Being There (2001, DVD)

Its Peters Sellers best owrk, a great story about a man with no identity who has a mystery about him....you have to see it to the end to know....

This is one of Peter Sellers last movie and one of his finest performances. it was thoroughly enjoyable.

This is Peter Sellers last movie, and in my opinion, his best! His performance is so subtle and charming, it's almost hard to believe that you are watching Peter Sellers "act". He should have received an Oscar for this role. The supporting cast is excellent as well.
You cannot go wrong with this one...

Note: I am editting my prior review by this comment. "Being There is an excellant movie, which I enjoyed very much when seen originally in a theatre. I enjoyed it enough, that I attempted to purchase the movie for my personal collection. I still feel this way, and encourage anyone that like Peter Sellars to try this movie. I wish you good luck with your purchase experience of this movie. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.
ORIGINAL REVIEW COMMENT BELOW - BASED ON POOR PURCHASE EXPERIENCE:
I wish you had a rating option lower than "Poor".
I'm very dissatisfied. I attempted to purchase 2 copies of this DVD from 2 separate sellers through Ebay. Neither was delivered. After a long headache and having to file a complait via PayPal, I'm supposed to receive a refund from one. The other has not replied, and I've excalated that one to a full report to PayPal. Attempts to contact both sellers through Ebay were not responded to, at least not until I got PayPal involved.
I've had very positive purchases on other items through Ebay, but I seriously doubt I'll ever try to buy another DVD. This was absolutlety unacceptable, and you need to know about it.

A must-see for Peter Sellers fans. Very funny yet has a somewhat tragic side, too. It's the type of movie you want to see more than once.

I loved this movie the first time I saw it, and I had to OWN it. It is a classic Peter Sellers film, not slap stick like the Pink Panther series. It's a story about a mentally challenged man (Peter Sellers) who is believed to be very smart, even a potential candidate for President. BUY IT, you'll love it.

I saw this movie which was still in theaters at the time of Peter Sellers very tragic death...He died too young, but his legacy and scope live on...This was his most intellectually challenging role, right up there with Dr. Strangelove. He plays a character eerily similar to his real-life ability to assume a chameleonlike "hero." He's a hero in all eyes but his own...and those who knew him "back when..." His performance as an autistic, simple Everyman, and his ability to convince everyone around him after he is "let out into the wild" (having lived a very secluded TV-oriented life) is exquisite. When he shockingly discovers that the TV Remote won't simply make people and unpleasant situations "go away," he somehow adapts, where others would have been crushed under. He is saved by Society's assumptions, the vanities of others of social prominence, and by dumb luck. The tortured soul of Jersey Kozinsky, who wrote the book of the same title, seemed to be almost unwittingly captured and cast by Sellers. A MUST SEE...on so many levels...Sellers at his best...mature and childlike all at the same time...Shirley MacLaine is also brilliant in this unsung gem...

This was a real thrill of a movie when I first saw it. It deals with a culture that speaks in a feign and is therefore as likely to misjudge and to misguide and to end up being deceived as the culture is itself used to doing and getting away with. You live by the sword you die by the sword is what they say. Not that that is the case here as nothing Peter sellers says is anything but benign or useful. Imagine advising the President of the United States based on nothing else but the fact that he misreads everything you say to mean genius!

Offbeat Sellers flick with an interesting ending. Reminds one of some of todays politicians. Always liked it and wanted to have a copy to play whenever.

Peter Sellers shines in his last role as Chauncy, a mildly retarded gardener. After being slightly hurt by a millionaire's wife's driver, Chauncy's world (and possibly the future of the United States!) turns completely around. A dark and strange comedy sure to entertain just about any age. Fun behind-the-scenes flubs shown at the end add extra laughs!

It is supposed to be a classic. Was a little slow getting going but was inded a good thought provoking movie. Bought it mainly to see my children's drama coach in action (Georgine Hall- small part secretary) She said just "Being there" with Peter Sellers was fabulous.....

Everyone told me I HAD to see the brilliant "Forrest Gump." I rented it.I endured the endless insipid film, including Tom Hanks' incredibly overrated performance.Maybe it was during the trite " Run, Forrest, Run" bit when I realized I HAD SEEN THIS ALL BEFORE IN A DIFFERENT MOVIE. BUT THIS OTHER MOVIE WAS FLAWLESS.And that other flawless film was " Being There." Someone should have told the Gump people that their film had already been made years earlier with better humor, better acting, better writing and much deeper meaning. "Being There" is all we needed.It still transcends any and all adequate description.And that ending . . .

A superb story coupled with subtle comic mastery by one of the greatest funnymen of our time. A story llike no other -- a man who has grown up sequestered inside a home his entire life with the bulk of his learning coming from people on TV. When his benefactor passes away, he's forced to go out into the world. Then Gods grace takes over in his life. He's taken in by a wealthy family and his life just gets better and better. This is the kind of movie that I search for to show my family -- great craft and entertainment devoid of sex, violence, and crass language (and it came from Hollywood!) My only disapointment would be that when the DVD was finally produced, they wern't able to interview any of the players. Great gift for all ages.

If you want to know the real Peter Sellers, then this movie will complete the task. Some people may find it a bit slow and perhaps even a little boring. I find myself mesmerized throughout the whole viewing. At times the movie is funny but there seems always a mysterious deep under tone to the whole film that climaxes at the very end into a surreal Magrite like image and a religious theme reminiscent of Salvador Dali's later works. This film is ranked in my all time top 5 favorite movies. As good as the Pink Panther movies are, this one far exceeds them but in an entirely different manner. This is a must see for everyone with the exception of those who limit themselves to fast action, gore, and nudity; not that there is anything wrong with those types.

Peter Sellers' masterpiece is rare in that it transcends the very clever and well conceived book upon which it is based; taking it to places that author Jerzy Kosinski may never have imagined or intended. Sellers must have recognized something of himself deep in the character of Chance the Gardener (aka Chauncey Gardner) to have been able to so embue Kozinski's protagonist with additional dimensions; facets that bring the character to larger-than life and elevate Being There from its original satirical take on media and celebrity to a kind of celluloid shamanism. Sellers as medium, leads us to an ethereal vantage point; more Krylov's Fables than Washington Post; more Brothers Grimm than Wall Street Journal. After all the belly-laugh inducing pratfalls, word play, impressions, innuendo and slapstick...subtly, it turns out, was Sellers forte. Required viewing. A true swan song.

My wife likes Peter Sellers and is collecting his movies. This was added to her collection. She has several already.

'Being There', starring Peter Sellers in perhaps the best performance of his life (he was nominated for the Academy Award for this), and adapted from Jerzy Kosinski's brief but rich novella, is one of the great, under-rated films that fill video-store shelves, rarely to be rented or purchased, but holding great rewards for those who do.
In the film we come upon Chance as 'the old man' has died, and the lawyers are coming in to close the house. As a man apart from society, there is no record of Chance even existing (which becomes important later). He is a mystery from the beginning, made all the more mysterious by his completely innocent, non-evasive manner. This is rare for Washington, D.C.!

Having been turned out of the house, Chance begins his partial discovery of the real world. He experiences hatred, deprivation, and solitude for the first time, but all of this leaves little impact upon him. He continues his solitary journey until stopped by a store display of television sets, at which time he backs up to watch himself being displayed from the video camera, and is injured by a passing car belonging to Benjamin Rand, wealthy financier and kingmaker. Mrs. Rand is in the car (played astutely by Shirley MacLaine), and insists on taking Chance (who, while taking his first alcoholic drink, garbles the words to the degree that she mishears his name, becomes at this point Chauncey) back to the Rand estate, where doctors and nurses are in attendance at the sick-near-dying bed of her husband Benjamin.

Chauncey floats effortlessly through this world. Without apprehension and without an image to protect and project, he is simply himself, and in so being, becomes a mirror to project the hopes of those around him. While he speaks in terms of gardening almost exclusively, others, from Mrs. Rand to the President of the United States (who ends up quoting him in a speech) believe he is a master of metaphor, and, much like a mystical text, are quick to assign their own meanings to his words.

Because Chauncey is without affectation, well-mannered and, above all, a curious listener, people are charmed by him. The policeman outside the White House respond when he reports a sick tree in the park. The Russian ambassador responds when Chauncey laughs at his Russian jokes. The Rands respond because they both need, above all, hope. Chauncey becomes a cipher for all.

Chance is a mystery. The President quotes him in a speech, after meeting him at the Rand estate. But who is he? The CIA and the FBI cannot find any information on him. Thus, both decide he must be an ex-agent who has 'wiped the slate clean'.

Ultimately, it is unclear, purposefully so, if Chance is in fact mentally deficient or spiritually enhanced. The disturbing message of the film and novel is that even a little learning can be a soul-destroying force; ignorance is bliss, and enables one to walk on water when one doesn't know one can't.

Will Chance succeed, by Chance? Will the Randian consortium in fact propel him into the Presidency? Would you, the viewer, want him as President?

Filmed largely at the Biltmore Estate (pictured as if it were in the centre of the District of Columbia), this is a visually interesting film as well as an intriguing story, with superb acting performances and an ambiguous moral at the end. The very last words of the film are

`Life is a state of mind.'