Film Review
Hal Ashby, one of the lynchpins of the 1970s American counterculture movement,
concluded a remarkable decade of filmmaking with this inspired satire,
loosely adapted from a 1971 novel by Jerzy Kosinski. Ashby had
already won acclaim for his groundbreaking comedies
Harold and Maude (1971) and
Shampoo (1975) and garnered further
praise with his Vietnam drama
Coming
Home (1978).
Being There
is another off-the-wall feather in Ashby's cap, a film which proved to
be horribly prescient of the changes that would come about in western
society over the following decade. The film anticipates and takes
great delight in mocking society's ever-growing obsession with
self-advancement and vacuous celebrities. 'Being there'
(i.e. rich and famous) is the only thing that matters for the
generation whose entire philosophy is based around the word 'me'.
Being There was not only a
triumph for Hal Ashby - one of his funniest, most intelligent and most
provocative films - it also allowed the British comic actor Peter Sellers
(famous for playing Inspector Clouseau in the
Pink Panther films)
to make a remarkable return to form, after years in which he had drifted
into pitiful self-parody. As the film's simpleminded hero
(appropriately named Chance), Sellers turns in one of his best
performances, which is impressive not because of what the actor does,
but because of what he doesn't do. Chance is a non-person, a
blank slate onto which others project their own impressions of who he
is. All of the humour in the film comes from the absurdity of
people seeing only what they want to see and not being able to see what
Chance really is.
Unusually for an actor who is renowned for his comic portrayals, Sellers
plays Chance with deadly seriousness, presenting him as a dull but
likeable middle-aged man who has mentally not advanced beyond
childhood. Everyone who meets Chance sees him as something
totally different, a projection of their own personality - he is the
perfect shape-shifter. Without the slightest conscious effort,
Chance becomes a celebrity, a political confidante and object of desire
(for both sexes). And once the celebrity ball has started
rolling, it is of course impossible to stop it. We all know where
it will end - with Chance in the White House, like so many spoiled
nonentities before him. This is Sellers' most subtle performance,
and possibly his greatest - matched only by his unforgettable turns in Stanley Kubrick's
Dr. Strangelove (1964).
Tragically it was also to be one of
his last - he died just a few months after the film was released.
Being There is also
distinguished by some impressive performances from Shirley MacLaine and
Melvyn Douglas, the latter of whom won an Oscar (for Best Supporting
Actor) for his role as the credulous magnate Ben Rand. Sellers
was also nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but he lost out to Dustin
Hoffman (in
Kramer vs. Kramer).
The most controversial aspect of the film is its enigmatic ending,
which shows Chance apparently walking on water. Our willingness
to try to ascribe some deeper meaning to this whimsical flight of fancy
(which has no connection with what goes before and could easily have
been omitted) stresses Ashby's evident frustration with modern culture,
and cinema in particular. Rather than take things at face value
and admit to seeing nonsense when it comes our way, we feel impelled to
see more than is actually there (in this case, some kind of
pseudo-religious allegory). Like the deluded fools who are so
willing to see Chance as a business genius, we cannot resist the
perverse allure of everything that is shallow and meretricious, giving
talentless non-people an easy ride to millionaire status whilst true
genius starves by the roadside. It was probably no comfort to Hal
Ashby to know he was right, as the American film studios rejected him
and his kind en masse in the early 80s as they went after more
lucrative gains in mainstream mediocrity. Oh, the irony of it.
© James Travers 2012
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
Chance is a middle-aged man who has spent his entire life in a large
house in Washington D.C. The only two people he knows are his
benefactor, a successful business man, and a black woman who brings him
his meals. Mentally retarded, Chance cannot read or write, and
his sole occupation is tending to his master's garden. His view
of the outside world is limited to what he sees on television.
When his benefactor dies, Chance is told he must leave the house
immediately. Shortly after he walks out onto the street, he is
injured by a car belonging to the business magnate Ben Rand.
Rand's wife insists that Chance accompany her back to her city mansion
to be examined by her husband's personal physician. Despite being
almost bed-ridden, Rand takes an instant liking to Chance, mistaking
his childlike observations for shrewd allegorical comments on
business. The President of the United States is equally impressed
by Chance when he pays Rand a personal call to ask for political advice
on how to revive the ailing economy. After the President has
quoted Chance in a television broadcast, Chance becomes a media
sensation. Everyone is curious to find out who he is, but for
some reason there are no records of his past history...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.