Being There

This article is about the 1979 film. For the 1996 Wilco album, see Being There (album). For the 2005 Tord Gustavsen Trio album, see Being There (Tord Gustavsen album).

This article is about the 1979 film. For the philosophy book, see Andy Clark.

Being There
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hal Ashby
Produced by	Andrew Braunsberg
Screenplay by	Jerzy Kosinski Robert C. Jones
Based on	Being There by Jerry Kosinski
Starring	Peter Sellers Shirley MacLaine Melvyn Douglas Jack Warden Richard A. Dysart Richard Basehart
Music by	Johnny Mandel
Cinematography	Caleb Deschanel
Editing by	Don Zimmerman
Studio	Lorimar Film Entertainment
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	December 19, 1979 (1979-12-19)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English Russian Italian
Box office	$30,177,511

Being There is a 1979 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby. Adapted from the 1971 novella written by Jerzy Kosinski, the screenplay was coauthored by Kosinski and Robert C. Jones. The film stars Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard A. Dysart, and Richard Basehart.

Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Sellers was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The screenplay won the 1981 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Film) Best Screenplay Award and the 1980 Writers Guild of America Award (Screen) for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium. It was also nominated for the 1980 Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay.

Being There was the last Peter Sellers film to be released while he was alive. The making of the film is portrayed in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, a biographical film of Sellers' life.

Plot

Chance (Peter Sellers) is a middle-aged man who lives in the townhouse of a wealthy man in Washington D.C. He seems simple-minded and has lived there his whole life tending the garden. His knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television. When his benefactor dies, Chance is forced to leave and discovers the outside world for the first time.

He wanders aimlessly, wearing his former employer's expensive clothes, and is taken for man of means. Chance passes by a TV shop and sees himself captured by a camera in the shop window. As he is watching, he is struck by a car owned by Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas).

Rand's wife (Shirley MacLaine) brings Chance to their home to recover. Drinking alcohol for the first time in his life, Chance coughs as he tells them his name. "Chance the Gardener" is misheard as "Chauncey Gardiner." Judging by his appearance and manners, Rand assumes that Chauncey is an upper class, well-to-do, highly educated business man. Chance's style and seemingly insightful ways embody the qualities Rand admires. Chance's simplistic utterances about gardens are interpreted as allegorical statements about business and the state of the economy.

Rand is also the confidant and adviser of the U.S. President (Jack Warden), whom he introduces to "Chauncey." Chance's remarks about how the garden changes with the seasons are interpreted by the President as economic and political advice, relating to his concerns about the mid-term unpopularity that many administrations face while in office. Chance, as Chauncey Gardiner, quickly rises to national public prominence. He becomes a media celebrity with an appearance on a television talk show, and is soon on the A-list of the most wanted in Washington society. Public opinion polls start to reflect just how much his "simple brand of wisdom" resonates with the jaded American public. At an upscale Washington cocktail lounge, two important, older, well-dressed men are discussing Chauncey; one says to the other, there is a rumor "he holds degrees in medicine as well as law."

Rand, dying of aplastic anemia, encourages his wife to become close to Chance, knowing Eve is a fragile woman. However, the fact that Chance has given Rand an apparent acceptance of his illness and peace of mind with his imminent death makes the doctor hesitant to say anything. He also obviously sees that Chance possesses no guile, no intent to deceive, or any interest which would adversely impact Ben or Eve, or have any adverse effect upon Eve, or the estate, following Ben's death.

Just days before his death, Rand rewrites his will to include Chauncey. At his funeral, the President gives a long-winded read-out of various bon mots and quotes made by Rand over the years, which greatly impresses the pallbearers, who are members of the board of Rand's companies. They hold a whispered discussion over potential replacements for the President in the next term of office. As Rand's coffin is about to be interred in the family Masonic pyramid-like mausoleum, they unanimously agree on "Chauncey Gardiner."

Oblivious to all this, Chance wanders through Rand's wintry estate. Ever the gardener, he straightens out a pine sapling and then walks off, across the surface of a small lake. The audience now sees Chance physically walking on water. He pauses, dips his umbrella into the water under his feet as if testing its depth, turns, and then continues to walk on the water as Rand's quote "Life is a state of mind" is voiced by the still eulogizing President.

Cast

• Peter Sellers as Chance the Gardener, a.k.a. Chauncey Gardiner
• Shirley MacLaine as Eve Rand
• Melvyn Douglas as Ben Rand
• Jack Warden as The President
• Richard A. Dysart as Dr. Robert Allenby
• Richard Basehart as US Soviet Ambassador
• David Clennon as Thomas Franklin
• Ruth Attaway as Louise
• Denise DuBarry as Johanna Franklin
• Sam Weisman as Colson
• Arthur Rosenberg as Morton Hull
• Jerome Hellman as Gary Burns
• James Noble as Kaufman
• Fran Brill as Sally Hayes
• Elya Baskin as Karpatov

Production

In the intervening span of several years between the novel's publication and the film's production, Peter Sellers reportedly engaged in quite a dogged quest to obtain the rights to bring the story to the screen and portray its lead character sending several postcards and letters signed "Chance" to Jerzy Kosinski and Hal Ashby.

As the closing credits roll, an alternative cut of the film has bloopers from a scene that does not appear in the film are played: Sellers, lying on a gurney, tries in vain to recite the "message" given by the gang leader (one of the gang members is played by future Allman Brothers band bassist Oteil Burbridge), which includes quite a bit of swearing, with a straight face, and ends up flubbing the lines and laughing instead. Such outtakes being shown in a major Hollywood production were very rare at the time, and Sellers reportedly disapproved of the decision to include them since, by all accounts, it was his desire with this film to display his skills as a serious dramatic actor. There is another cut of the film that has a shot of television static over the end credits.

There was serious disagreement between Lorimar Films, the production company, and Ashby with respect to the final scene of the film, before the end credits. The original screenplay ended with the Chance character wandering down from the Rand funeral site and simply regarding the trees and leaves near the lake. Ashby thought of the "walking on water" ending and incorporated it into the production and the final cut, but it nearly led to his being fired from the film. Ashby prevailed, and ending is now thought of as a brilliant satirical final comment.

Additionally, there was substantial unhappiness over the final award of sole screenplay credit to Kosinski, since it was widely recognized that Robert Jones, the film editor of many of Ashby's pictures, had substantially revised Kosinski's very literal screenplay adaptation of his novel and was really responsible for the screenplay that was produced.

The film makes continued use of actual television clips throughout. These clips are part of the ambient visual and audio background, presented as a natural occurrence of a television being on in the room where the scene is taking place. The clips were chosen by Dianne Schroeder, and are referenced in the film credits as "Special Television Effects". These clips are an essential element of the film. They provide a window into the mind of Chance, who knows nothing of the world outside the old man's home except from what he's learned on television. They are also a comment on the addictive quality of television, as the film's audience begins to realize that they are drawn to the clips just as Chance is.

Incidental music is used very sparingly in this film. What little original music is used was composed by Johnny Mandel, and primarily features two recurrent piano themes based on Gnossienne No. 4 and No. 5 by Erik Satie. The other major piece of music used is the Eumir Deodato jazz/funk arrangement of the opening fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss, in the scene where Chance leaves the house and ventures out into the world for the first time. This composition is widely known in its original Strauss orchestration.

Reception

Film critic Roger Ebert mentions the final scene in his 2005 book The Great Movies II (p. 52),^[1] stating that his film students once suggested that Chance may be walking on a submerged pier. Ebert writes, "The movie presents us with an image, and while you may discuss the meaning of the image, it is not permitted to devise explanations for it. Since Ashby does not show a pier, there is no pier — a movie is exactly what it shows us, and nothing more."^[2]

Sellers won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Being There. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor as well at the 52nd Academy Awards, but he lost to Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer.

Melvyn Douglas won his second Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance.

The film is ranked number 26 on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs list, a list released by American Film Institute in 2000 of the top 100 funniest films in American cinema.^[3]

A parody of the film, "Being Not All There", was published in Mad magazine. It was illustrated by Mort Drucker and written by Larry Siegel in regular issue #218, October 1980.^[4]

See also

Film portal

• Politics in fiction
• The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma

References

1. ^ Ebert, Roger (2006), The Great Movies II, Random House, Inc., p. 52, ISBN 9780767919869, http://books.google.com/books?id=sdv8LRB6a88C&pg=PA52 
2. ^ Ebert, Roger (May 25, 1997). "Being There review". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on December 12, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5uuX7KvuP. Retrieved December 12, 2010. 
3. ^ "100 Years…100 Laughs". American Film Institute. 2000. Archived from the original on December 12, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5uuXdQxvi. Retrieved December 12, 2010. 
4. ^ Mad #218, October 1980, MadCoverSite.com.

Bibliography

• Finkelstein, Joanne (2007). The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. I.B. Tauris. pp. 9, 98–99. ISBN 1845113950. http://www.ibtauris.com/display.asp?ISB=9781845113957. 
• Neupert, Richard (1995). The End: Narration and Closure in the Cinema. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814325254. 
• Nichols, Peter M.; A. O. Scott, Vincent Canby (2004). The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. Macmillan. pp. 93–94. ISBN 0312326114. 
• Sikov, Ed (2002). Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers. Hyperion. ISBN 0786885815. 
• Tichi, Cecelia (1991). Electronic Hearth: Creating an American Television Culture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195079140. 

External links

• Being There at the Internet Movie Database
• Being There at AllRovi
• Being There at Box Office Mojo
• Being There at Rotten Tomatoes