Being There

The movie Being There is based on a book by Jerzy Kosinski, who also did the screen play. I believe it was Peter Sellers last movie, and in my opinion his finest by a long shot - one of my favorite movies.

Chance the Gardener, is slow and naive. "Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass." Everything he knows of the outside world he has learned from television. On riding in a car the first time: "This is just like television, only you can see much further". When the "Old Man" who has raised him dies, he is left on the street alone. People misinterrupt his horticultural garden babbling as wise metaphors on life and the economy. He is transformed into Chauncey Gardiner, advisor to the president and giants of commerce and industry.

He said, "Now get this honky, you go tell Rafael that I ain't taking no jive from no Western Union messenger. You tell that asshole if he got something to tell me, to get his ass down here himself." Then he said that I was to get my white ass out of there quick or he cut it.

This is the first movie (or T.V. show) I ever saw show out-takes.