Being There

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

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

Being There
Original film poster
Directed by	Hal Ashby
Written by	Jerzy Kosinski Robert C. Jones
Produced by	Andrew Braunsberg
Starring	Peter Sellers Shirley MacLaine Melvyn Douglas Jack Warden Richard A. Dysart Richard Basehart
Cinematography	Caleb Deschanel
Edited by	Don Zimmerman
Music by	Johnny Mandel
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	December 19, 1979 (1979-12-19)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Box office	$30,177,511

Being There is a 1979 American comedy-drama feature 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 gardener who lives in the townhouse of a wealthy man in Washington D.C. He seems very simple-minded and has lived in the house his whole life, tending the garden, with virtually no contact with the outside world. His cultural and social education is derived entirely from what he watches on the television sets provided by the "Old Man," who raised him. The only other person in his life is Louise, the maid who cooks his meals and looks upon him as nothing more than a child who has failed to grow up. When his benefactor dies, Chance is visited by attorneys handling the estate. They force him to leave his sheltered existence and discover the outside world for the first time.

He wanders aimlessly through a wintry and busy Washington in old-fashioned clothes, a homburg hat, suitcase, umbrella and a television remote from his old home. Although finely-tailored many years ago, his clothes are of the style which has now come back into fashion during the period of the story, and so he is presumed to be an expensively well-dressed man of means by those whom he encounters. In the evening Chance comes across a TV shop and sees his own image in one of the TVs captured by a camera in the shop window. While watching himself in it he is struck by a car owned by Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), a wealthy businessman.

Rand's wife Eve (Shirley MacLaine) invites Chance to their home (the famous Biltmore Estate doubles as the Rand Estate) to recover from his injured leg. After being offered alcohol for the first time in his life, Chance coughs over it while being asked his name which, instead of "Chance the Gardener" (which is what he said), is interpreted to be "Chauncey Gardiner." During dinner at the Rands' home, Chance describes attorneys coming to his former house and shutting it down. Judging by his appearance and overall demeanor, Ben Rand automatically assumes that Chauncey is an upper class, well-to-do, highly educated business man. Although Chance is really describing being kicked out of the home where he tended to the garden, Ben Rand perceives it as attorneys shutting down Chance's business because of financial problems; he even assumes it must have been caused by "kid lawyers from the SEC," obviously attributing it to have occurred at a higher, more sophisticated level than a tax/IRS problem, as most persons would likely have assumed. Sympathizing with him, Ben Rand takes Chance under his wing. Chance's personal style and seemingly conservative and insightful ways embody many qualities that Ben admires. His simplistic, serious-sounding utterances, which mostly concern the garden, are interpreted as allegorical statements of deep wisdom and knowledge regarding business matters and the current state of the economy in America.

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. Rand's doctor (Richard A. Dysart) makes a few inquiries of his own and gets to see Chance for what he truly is — an actual gardener, totally oblivious and unaware to the ways of the world. 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 superimposed in the background.

Cast

• Peter Sellers as Chance the Gardener, a.k.a. Chauncey Gardiner
• Melvyn Douglas as Ben Rand
• Shirley MacLaine as Eve Rand
• Jack Warden as The President
• David Clennon as Thomas Franklin
• Ruth Attaway as Louise
• Denise DuBarry as Johanna Franklin
• Richard A. Dysart as Dr. Robert Allenby
• Richard Basehart as The Soviet ambassador to the United States
• 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, 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 Kosinski and Ashby.

As the closing credits roll, an alternative cut of the film has bloopers from a scene that does not appear in the movie 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), 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."

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.

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.

See also

• Politics in fiction

References

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.
• Neupert, Richard (1995). The End: Narration and Closure in the Cinema. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814325254.
• Nichols, Peter M. (2004). The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made. Macmillan. pp. 93–94. ISBN 0312326114. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• 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 IMDb
• Template:Allmovie title
• Being There at Box Office Mojo
• Being There at Rotten Tomatoes