Being There (1979)

"Chauncey, you have the gift of being natural." 

Director

Hal Ashby

Cast

Peter Sellers - Chance the gardener/ Chauncy Gardiner

Melvyn Douglas - Ben Rand

Shirley MacLaine - Eve Rand

Richard Dysart - Dr. Robert Allenby

Jack Warden - the U.S. President

Ruth Attaway - Louise

Way back around 2010, I got into a habit of checking out random films and documentaries I was unfamiliar with from my local library. Back then, I was living alone. I was single. I was in college. I felt adventurous. But I was cheap. So, that's as far as my adventurous-ness would take me.

Checking out the obscurest (for me, at least) movies I could find became a long-lasting hobby of mine.

Some of those movies, such as "The Paper," I've already written about. Others, such as the French animated movie "The Triplets of Belleville" I'll eventually write about some day. 

Back then, I hadn't heard of the 1979 movie "Being There." Seeing that it stars Peter Sellers, one of my top five favorite comedians of all time, was the selling point for me. And yes, I do have a mental list of top five favorite comedians. 

But I wasn't as keen a movie viewer then as I believe I am now. So, I missed a few things here and there in the story. Still, I was intrigued by "Being There" ever since. 

A few years after first watching "Being There," I came across another movie I never heard of that aroused my intrigue. That movie was the 2004 made-for-TV biopic "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" starring Geoffrey Rush. That's another movie I hope to review later. 

There's a part of the movie that depicts the period when Sellers' worked on this particular film.  

which is based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Jerzy Kosiński. Sellers was evidently eager to make "Being There." He tried for years to get this movie off the ground.

In my last post, I cited the movie "Brazil" as being a favorite satirical social commentary film of mine. "Being There" is a favorite satirical comedy of American political life. Not only is Sellers perfectly cast in the lead role, but the movie also has a stellar supporting cast which includes Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas (who died a few days before I was born), and Jack Warden.  

Peter Sellers and Melvyn Douglas had known each other
since the 1940s, according to Douglas's granddaughter, Illeana Douglas.

The Plot

"Chance" (Peter Sellers) works as a gardener for a wealthy man who seemingly lives alone, aside from Chance residing in his Washington, D.C. home as well. 

He has apparently lived with this rich old man since childhood, always taking care of the garden. Chance has also never left the house in his life. 

His window to the outside world has been television and only television. Everything Chance knows of the world is from watching T.V. 

The movie starts with Chance waking up on another typical morning. He turns on the television - there's one in every room - and goes through his regular routine. 

However, Louise, the old man's housekeeper, tells Chance that his benefactor has died. 

Chance is completely naïve about the gravity of the situation. He's now alone in the house, but continues doing what he has always done - tend the garden and watch T.V. 

Some attorneys stop by unaware that Chance is still living there. Surprised by his presence, they ask him if he has any Claims on the old man's estate.  
As he doesn't know how to respond, nor what the attorneys are talking about, he tells them, "I have no Claim. I don't even know what one looks like."

So, they inform Chance he must be moved out by noon the next day. 

He packs up a single suitcase, mostly with suites that belonged to the old man, stored in a trunk up in the attic, and aimlessly wanders around Washington, D.C. 

Chance doesn't know how to interact with other people. He approaches a random woman and asks if she would please make him a sandwich.

He also goes up to a street gang inquiring where he might be able to find a garden to tend to. 

That interaction doesn't go well. 

As he meanders around well into the evening, Chance walks past a T.V. store with a television and camera displayed in the store window. The camera captures passersby on the screen. Chance is enamored at seeing himself on T.V. He backs up and steps off the curb when a chauffeured car belonging to a wealthy businessman named Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas) accidentally backs in and hits him on the leg. 

Ben's wife, Eve (Shirley MacLaine) is in the vehicle. Apologetic for the accident, she offers to take Chance to the hospital. 

On their way, however, she suggests instead to take him back to her estate where an on-site doctor caring for her elderly husband can examine his leg. 

Peter Sellers as "Chance."

She also offers him a stiff drink and asks what his name is. The alcohol doesn't go down well, and Chance starts coughing. 

He says "Chance, the gardener" while coughing, but she thinks he says "Chauncey Gardiner." So, that's how she introduces him to her husband.

Ben is pleased to meet him and thinks he's a well-off highly educated businessman like himself. The couple encourage him to stay in their huge estate until his leg is mended, which he does.

At supper, Ben mistakes Chance's explanation of the lawyers kicking him out of the old man's house as meaning his business was forced to close thanks to the attorneys.  

Ben happens to be a close friend and advisor to the President of the United States (Jack Warden). 

After a few days, the president is scheduled to pay Ben a visit. Ben wants Chance to be a part of his meeting with the president.

He introduces him as Chauncey Gardiner before he and the president start discussing the economy. 

When the president inquires how to "stimulate growth," Chance considers this a gardening reference. 

So, Chance chimes in with gardening advice and the changing of the seasons. 

The president hears this as deep seated and optimistic political advice. So much so that the president quotes Chance by name during his next televised speech.

Of course, the world's attention quickly turns to Chance. If he's influential enough for the U.S. President to mention him by name, inquiring minds want to know who Chauncey is, where he's from, and what other words of wisdom and philosophy he has to offer. 

Chance quickly finds himself interacting with various influential individuals such as a publisher, a Soviet Ambassador, members of the press, and wealthy businessmen who want to hear more of his deep and insightful financial knowledge. 

Yet, in the midst of all this notoriety, nobody from the press, nor the President's cabinet, nor 16 other countries can find any background information on Chance. This leads to all kinds of conjectures as to why that is. All the president's advisors can find is the make and model of his clothing, which he pulled from his caretaker's trunks in the attic. They were all tailored in the 1920s and 1930s. 

"Being There" was shot at the Biltmore Estate and Gardens in Asheville, N.C.

My Thoughts

Chance is so likeable among the influential people he's in the middle of because he's a blank canvas. And each person, whether they're a publisher, an ambassador, a successful businessman, a politician, or the President of the United States, sees themselves reflected in Chance. 

He's none of them. But to each character, he the same as them. Being so blank and empty, Sellers manages to make this character engrossing. He's like what Mary Poppins would be if she were a man, with much less magic and a lot more ignorance. He just... there. And his name "Chance" is very fitting.

Those around him impose their own ideology, political or otherwise, onto him through his words. He is whatever they want him to be. He's an empty page. He's simple and void of complexity. And what's most appealing, he doesn't pontificate nor correct anyone. Chance is agreeable to everyone simply because he doesn't know anything beyond the garden. He's seemingly optimistic and people get what they want from Chance.

The last scene sums him up well. 

Conspiring pallbearers carrying Ben's remains to his final resting place whisper among themselves about Chance. 

"A man's past cripples him," one of them says. "His background turns into a swamp and invites scrutiny. Up until this time, he hasn't said anything that can be used against him." He then suggests Chance should fill the presidency in the next term as we watch Chance literally walk on water. 

While everyone is trying to figure out Chance, we get various points of view when it comes to those who engage with him. 

The one vantage point that's most accurate comes from Louise who worked for the old man whom Chance lived with. 

She happens to catch Chance on the Gary Burns show, her mouth agape at seeing him on the screen.

"I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant," she says to those sitting with her. "And I'll say right now that he never learned to read and write. No, sir! And no brains at all. Stuck with rice pudding between his ears. Short-changed by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now. Yes sir! All you gotta be is white in America to get whatever you want. Gobbledygook!" 

In other words, as Chance personifies the result of the American system, Louise sees him from the view point of everyday American society. 

And Chance doesn't hide any of his ignorance. 

He tells a publisher named Ron at a suave dinner party that very same fact when offered an opportunity to publish a book of his philosophy. 

But Ron laughs it off.

"I can't write," Chance flat out says. 

"Of course you can't. Who can, nowadays? I have trouble writing a postcard to my children," Ron says. 
"I can't read," Chance later admits. 

"Of course you can't. No one has the time." 

The publisher starts chatting about how everyone tunes into the television instead. 

"I like to watch T.V." Chance replies. 

"Sure you do," Ron says. "No one reads!"

In the beginning, Louise criticizes Chance's lack of understanding or interest in sex.

"You need to find yourself a nice woman," she says. "But I think it should be an older woman, since you're not going to do a young one any good." 

Shirley MacLaine co-stars with Sellers in "Being There."

This sexual naivety comes up again several times, namely with Eve.

In one scene during that same suave dinner party, Chance is approached by a flirtatious man named Dennis.
"Tell me, Mr. Gardner... have you ever had sex with a man?' 

Chance clearly doesn't understand the question.

"No... I don't think so."

This man then invites him to "go upstairs." 

Chance innocently asks, "Is there a T.V. upstairs," which makes the man chuckle. "I like to watch."

The man pauses a moment and says, "You like to, uhh...watch?" 

Chance nods.

Sellers' ability to turn naivety into a hilarious performance, with an absolutely innocent and straight face is flawless throughout the entire movie. He always speaks in a soft, gentle, blank tone, with a friendly smile. His cluelessness is ever present on his face. Sellers told critic Gene Shalit during a 1980 interview on the "Today Show" that he slightly patterned his voice after comedian Stan Laurel. His character carries himself with proper and gentlemanly mannerisms. 

Everything plays out smoothly in the story. Nothing feels forced nor far-fetched. 

For instance, after he gets a call from a studio inviting him to appear on the Gary Burns show, Chauncey accepts saying "I've been on television." He's referring to the instant earlier in the film when he walked past the television store window and saw himself on the screen. 

The juxtaposition between the events that fall into Chance's path and what he happens to be watching on T.V. at the time, or what he recalls seeing on T.V. in the past, is subtle and impressive.

For instance, when Eve walks into his bedroom as he's lying in bed, eating breakfast and watching "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" he has no idea that she's blatantly trying to get to make love to her. We hear the conversation between Fred Rogers and Mr. McFeely in the background which hilariously corresponds to what we're seeing. Chance is simply trying to keep his eyes on the screen. He's more interested in Mr. Rogers than he is in what Eve is offering. 

In the scene where he's hit by the car and taken to the Ben and Eve's estate - the second chapter in middle-aged Chance's life- the music video "Basketball Jones featuring Tyrone Shoelaces " by Cheech and Chong is interspersed in the scene as though Chance is equating this event with the song he must have seen previously on television. 

"I need help, ladies and gentlemens [sic]. I need someone to stand beside me. I need, I need someone to set a pick for me at the free-throw line of life. Someone I can pass to. Someone to hit the open man on the give-and-go and not end up in the popcorn machine. So cheerleaders, help me out," the song lyrics goes. In other words, throughout the movie, the T.V. gives the audience all the insight into Chance using real programming he's obviously seen before. 

This aspect of the story reminds me a little of the 1984 picture "Amadeus" in which Mozart's thoughts and emotions are depicted through his actual music heard in the accompanying soundtrack.

This allows the audience to be in on what Chance is thinking while those in the story don't have a clue.

"Being There" is a smart movie. It's a unique take on politics and society. It's subtle and doesn't beat the audience over the head with its underlying commentary. Chance doesn't need brains. He just needs to sound the right way. He needs to have the right people around him. He needs to appear right. Then he'll go far. But as Louise points out to him, "You'll always be a little boy."

During the end credits, an outtake is played which took me out of the movie. Though it's funny, watching Peter Sellers unable to control his laughing is distracting. It's strange how they added it in the credits.

Otherwise, "Being There" is a movie that doesn't try to be anything more than it already is. It's smart, consistent, and delicate like a priceless work of art. We're meant to think like people should we choose to live.