Sometimes movies are like a crystal ball. They take a deep, dark look at our future and end up nailing it right to the wall. It always seems to be films about the media that do this. Films from thirty years ago that at the time seem totally ridiculous are now standard fodder for T.V. Guide (which in itself is a parody anymore). Network is the first to come to mind with its over the top obsession with getting ratings at the expense of the people on the tube. Another is the almost unknown sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show called Shock Treatment in which a town is actually a television audience and real people play out the broadcast days entertainment. Those two films sandwich in what should have been Peter Seller's farewell performance (we'll pretend it is) in Being There, a film that is partly about media perception and partly about people hearing what they want to hear.
Peter Sellers plays Chance, the gardener in a Washington, D.C. home of an old man. Chance has spent his entire life at this house, which leads to the first question: Is he the old man's son? The thing about Chance is that he's rather slow in the head and his entire life revolves around two things: gardening and television. His life can't function without the tube as it plays non stop throughout his day. When the old man dies Chance is unceremoniously thrown out of the home and forced into the streets of Washington for a day that ends into him falling into an accident with the wife of a prominent billionaire (Shirley MacLaine) who brings him home to recuperate. Unintentionally re dubbed as Chauncey Gardner, Chance's simple statements about gardening and non-responses are interpreted by many as financial and political gospel and he begins to ascend a ladder of success by chance (pun intended, of course).
I think a ton of today's politicians and media people have taken a course from Chance. He says nothing that sounds like something. He has two interests and neither one of them will bring you money or power. Even sex has no business in his world. The film is basically people hearing what they want to hear. We don't want to hear things are bad, we want the good even if it's a bunch of bullshit. Chance is just there for the walk and the ride that he doesn't even know he's on. It doesn't interest him. He even flips the channel on himself because he isn't interested. Maybe he IS the perfect human being since he's not self absorbed and has no ambitions except where to find the next television set.
The is the cap to Peter Seller's career. Seller's plays Chance in a way that you fear that he's going to fail after finally walk into the world, but he always comes out smelling like a rose. What's striking about Seller's performance is that he doesn't play Chance as a character with something overly wrong. When we first meet him we don't know that he's a bit slow between the ears. We figure it out the longer we get to know him. Seller's performance is rather striking when compared to the two Oscar winning performances that can be compared to Chance during the following fifteen years, Dustin Hoffman for Rainman and Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump. Those guys play it up. Sellers is more subdued and it works. Sadly, he was nominated but did not win an Oscar in 1979 (ironically losing to Dustin Hoffman for the craptastic Kramer vs. Kramer).
Being There is kind of a lost gem of Sellers' career. You know about Clouseau and Strangelove, but this one just about tops both of those (well, I can't put it over Strangelove). It's a quirky satire that has become standard in the thirty years since its release. The cast is great and it has some fine direction from Hal Ashby, who gives us a little message at the end of the film. It's funny and thought provoking, proving that you can do both at the same time. It's great.
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