Being There (1979)

Being There

Morton Hull: Do you realize that more people will be watching you tonight, than all those who have seen theater plays in the last forty years?
Chance the Gardener: Why?

This excellent movie is a wry commentary on the media, politics and culture of 1979. It remains relevant today.

Chance (Peter Sellers) has lived his entire life in the mansion of a wealthy old man in Washington D.C. Little was expected of him as he was evidently a bit “slow”. He was completely satisfied tending the garden and watching TV everyday.

One day, the old man dies. Chance is left to fend for himself dressed in some tailored old clothes. His life changes when Ben Rand’s (Melvyn Douglas) car strikes him. Ben and his wife Eve (Shirley McLaine) take Chance home to recover and more or less adopt him.

Chance the gardener sounds like “Chauncy Gardiner” to the Rands and so he is known from then on. Ben is an advisor to the President. He is super impressed with Chaucey’s philosophy. Though Chauncey is a man of few words, his knowledge confined as it is to gardening and TV, the political elite make everything into a wise analogy. Later, Eve attempts to seduce Chauncey, who evidently is stuck at about the third grade level. By the time the farce is over he is being discussed for a Presidential nomination.

This is a comedy but not a laugh riot. It’s a whimsical movie with a potent sting at its heart. I liked it better on a second viewing. Sellers is wonderful. But I thought Douglas was even better in his performance as a worldly cynical dying man whose last days are comforted by what he thinks is Chauncey’s deep philosophy. He richly deserved his Best Supporting Actor Oscar. What a long and distinguished career he had! Sellers received a Best Actor nomination.