Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2199 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-02-10
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Italian, Russian
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Romanian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Polish, Turkish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Hal Ashby's much-praised Being There stars Peter Sellers in what was perhaps his finest comic performance. Chance the gardener has spent his entire life in an old man's house and has no idea of the world outside except for what television has given him. Sellers manages to make his innocence touching and oddly impressive rather than an offensive exploitation of disability. Jerzy Kozinski's screenplay neither entirely endorses nor discounts the twin possibilities that Chance's simplicity and closeness to the natural world give him access to real wisdom, or that he is simply a blank on whom people project what they want to see and hear. What is clear is that he gives his dying friend Ben (Jack Warden) peace of mind and consoles Ben's wife (Shirley Maclaine). Whether he's being groomed for the Presidency or appearing to walk on water, he always does something right, and the same is true for Sellers' minimalist performance.

On the DVD: Being There is presented in a widescreen visual aspect of 1.85:1 and has 1.0 Dolby Digital mono sound; it comes with the original theatrical trailer, information about the stars and director and a list of the film's awards. --Roz Kaveny

Special Features
Trailer

1.0 Dolby Digital Mono

1.85:1 widescreen

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Romanian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Croatian, Czech, Greek, Polish, Turkish, Hungarian

Synopsis
BEING THERE is based on Jerzy Kosinski's short comic novel about a simpleton, Chance (Peter Sellers), raised in isolation whose only education came from watching TV. When he's forced out of the house where he worked as a gardener by the death of the wealthy recluse who raised him from infancy, he's fortuitously struck by a limousine carrying Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of a wealthy industrialist. He's mistaken, because of his well-tailored suits, for a man of means and taken to dinner with her husband, Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas). There, as Chauncy Gardner, his blank affect is taken for seriousness and his literal pronouncements about gardening for metaphoric economic predictions. Soon he's meeting the president (Jack Warden) and becoming a star on TV--where he's a natural.
Kosinski was well known to be personally fascinated by the power of television. In BEING THERE, which he adapted for the screen himself, he presents a comic fable about a man whose entire sense of reality came from watching television. Sellers is marvelous as the always-deadpan cipher in whom everyone he meets sees whatever it is they need to see. Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, and Melvyn Douglas give outstanding performances in this biting satire directed by Hal Ashby.

Customer Reviews

Perhaps not the most 'accessible' masterpiece of modern cinema?
This is a challenging, dare I say, somewhat difficult film on so many levels to watch and then critique. On the one hand, those Sellers fans expecting another Clousea-esque comedy will be sorely disappointed ...it's certainly not a laugh out loud, laugh-a-minute comedy, and there's little to zero physical hi-jinks or PS capery!

But for those prepared to watch for nuances, subtle underplay and an inate depth of performance in a character ...well, then it's perhaps Mr Sellers' greatest ever cinematic portrayal as so many have said over the years.

I find - and I'm the actor's greatest fan - that I have to be in the right mood to watch Being There ...but to paraphrase Shirley Maclaine, who famously stated she took her role in the film so as to be able to work with the genius that was Sellers ...it is indeed 'pure' comic genius at work!

You need only watch the scene when the old man dies and Chancey gets a most visual and aural lump in his throat to know that it is a most compelling, unique and captivating performance by the great man ...and one that should have certainly won him the Oscar for Best Leading Actor!

I would, with respect, recommend that some viewers watch this film a couple or three times to gain the maximum understanding and enjoyment from this film. If I had to choose just one word to sum-up both the film and Peter Sellers' performance, it would be enigmatic!

Surprisingly dull
We were really looking forward to this film, after reports about Sellers' "finest comic performance" etc. After an hour, we pressed the eject button without even having chuckled.

The idea of the film is interesting ... but not believable. You can just about imagine someone like Chance being in that situation, but the other characters' reactions to him are ridiculous. That's one major problem. But the main flaw is worse: the film is very slow and very tedious. A big disappointment.

Poignant, subtle, genius, joyous
I can't believe there are so few reviews for such a fantastic film.

It works on so many levels. The humour is tender and warm. The direction allows all the main players to inhabit their characters convincingly. It just envelopes the viewer in a wonderful experience; a combination of a writer, director and cast on top of their game. Nothing spoils it.

At heart it's actually a farce, but farces don't come any gentler or more charming than this. It is truly a thing of beauty with Sellers utterly convincing and endearing as the innocent whose only reference points in life are TV and gardening. It would have been so easy to over-egg his backward nature, but both director and lead get the balance just right.

It gave us all a glimpse of Sellers giving a fine comic performance while playing it straight. What a shame he had no opportunity to do it again.

I have read that director Hal Ashby kept every take from the movie and these tapes were discovered after his death. What a pity that the politics and power games that this film mocks will probably put the kybosh on any of this footage seeing the light of day.

And if you think that the story is too far-fetched to be believable, you only have to look to today's White House to see that truth can be stranger than fiction.

See it. You may not like it. But if you do like it, you will absolutely adore it.