|
Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers) reflects quite
literally whatever anyone wants to see in him. Chance is
the mentally challenged gardener for a man who finds himself
pushed into the real world after years of being cloistered
in his own little world, Chancy finds himself on the street.
Hit by Eve Rand’s car (Shirley McLaine) she panics and takes
him in finding herself by his charmingly simple view of
life. For a man who embodies the innocence of a child Chance
finds himself reborn into a new unfamiliar world. Everything
that Chance knows is pulled from the surface world—there’s
no depth or meaning to anything he says or does because
most of his world view is informed by his constant companion-TV.
Eve’s ailing husband Ben (Melvyn Douglas) and even the President
of the United States (Jack Warden) warm to Chance’s superficial
world view. ***
Director Hal Ashby’s film embraces Chance as an innocent
with his name both a metaphor reflecting how his own limited
life unfolds before him but also the how the world around
us only wants affirmation rather than meaningful discourse.
Ashby’s film (based on the novel and screenplay by the late
Jerzy Kosiniski) parodies our narcissistic and desperate
need for acceptance and meaning in our lives. Chance needs
none of this—he also wants nothing and, in turn, gives nothing
back other than what the person listening and speaking with
him wants to hear. Ashby and Kosinski satirize our information
age where a lot of is said but there’s no substance. Even
the title is a pun on a comment that Gertrude Stein once
made (“there’s no there there” when asked about her home
town and the culture of the city). Being there doesn’t mean
that you are really there—you occupy space and go through
the motions much as Chance does because there is “no there
there” mentally. The title perfectly captures the distracting
nature of an information age where there isn’t information
just sounds and motion distracting us from life. ***
One of the most brilliant sequences has Chance discovering
the real world for the first time as Strauss' "Thus Spoke
Zarathustra" used in "2001: A Space Odyssey" plays in a
jazzy interpretation. Chance is, in a sense, "reborn" into
a new world where he will soon have unimaginable power but
have no clue he has it and even if he did have no idea how
to use it. ***
That said, Chance occupies an uncomplicated world and
the final shot which suggests that Chance is something of
a savior suggesting that the element that allows faith to
survive are the very trappings of religion—it’s obsession
with ritual, surface detail and the child-like view of the
world where all is provided lack the complexity that humanity
has embraced in our overly complex where we are overwhelmed
by world we create and embrace with reservations. Chance
seems to suggest that embracing our simplicity and ignoring
the world of pretense that we surround ourselves with would
give us the sense of security that we lost along with our
innocence. The director and writer suggest that we see what
to see in others focusing on the surface because television
has narrowed our view of reality and softened our skills.
Chance is an innocent among wolves but it is that innocence
that saves him. He can do just about anything because he
has no clue that the world exists beyond the placid surface
images of TV. For Chance dealing with problems he doesn’t
understand is simple—he responds with a “programmed” response
(“I see”, “I understand”)because that’s what he’s seen people
do on TV and if it gets too difficult he can just turn it
off with his remote. ***
Sellers was nominated for an Oscar for this brilliant
performance which he himself admitted was pretty close to
who he truly was—he felt he was nothing more than a canvas
to create other personalities and characters. He wasn’t
sure who Peter Sellers was the only difference between him
and Chance was that Sellers was an egomaniac and child like
in all the worst possible ways throwing tantrums when he
didn’t get what he wanted. Like Chance he never grew up—unlike
Chance while he felt wasn’t sure who he was he was aware
of the void in his own life something that Chance was blissfully
unaware of. ---
Image & Sound:
Warner presents “Being There” in a very nice Blu-ray
transfer. There is noticeable grain—indicating that the
film hasn’t been digitally over processed with a resulting
loss of detail—reflecting the overall “look” of the original
film. Colors are surprisingly bold with some nice minor
rejuvenating a film that had suffered from years of washed
out prints shown in art house theaters and on TV. Detail
remains sharp for the most part and while there is some
noticeable DNR in a few scenes but it isn’t overused and
adds rather than subtracts from the film in these instances.
Having said that, viewers should not expect the film look
like it was released last year—it’s reflective of the era
it was made in and looks like a film that is over 25 years
old that has been spruced up for its Blu-ray debut. ***
Audio sounds extremely nice. I was surprised how good
the TrueHD track sounded; it had considerably more presence
than I expected. Dialog is clear throughout. ---
|
