Being There
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DVD details
Actor: Jack Warden, Melvyn Douglas, Peters Sellers, Richard A. Dysart, Shirley MacLaineBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: 2 Layers, Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Unknown; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.85:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-04-03
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Being There
DVD Review: I've been looking for this---
Summary: 5 Stars
I believe this is the last movie Peter Sellers made before he passed away. I had purchased it in the VHS format many years ago & have been looking to see if it was available in DVD. What a classic! The story reveals an odd look at a world groping for answers (much like today). You'll enjoy watching it again & again. DVD Review: Rise of the empty man
Summary: 5 Stars
A highly recommended movie and by far the best film Peter Sellars ever made. In my opinion he should have won and Oscar for it. Being There truly reflects the times we live in.
The elegance of the plot is that almost everyone - from the overly indulged wife of a wealthy and powerful man to the president himself and TV audiences use Chance as a mirror for their own hopes and beliefs.
Despite the comedy there is a sad thread that runs through the movie speaking to the human condition and the randomness of life. One of my favorite scenes is when Chance the Gardener having spent most of his life working as a gardener and watching TV finally steps out into the real world complete with TV remote. He attempts to 'change the channel' using the remote when he is confronted by a crowd of hoodlums.
The end of the movie is enigmatic and adds a strange almost religious twist to the movie. Western readers may be interested to hear that the film's ending was changed or removed in several countries since it was seen as blasphemous.
Writing this review at a time when the global economy seems to be lurching towards depression many of Chance's utterings are apposite -"in in the fall we need to do some trimming and in the winter the garden lies fallow, but in the spring there is growth".
I've seen it mentioned in other reviews too, but the whole Barack Obama phenomenon is so reminiscent of Being There. An unproven man who comes out of nowhere with an unclear background and experience; a populace desperate for change that uses his vague statements about hope and change to reflect their own hopes and beliefs. These characteristics are hauntingly paralleled in Being There.
A film certainly worth viewing
DVD Review: Disappointed
Summary: 1 Stars
I received the DVD about 10-14 days after I ordered it, and towards the end it was not working. I'm trying to get a refund or replaced, but they are very slow.....DVD Review: The Story of Barack Obama
Summary: 5 Stars
Maybe. Time will tell. But more importantly, this is one of the best films of the past thirty years, with a flawless performance by the late great Peter Sellers as Chance the gardener, an elegant, polite gentleman who woos the elite in Washington, all of them blind to the fact that poor Chance is a sheltered simpleton who looks good on camera but hasn't the foggiest clue what's going on around him. He likes to watch tv. That's about it. Out on the streets for the first time in his fiftysomething years, he encounters a gang of hoodlums and tries to turn them off with the remote control he took from the house he was forced to vacate. At first, he's really quite heartbreaking, and you want him to be saved by the stupid elitists, and lo and behold, he is. And then you are relieved. And then, towards the end of the movie, you say, hey, wait a minute, this idiot may be headed for the White House and then WE will be the ones in the heartbreaking situation. Some may say this is the story of Dubya, too. Well, maybe. I'm an ignorant, nonpartisan independent registered voter. All I know for sure is, with all these Pink Panther remakes and Austin Powers-Love Guru comedies all over the place (and I love both Steve Martin and Mike Myers, who is our modern day Sellers), all one can say is, I miss you so much, Peter Sellers!!! (oh, I should add, the extras on this dvd are REALLY disappointing - I was looking forward to a full length making of documentary, not Illeana Douglas talking on camera for 15 minutes - that + a trailer is all you get, no commentary nothing - I know just about everyone from the picture is dead but couldn't Shirley MacLaine step out of one of her lives for a couple of hours to reminisce?)
DVD Review: A favourite movie
Summary: 5 Stars
"Being There" is one of our favourite movies and good to have it on DVD now. Excellent script and performances by everyone and not just because I have acted with Dick Dysart (the doctor )but this is one of Peter Sellars' best career roles. The Biltmore in Ashville, NC.,is used for the house so anyone who has visited there will be intrigued as well.
Description of Being There
Based on Jerzy Kosinski's satirical novel about an illiterate gardener who has lived his entire life behind the walls of a Washington, D.C., house, his only knowledge of the world coming from the TV programs he watches. When his employer and protector dies, he is catapulted into the fast lane of political power.Thanks to an extraordinary, delicately balanced performance by Peter Sellers, Being There received mixed reviews during its theatrical release in 1979, but has since become a celebrated comedy with a loyal following. It's one of the most unusual black comedies ever made, simply because it stretches a simple premise over 130 minutes of straight-faced, strangely compelling commentary on politics, media, and celebrity in media-savvy America. Adapted by Jerzy Kozinsky from his own novel, the movie's about a simple-minded, middle-aged gardener who, after a lifetime of seclusion and safety in a Washington, D.C. townhouse, gets his first exposure to reality beyond the walls of his sheltered existence. His only reference to the world is through his childlike addiction to television, and when a chance encounter brings him into the inner fold of a dying billionaire (Melvyn Douglas), he suddenly finds himself the toast of Washington's political elite. His simple phrases about gardening are misinterpreted as anything from economic predictions to sage political advice, and under the sharp direction of Hal Ashby, Sellers has the audacity to take this comedic conceit to its logical extreme. Being There is not for all tastes--especially not for those who don't appreciate comedic subtlety. But as a showcase for the daring genius of Peter Sellers, this is a classic movie in a category all its own. --Jeff Shannon
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