprinkled with self aware barbs at film analysis. It’s a great opportunity to see Marlon Brando relaxed and fully playing up the self-parody angle. Plot finds Matthew Broderick as Clark Kellog, a film student arriving in New York who through unfortunate circumstances ends up working for a man who is not too dissimilar from Don Corleone! Writer and director Andrew Bergman spoofs the Mafia via screwball scenarios and satirical scripting, though the latter is done to death and grows tiresome at the mid-point. Penelope Anne Miller and B.D. Wong get choice support roles and deliver the goods, in fact the casting across the board is spot on, and the tech credits are firmly in the plus column. It’s all pleasantly executed and moves along at a brisk pace, but a little less satire and more straight laced character comedy wouldn’t have gone amiss. 6/10
kevin20192026-02-20
★ 8/10
"The Freshman" is a very entertaining and satisfying film on every level when it could have been nothing more than a one joke, one dimensional novelity based upon the very appetising prospect not of a Komondo dragon banquet, but of watching Marlon Brando successfully reprising his Academy Award winning triumph as Don Vito Corleone purely for laughs this time around. Of course, this limited idea would have been absolutely exhausted in no time at all, so it is incredibly fortunate there is a solid story worth bothering about which is extremely well structured and enjoyably developed and humor which is especially worth relishing as Clark Kellogg (Matthew Broderick) inexorably finds himself sinking ever deeper into a life threatening quagmire.