Being There
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Movie Reviews of Being There
Movie Review: Being There In The Time
Summary: 5 Stars
Chauncey Gardner was the role of a lifetime for Peter Sellers. He first read the book, wrote the author and said "I'll meet you in the garden" and left his phone number. Years later after much effort the movie was made. Chauncey was Peter Sellers, there is no doubt.
Chauncey was what we would call a mentally disabled man. He grew up a sheltered man in Washington, DC, and his life revolved around his gardening and television. What Chauncey knew of life came from that televison, and wherever Chauncey went was a remote control. When the owner of the home he lived in died, Chauncey was left out in the cold and walking the streets of Washington. He tried to control his life with his remote control-pointing it at a mugger to rid himself of this scene. A chance auto accident and Chauncey is now in the mansion of one of the wealthiest men in Washington, Melvyn Douglas. Who by the way won an Oscar for this performance. He is brought to this mansion by this man's wife, Eve played by Shirley McLain. The mansion was the Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina, and quite a place it is
Life changes for Chauncey. His innocence and simplicity is taken for extreme intelligence and foresight. The President comes to call. and he is so taken with Chauncey's remarks comparing life, finance and government to gardening that he mentions his name on a televisions address. The populace being what we are believed everything that Chauncey says is true because everyone in Washington believes it is true. Chauncey is wanted for interviews by all of the television stations and newspapers. Chauncey tells them he does not read newspapers or write he watches television. Everyone is struck by this man's ability to reveal his inner self. Even, Eve loves Chauncey, and when she wants to become romantic, he tells her he likes to watch. Eve performs for him and she certainly enjoys it, but Chauncey is enjoying his television. Chauncey becomes a household name, although he is quite oblivious to this as his life centers around what television show he will watch from day to day. The lesson to be learned is that nothing is as it seems. We all need to listen to our own voices and not become part of the gaggle that follows and believes everything said by our celebrities and politicians. Peter Sellers died soon after this role and never lived to reap the rewards of this stellar performance. However, we are left with this marvelous movie and a small piece of history. Highly recommended. prisrob
Movie Review: Sellers' greatest performance
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter Sellers' final film role came in 1980's disastrous "The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu," but I suspect he would have preferred to be remembered for the previous year's "Being There," for which he earned his second Oscar nomination. The role of Chauncey Gardiner didn't win him that prize (Dustin Hoffman was cited for "Kramer vs Kramer"), but he was voted best actor by the National Board of Review and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (in the musical/comedy category).
Chauncey, a.k.a. Chance, was the brainchild of Jerzy Kosinski whose novel found a passionate fan in Sellers. At the time of the book's publication, neither Sellers nor the author had the clout necessary to get a film made (Sellers' career was sliding downhill by 1968 and wouldn't recover until 1975's "The Return of the Pink Panther"), but they promised each other that whoever got "hot" first would set the project in motion. By 1979, both had their share of clout and the film was a hit with both critics and the public.
Chance the gardener is a slow-witted, mildly retarded man who has spent his life in a rich man's house, tending the garden and watching television, his only source of knowledge. When his benefactor dies, Chance is expelled from his Garden of Eden and left to wander the streets of Washington D.C. where he is struck and mildly injured by a limousine belonging to one of the country's most powerful financiers. Guilt stricken, the financier's wife (Shirley Maclaine) takes him home where his innocent words about gardening impress her influential husband (Melvyn Douglas) as brilliant, symbolic pearls of wisdom. Before long, the president of the U.S. (Jack Warden) is quoting the gardener who becomes a media sensation.
Whether Winston Groom, the author of "Forrest Gump," read Kosinski's novel or saw the film it inspired is unclear, but there are similarities. But "Being There" has a darker, more cynical edge, and is the superior film. It lambasts the shallow times in which we live as effectively as Paddy Chayefsky's earlier "Network," but explores it from a different angle and avoids being a shadow of any film that came before. The only debit of this production is the inclusion of the out-takes that run alongside the closing credits. Amusing though they are, they tend to spoil the mood the film so effectively creates.
Brian W. Fairbanks
Movie Review: A CHARMED LIFE IS WHAT WE SEE HERE WITH PETER SELLERS LITERALLY ABLE TO WALK ON WATER!
Summary: 5 Stars
A VERY DIFFERENT PETER SELLERS!?
Peter Sellers had for all his professional life on the big screen lived by making excessive characters, sometimes as many as 3 at time, come to life and literally create a universe for us to watch in wonder. "Being There" is different, completely different. Here the universe is waiting for Peter Sellers in a rare, less-is-more performance where the theme could rightly be called, "A Charmed Life." After all, how else could a seemingly-autistic person take on knife-wielding street-gangsters, political heavyweights, and romance with no more emotion than when he walked on water, stopped to check the depth of the water with his umbrella, and then simply continued.
MY TAKE ON 'BEING THERE' - -
"Being There" is about the impossible being not only plausible, but completely accepted on face value. Peter Sellers is simply startling as a soft-spoken, well-dressed, gentleman's gardener who knows nothing more about the world than what he sees on TV. He relates to everything as though it were a garden, because that is all he knows on a first-hand basis -- UNTIL NOW! That's where the movie begins, Chance the Gardener's foray into real life. Don't miss it.
'BEING THERE' IS THE DEFINITIVE CHARACTER DRIVEN BLACK COMEDY - -
Call it a black comedy, a cross-over film, a poltical satire, or anything you like. This film simply works as an example of the actors making the film with the help of excellent direction by Hal Ashby and an excellent adapted screenplay by the book's author Jerry Kosinski. Peter Sellers' Oscar-nominated performance was supported by an incredible cast:
*-----> THE CAST <-----*
Shirley MacLaine - Eve Rand
Melvyn Douglas - Benjamin Rand - WON BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR OSCAR
Jack Warden - President Bobby
Richard Basehart - Vladimir Skrapinov
Richard Dysart - Dr. Robert Allenby
IN THE END - - -
This phenomenal film from 1979 is one I had not seen until recently. I can't imagine why or how this one got by me, but I was thrilled to see it now. It is uncomfortable to watch at times, but it is definitely worth viewing.
ABOUT THE DVD: LACKS FEATURES BUT PLAYS VERY WELL!
Movie Review: PETER SELLERS IN AN ABOUT-FACE ----- SO THIS IS A BLACK COMEDY?
Summary: 5 Stars
PETER SELLERS IN AN ABOUT-FACE:
Peter Sellers had for all his professional life on the big screen lived by making excessive characters, sometimes as many as 3 at time, come to life and literally create a universe for us to watch in wonder. "Being There" is different, completely different. Here the universe is waiting for Peter Sellers in a rare, less-is-more performance where the theme could rightly be called, "A Charmed Life." After all, how else could a seemingly-autistic person take on knife-wielding street-gangsters, political heavyweights, and romance with no more emotion than when he walked on water, stopped to check the depth of the water with his umbrella, and then simply continued.
IN A NUTSHELL:
"Being There" is about the impossible being not only plausible, but completely accepted on face value. Peter Sellers is simply startling as a soft-spoken, well-dressed, gentleman's gardener who knows nothing more about the world than what he sees on TV. He relates to everything as though it were a garden, because that is all he knows on a first-hand basis -- UNTIL NOW! That's where the movie begins, Chance the Gardener's foray into real life. Don't miss it.
IN "BEING THERE," THE ACTORS MAKE THE FILM:
Call it a black comedy, a cross-over film, a poltical satire, or anything you like. This film simply works as an example of the actors making the film with the help of excellent direction by Hal Ashby and an excellent adapted screenplay by the book's author Jerry Kosinski. Peter Sellers' Oscar-nominated performance was supported by an incredible cast:
Shirley MacLaine - Eve Rand
Melvyn Douglas - Benjamin Rand - WON BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR OSCAR
Jack Warden - President Bobby
Richard Basehart - Vladimir Skrapinov
Richard Dysart - Dr. Robert Allenby
BOTTOM LINE:
This phenomenal film from 1979 is one I had not seen until recently. I can't imagine why or how this one got by me, but I was thrilled to see it now. It is uncomfortable to watch at times, but it is definitely worth viewing.
Movie Review: The High Art of Being There in the Right Time
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the films that make you think about it long after the credits were gone and Rafael finally received his message. What was it? The comedy? Political satire? The Drama? Gospel according Jerry, Hal and Peter? What is it about Chance the Gardner aka Chauncey Gardiner (Peter Sellers) simple minded, possibly retarded character that everyone admires so much?
It is a prophetic film - how often we've seen individuals that have been elevated to high political office for simply looking good and smiling nice on television. It is a story of a man who was an embodiment of purity and child-like innocence of such high concentration that he could be called a retard - depending on your state of mind. Chance is always himself - he never pretends to be something other than a gardener. All he wants is to watch TV and work in a garden taking care of the plants and flowers. Having meals on time would not hurt, either. Whatever happened to Chance only happened because he was there - in the right time in the right place. But was it a right time and place for anybody? Was Chance the answer to the problems the country was going through? Of course, not. I agree with the comments that the society has the rulers it deserves - if we believe that Chance's messages are profound and deep, we very much deserve him as our leader. It is very sad film, I think. It has many hilarious scenes, jokes, and dialogs but it is not a comedy, and not a feel good movie. It is a sublime, intelligent meditation on very serious matters - politics and media and how they relate to each other; the great power of being there and projecting the image the public wants to admire and follow. How easy is it for us to be fooled, especially when we want to be fooled?
Peter Sellers is magnificent. I don't think that anybody else could've done what he did with the character. I also liked a lot Melvyn Douglas' Oscar winning performance as a dying billionaire, the frail and old but the strong and wise man who realizes that the time has come for him to go.