Being There (Deluxe Edition) | 
| Director: Hal Ashby
Actors: Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.71
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Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 3216
Format: Color, DVD, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 130 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 1000042577
UPC: 883929037094
EAN: 0883929037094
ASIN: B001IHJ988
Theatrical Release Date: 1979
Release Date: February 3, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Being There author Jerzy Kosinski got a telegram from the books lead character Chance the Gardener: ?Available in my garden or outside of it.? Kosinski dialed the accompanying phone number and Peter Sellers answered. The result was Sellers indelible performance (scoring National Board of Review and Golden Globe Best Actor Awards and an Academy Award nomination*) in this modern comedyic. Isolated a |
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Product Description
A SHELTERED SIMPLETON WHO ONLY KNOWS WHAT HE'S WATCHED ON TV BECOMES A PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
 I Like To Watch March 13, 2010
Margaret I. Delacy (Kenmore WA)
I consider this the best of Peter Sellers. It must be difficult for someone so over the top to downplay comedy, but he does it, and does it well. And the plot of some idiot playing an important part in US government is just perfect, since it's been a reality in the not too distant past.
"Candide" for the media age March 5, 2010
William Sommerwerck (Renton, WA USA)
As the film and the novel differ only sligthly, I've decided to post the same review for both.
Kosinski's satire isn't limited to the effects of media culture on people and society -- it productively branches off into related areas. The satire is so rich for such a short novel that it becomes difficult to provide a coherent exegesis. But I'll try.
There's nothing cryptic about the title's meaning. A man who's "experienced" life vicariously only through what he's seen on television, suddenly finds himself "being there", in the "real" world, which he has essentially no understanding of. He has trouble making the distinction, as we see when he uses a remote control to try to shut off a disagreeable young man.
Chance isn't congenitally stupid -- he's been "stupi-fied" by watching so much TV. This is not accidental. The Old Man who took him in as a child paid no attention to his education. Chance provided labor for nothing more than the cost of feeding and clothing him; his development as a human being was of no importance. (It's noteworthy that Louise, the Old Man's black maid, though claiming to have raised Chance, made no effort to teach him to read and write.) The poke at capitalism is obvious -- even heavy-handed -- but it could apply to any society in which the worth of the indvidual is not of primary importance. *
Chance's vapidity is a "tabula rasa" on which others' values and views are written. But the projection is largely due to the listener's unwillingness to hear what the speaker is actually saying. People hear what they want to hear, and "Being There" is also an indictment of our failure to "be there" with those with whom we engage in conversation.
Chance's repeated "I like to watch" has obvious voyeuristic connotations, which were confirmed in a Dick Cavett interview where Jerzy Kosinki revealed that he liked to go to public baths to watch people having sex. Most people found (and still find) this shocking, but I've never understood why "voyeurism" is considered a disorder (unless it replaces sex). Humans are highly visual animals, and we all "like to watch" all sorts of things, which is one of the reasons television has taken over so much of our lives.
The projection of our inner lives on the outer world of television and movies can block the development of an "inner dialog" that can help us make sense of our own lives and what is going on around us. (Fundamentalist religion also has this effect.) Chance is lost in the outer world, in part because he has no inner world in which to retreat and figure out things. His is the ultimate "candidness", in which everything is on the surface. "There is no there, there", as Gertrude Stein said about Oakland.
It is all-too tempting to paint Ronald Reagan as a real-life Chance, and I won't resist the temptation. It is difficult to understand why such a vacuous idiot was elected to the Presidency, but it was partly due to his very shallowness, which allowed even people who disagreed strongly with his policies to find him "likeable". How can one like a stupid person who has nothing of any value to contribute? It is no surprise that, at the end, the power brokers are thinking that Chance should run for the Presidency.
The film was made at Peter Sellers' encouragement, as he viewed the novel as a vehicle for his acting skills. It's a near-perfect performance (unlike, say, Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man", where we're constantly aware we're watching an actor pretend to be something he isn't). Although the novel describes Chance as handsome and athletic, the older and somewaht vacant-looking Sellers is a better choice for the film, as removes the possibility people think well of him simply because he's good-looking. The other performances are mostly good, with Maclaine, Dysart, and Douglas standing out. Douglas's Oscar-winning performance, in particular, is a fine example of acting without appearing to act.
The ending -- not in the novel -- spins the story in a direction Kosinski did not intend. Is Chance the fool of God? Is he so cut off from the material world that its laws no long apply to him, and he can walk on water -- perhaps because he doesn't understand it isn't possible (as suggested by the tag line on Rand's tomb, "Life is a state of mind")? Either way, the story's meaning is softened and blunted. Chance is neither hero nor divine.
Other than this misstep, Ashby's direction is spot-on, giving the material the weight it needs to be believable. A lighter tone would call too much attention to the satire. The Blu-ray transfer is beautiful, highlighting Caleb Deschanel rich photography.
Thematically, "Being There" recalls "Rear Window" (voyeurism) and "Network" (media corruption of the "inner self").
The film is very good, and the novel great, arguably one of the best of the 20th century.
* "Individualism" and "individuality" are not the same thing.
Great! December 28, 2009
F. B. NEVES
I used to wacth this great movie in the DVD format but, now in blu-ray, it never look better.
 Good movie December 27, 2009
Joan Ball (Baltimore, MD)
it is scary but this could happen. People believe and see what they want to see and not necessarily what is real
It's A White Man's World! December 18, 2009
Sal Magnum (wisconsin nortwoodz)
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
"Being There"-- so what DOES the title mean? Ilana Douglas, (real-life granddaughter of Melvyn Douglas, whose impeccable portrayal of the old tycoon justifiably won him his second Oscar in a long and worthy career) in the short reminisce that comprises the entirety of the "special features", said that to her "Being There" meant being in the moment. That Peter Sellers' characterization of the man known alternately as Chance the Gardener and Chauncey Gardener was so strong it kind of drug everyone else in and there was a kind of onscreen reality, if you will, a "being in the moment" that happened and made this film the profound masterpiece that it is.
I am not one to disagree with that take. It is equally viable as any of my own thoughts on the subject, (depending on your point of view) yet perhaps there is more to it than that. I have found that many trully great pieces of art posses a certain ambiguity about them that goes beyond anything the author originally intended. A meaning that is only revealed through the realization of the work itself, a force which surpasses any conceptual inspiration. I think this is the "Being There" that Ilana Douglas refers to. When Peter Sellers went "full-on retard", as it were, "full-on shut-in" rather, the rest of the cast could not but help to follow suit in their portrayals of what are essentially cultural caricatures, and magic was made in front of the camera lens. No denying that. However, there is another aspect of "Being There", something that may in fact be more intentional and blatant as conceived by the author of the book this film is based on, yet, because most people aren't willing to climb the ladder's top rung, usually remains much more evasive. Follow me if you will down this rabbit hole;
I couldn't help thinking that it harks back to the old adage about "being a fly on the wall". Have you ever had that notion when thinking about how the corporate sector and the political structure of our country and the world is really run at the top? To be a fly on the wall during those subtle, intimate moments when old, bloodless creatures congregate and deals are struck, policies are shifted and Atlas shrugs? Of course we are able to see the aftermath of many of these moments, which allows those of us who get beyond the smoke and mirrors and dog and pony tricks to understand the nature of the course our society is on, and where it is being steered-- but to hear it from their own curmudgeonly lips! To hear them acknowledge public sentiment against their tyranny yet justify it as necessary for the good of the species in the long run!-- perhaps just after they've been pumped full of another fresh batch of blood to keep them in good spirits as per Chance's first encounter with old Ben Rand. "Some call me a 'kingmaker', but I've stayed true to myself, and that's what matters most of all , my boy."
Wasn't this concept (the fly on the wall, the emotionless being who likes to watch, etc.) the onus of what this film was actually all about? One of the most cleverly disguised depictions of what life is really like at the top? To be a master of the world, to live as if life will never end, as if you will be at the controls forever, and yet, to still be powerless against death when your time has come. To have it all, to live in opulence and luxury while the rest of the world goes to the dogs,(as so poignantly depicted when the Gardener leaves the house he's spent his whole life shut up in for the first time) yet, in the end, to be drug down to Sheol with the rest of us.
So it is that we get to observe our overlords (or at least their caricatures) throught the glinted eyes of a perpetual voyeur (the fly on the wall), the only one of us "down-to-earth" enough to be allowed within their hallowed walls. A character sought after and hobknobbed by the upper eschalon by virtue of his rare optimism and seeming lack of judgementalism, a trait which tends to infect all those of us not quite placated enough to be content to just watch.
Which begs the question concerning the "common man"'s role in modern civilization; are we nothing more than voyeurs? Our thoughts shaped and controlled by the fabricated envoirnment we live in on this tedius journey through life, watching the big men make their moves on deck while kept safely locked away down in the holding regions below?
How about that tomb, eh? A beautiful, little beady eye that makes the one on the back of the dollar bill look like a pale imitation. A legacy for a proud, life-long upholder of The Code, a fitting monument, built in finely hewn stone, built to last. The pallbearers hastily deciding momentous strategy in hushed tones while bringing the old man to his tomb-- er, ah..."final resting place". The show must go on, plenty more runners to snatch up the baton and carry on.
Jack Warden as president!! The first time he appears onscreen is from afar, yet I recognized his craggy features (talk about finely hewn!)from that instant and it filled my heart with glee. What a man, eh? From "Twelve Angry Men", to "...And Justice For All", to "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead", one was never disappointed with a performance from old Jack. Or his cousin Robert Loggia, for that matter. (Somehow the two are inexplicably linked within the caverns of my mind.) Fitting how his character eulogized the deceased, his own doubts and impotence weighing on him like a roped man at the gallows.
Yes, a lot to digest in this flick, many a hearty meal for the cranial sponge to soak in. Watch it again and again, let it marinate your senses.
Other musings gleaned in passing: *The firm handshake and stiff upper lip. *An ascot and fine taste in all things good. *The rich are fanciful creatures-- they can afford to be. *A proper gentleman, a pillar of stregth to those that succomb easily to temptation and desperation. "I like to watch..." yes, I do too.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
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