Peter Sellers has always been one of the comic geniuses in the last 50 years. No one can nail accents as well as he did. Nor could they create as many distinct characters either. And based on his comedy, it is not hard to see the influence that he has had in the comedy world, being a huge influence on Monty Python (the idea of pretending to use horses and bang coconuts together was NOT a Python idea, but was from a Peter Sellers' sketch on A Show Called Fred) and other comedians worldwide. However, people tend to forget that he played other roles other than the over-the-top, slapstick comedy roles. After all, he never was much of a physical comedian (this only really started in the Pink Panther series). And the film Being There just shows how he can also play more serious roles than the various comedies he was in during the 50s and 60s.

The film starts off by introducing us to Chance the Gardener (Peter Sellers). He has lived his whole life on an estate of a rich man. However, when the rich man dies, Chance is told by attorneys to move out of the estate. Chance moves out and is thrown into a world that he has never seen before. However, while watching a television by a shop window, he gets hit by a car that is owned by Benjamin Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who happens to be a financial advisor to the President (Jack Warden). After being under the care of Rand's doctor (Richard Dysart), Rand and Chance soon quickly become good friends. However for some strange reason, Rand begins to think that Chance is a genius. Chance constantly talks about what happens in the garden and other simple phrases which Rand mistakes for being deep, philosophical analogies for improving government policy and using Chance's apparent analogies, Chance becomes an overnight sensation and his ideology of how a garden works is used as economic policy for the government. And along with Rand and the President and his advisors, people similarly become enthralled by Chance's apparent intellect.

What I find particularly funny about the plot is how it pokes fun at politics. You look at the character of Chance and as an audience watching the film, we obviously know that Chance is not all that bright a person. With the ordinary personality of Chance, you laugh at how he says completely random phrases that he constantly uses in his everyday life which become the backbone to one of the President's speeches. What is funny about this is that when Chance says things he means them in the literal sense while everyone else around him takes what he says in the metaphorical sense. It gets funnier as Chance becomes more and more popular among the public and during a party he goes to with Rand's wife, Eve (Shirley Maclaine), all he can say among all the intellectual banter is "yes" and "I like to watch". People at the party end up thinking that he really is a brilliant mind and they end up thinking that he can talk 8 different languages and hold various degrees and other various qualifications. Its so funny because all Chance says is "yes" to the various things brought up by Eve's friends at the party, who include the Russian ambassador and other influential figures.

I think one of the important points the film tries to portray is the idea that one's past will always be a burden to them. Chance does not carry much of a past because he has lived on the estate for his whole life and never had any reason to move out of there. The President's advisors, journalists and other people try to find Chance's record, but cannot find it. Because one cannot really look at Chance's past or find any sort of record of it, he is seen as a blank slate and because he is a blank slate, he does not carry with him any sort of reputation or any sort of history that can affect him or have a negative influence on him. Thus, this is why he does not carry the burden of having a past or a history. He is a fresh face.

However, what I really like about this film is the fact that it is a very subtle film. It never aims to be over-the-top or ever attempt to state the obvious. As an audience, we get to see Chance's character really develop. He starts off as a bit of an enigma. We just know that he is a gardener and that he likes to watch TV. He has never felt emotion before because he has been left in the garden all his life and has never been loved before by anyone. To the people on old man's estate, he is just the gardener and nothing more. This all changes once he meets the Rands. They love him. They treat him as a friend. Chance finally feels this love and he gets to feel emotion. When you see a tear fall down his eye later in the story, it touches you because it is the first time he feels such a powerful emotion hit him. Similarly, the Rands also feel that Chance is the kind of friend that has been missing their whole life. They need a loyal and genuine friend. Chance is just that for them.

Although the film has many positive aspects to its screenplay, I felt that none of its subplots really ever took off. A few of these subplots include the President's sexual impotence in bed. It was there but it seemed inevitably irrelevant for the film. Also, I was generally left with the character of the President being never developed and is treated like a side dish in this film. I was also relatively unimpressed by the editing of the film. This film runs for about 130 minutes and this could have easily been cut down had the editing been a bit more effective. This, however, can also be due to Hal Ashby's direction who runs this film at a relatively slow pace. As for the cinematography, this was relatively fine for a 1970s film although it is definitely not flashy in any way.

As for the acting, this was absolutely fantastic throughout the film. Peter Sellers owns the character of Chance. He is Chance. What is interesting about this character is that Sellers aimed for this character to essentially be a combination between a gardener in his house during his childhood and Stan Laurel. Sellers aimed to make sure that Chance's character had the same frankness as his gardener did and said funny things in a straight face done in a similar fashion to Stan Laurel. I have to say he does a pretty darn good job of that. I just also liked how subtle his performance was. It is hard to imagine how difficult it must have been to keep a straight face throughout the film. As for the supporting cast of the film, the performances there are generally sound as well. Melvyn Douglas is also just as good as the aging Ben and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role here. To me, he is Benjamin Rand. It is hard to imagine that they originally planned to have Sir Laurence Olivier playing this character. As for Shirley Maclaine, she is also very good in the film. That masturbation scene is a truly hilarious moment in the film, and yes, this was all done while Peter Sellers kept a straight face, enjoying Chance's favourite pastime, which is to watch TV. And for those film buffs who are interested, one of the main reasons why Sir Laurence Olivier did not take the role of Ben was that after reading the script, he did not like the thought of Maclaine masturbating in the film.

As for the direction in the film, Hal Ashby does a satisfactory, although unimpressive, job with the film. He takes far too long to build the film and I was almost tempted to stop watching this film after starting off on the wrong foot. But I was glad that he sped the film up in the second half and present us with quite a few comedic moments.

If there is any reason to watch this film, here is one for you. This is perhaps Peter Sellers' best performance he has ever done. In many ways, this is better than his performance in Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb due to the difficulty in playing such a still, unemotional character. Also, many (including fellow Goon Show man Harry Seccombe and director Joe McGrath) have said that this film is essentially a "spiritual portrait" of Peter Sellers and among all his characters that he has played throughout his career, this one probably resembles Sellers most clearly. Clearly in the sense that he said that he was a fairly ordinary personality and yet millions thought he was a genius with his comedy. Thus, I feel that all Peter Sellers fans should watch this film.

As for DVD extras, these are unfortunately unimpressive. The DVD only contains cast information, a theatrical trailer and the options for subtitles and watching the film in either English or French.

Again, I thank all you guys for reading the review.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD