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Being There

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Being There (1979)

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95 %
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Reviews Counted: 38

Fresh: 36

Rotten:2

Average Rating: 8.4/10

Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins

Genre: Comedies

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... 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. [More]

Starring: Peter Sellers, Melvyn Douglas, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden

Starring: Peter Sellers, Melvyn Douglas, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, Richard Basehart

Director: Hal Ashby

Director: Hal Ashby
Composer: Johnny Mandel
Producer: Andrew Braunsberg

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Apr 3, 2001

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Being There

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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a product not of Ashby's essential modesty but of Kosinski's essential egoism.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
05/20/09
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

If you are going to see only one Peter Sellers movie, see Dr. Strangelove, but if you're going to see two, then Being There also belongs on your must-see list.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
04/27/09
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

While the story is utterly ridiculous, since not everyone would be fooled all the time, it still works as a charming work of fiction.

Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
03/05/09
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

Sellers uses simple looks and gestures to bring light to some very serious situations. At many points it's like he's in a trance, truly embodying Chance.

Full Review Source: Movie Views | comment Comment
02/06/09
Ryan Cracknell
Movie Views

It's perhaps the great comic actor's most emotionally moving role.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
02/06/09
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Ground Zero for the cult of Sellers.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
02/05/09
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine

Whether Being There is an indictment of our narrow view of the world, a celebration of empty-headedness or all of the above, "Life is a state of mind," and Ashby's film is a gift to treasure. [Blu-ray]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
01/31/09
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

...one of the shrewdest, funniest, and most touching sociopolitical satires in movie history.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
01/29/09
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

So anti-Tom Hanks it ain't funny.

comment Comment
02/15/08
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Peter Sellers' peculiar talents are ideally suited to the role of the idiot savant, and despite the Oscar going to co-star Douglas, his is the standout performance of a fascinating, funny film.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
10/31/07
Channel 4 Film

Jerzy Kosinski's modern fable gets a terrific translation to the screen due to his tight screenplay, capable direction by Ashby, and a marvelous performance by Sellers, one unlike any other in his career.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
10/31/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A highly unusual and an unusually fine film.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/31/07
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No one seems to know what to do with the allegorical undertone of Jerzy Kosinski's script, but as a whole this 1979 film maintains a fine level of wit, sophistication, and insight.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
10/31/07
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

What emerges in the end is a strange ambiguity of attitude to the American political system and a hollow humour about cultural values. The cinema of cynicism, really.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment 2 Comments
01/26/06
Time Out

No review available.

comment Comment
07/23/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Brilliant Ashby classic, Peter Sellers' best.

comment Comment
06/15/05
Steve Crum
Video-Reviewmaster.com

No review available.

comment Comment
05/16/05
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

a vital statement on our TV reality, on how we develop our heroes, and on how power perpetuates itself

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
03/07/05
Eric Meyerson
Filmcritic.com

Sellers' best

comment Comment
12/03/04
S. James Wegg
JWR

No review available.

comment Comment
06/08/04
Sarah Chauncey
Reel.com
 
 
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