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Being There: Difference between revisions
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The 1971 Jerzy Kosinski novella '''''Being There''''' is now [[Adaptation Displacement|better known]] for its 1979 film adaptation.
Chance, the Gardener is a middle-aged, mentally-challenged man who has never been outside of the elegant townhouse he lives in, by orders of its owner "The Old Man". He has only two pastimes in life: gardening and watching television. Not long after the story opens the Old Man is discovered dead. In the aftermath Chance is told by the lawyers who have come to close the house - and who have no record of a gardener employed there, much less living there - that he must leave. Thus, he packs a suitcase of clothes (all hand-me-downs from the Old Man) and his remote control and heads out into the world. Soon enough, he is accidentally struck by a limousine and his leg is injured. The passenger, Eve Rand, happens to be the wife of an elderly, dying financial titan, Ben; since his mansion is now partially set up as a hospital, she invites Chance to recover there. On the ride over, she mishears his name as "Chauncey Gardiner". Though honest by nature, he doesn't realize she's making a mistake, and things snowball from there. Both Eve and Ben take a shine to this ruined businessman (well, that's what they think he is - he has such nice clothes, and is so polite), and the latter introduces him to the President of the United States. When asked him what he thinks of the current economic climate, Chance - confused and grasping at the word "growth"
Arguably the reader most touched by this successful satire was actor [[Peter Sellers]], who heavily identified with Chance's fate to be only what others want/need him to be. He was determined to play the role in a film, which took about seven years to get off the ground as his star had fallen far by the early 1970s. Thus, the latter entries he did in [[The Pink Panther]] series were largely to reestablish his bankability and reputation. Between this and director Hal Ashby's own rising star (Sellers was a fan of ''Harold and Maude'' and immediately pegged him to direct) by way of films like ''Shampoo'' and ''Coming Home'' the film finally arrived in 1979. It is a close adaptation of the book, albeit with some significant expansion and, perhaps most famously, a [[Twist Ending]]. It is also Sellers' last film, and regarded by some
To this day, a politician criticized for being all style/sound bites and no substance or even intelligence is likely to be compared to Chance. Compare and contrast ''[[Forrest Gump]]''.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Adam and or Eve]]
* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]] and [[Informed Attractiveness]]: The former is inverted with
* [[Adaptation Expansion]] ''and'' [[Pragmatic Adaptation]]: The film fleshes out many of the characters and there's a significant addition in Dr. Robert Allenby, but also removes extraneous material by combining the two maids into one, dropping the Russians' attempts to figure out Chance's identity as it only duplicates the FBI/CIA search, etc.
* [[Also Sprach Zarathustra]]: With the Deodato version, that is.
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** "I like to watch."
** "Life is a state of mind."
* [[Big Fancy House]]: In the film, the Rand
* [[Black Comedy]]: Death, socio-economic disparities between races (movie only), mental retardation, government spying, extramarital relationships...all treated seriously, and yet it's ''still'' funny.
* [[Brick Joke]]: The message to Raphael that Chance is told to deliver. {{spoiler|A brick joke ''twice over'' thanks to the [[Hilarious Outtakes]].}}
* [[The Caretaker]]: The Old Man and his maids were this to Chance until the Old Man's death. The Old Man was definitely over-controlling; the book says he warned Chance he would be institutionalized if he ever left the house. (Worse, as Roger Ebert notes in his Great Movies essay, "Perhaps he is his son.") The movie version suggests the black maid Louise was closer to Chance than anyone else he ever knew. Ironically, she completely resents his success as "Chauncey" because she knows what he really is; she chalks it up to his being white.
* [[Covert Pervert]]: Subverted ''hard''. Chance's "I like to watch" is misinterpreted by ''everyone'' that he's a voyeur. In reality, he just likes to watch television.
* [[Crystal Ball Scheduling]]: With the exceptions of a clip of the President and Chance's talk show appearance, every clip seen on a TV in the
* [[A Date with Rosie Palms]]: Eve takes Chance's comment that "he likes to watch" entirely the wrong way.
* [[Eiffel Tower Effect]]: The movie's set in Washington, D.C., but since the P.O.V. is confined to the townhouse until Chance leaves, ''and'' the townhouse is not in the nicest part of town, we don't see any landmarks until he's wandered far (up to that point, we only get one hint as to the setting: a ''Washington Post'' ad on TV).
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* [[The Fool]]: Chance.
* [[Good Adultery, Bad Adultery]]
**
** Bad -- (Movie only) The lawyers who come to close the house are a male-female duo who are carrying on an affair behind the back of the man's wife (who is getting suspicious).
* [[Good Morning, Crono]]: The opening sequence of the movie follows Chance as he's awakened by the TV in his bedroom, and he proceeds to tend to his garden (there's a TV in the greenhouse), watch some more TV in his bedroom, and then go down to the dining room to wait for breakfast and watch ''more'' TV.
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* [[Ice Cream Koan]]: Chance's "wise sayings".
* [[The Immodest Orgasm]]: Eve does this, after having misunderstood Chance's "I like to watch" message.
* [[Innocent Inaccurate]]: Poor Chance is essentially kicked out of his home, left to wander the streets (this is worse in the movie, because the house is in a rundown neighborhood of Washington, D.C.), and becomes a respected political figure through sheer misunderstanding. He doesn't
* [[Inspirationally Disadvantaged]]: '''Avoided.''' While the movie is often lumped in with ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' and ''[[Rain Man]]'' (see ''[[Tropic Thunder]]''), Chance's mental disability is ''not'' key to his success or inspiring others. He's just '''extremely''' lucky, and the others are '''extremely''' dim. This aversion is much more prominent in the novel, whose overall tone is somewhat more contemptuous. Chance is a pathetic human defect & the fact that the bourgeoisie see him as anything more reveals their own decadence & degeneracy.
* [[Ironic Echo]]: Robert's use of Chance's phrase "I understand."
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* [[Meaningful Funeral]]: {{spoiler|Ben's...but in an unusual way, in part because it is ''not'' meaningful to Chance.}}
* [[Messianic Archetype]]: Subverted with Chance, who comes across as this but only because he's constantly misunderstood. {{spoiler|And then there's a Double Subversion in the final shot}}...
* [[Meta Casting]]: Peter Sellers took this trope into his own hands when he decided he was meant to play
* [[Mistaken for Profound]]: Chance's "economic statements" are misinterpreted as deep metaphors.
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: The Old Man died in his sleep and when Chance goes up to see the body, it's still in his bed. Chance sits down on the foot of the bed, turns on the TV, and {{spoiler|the melancholy background music is replaced with a cheery commercial jingle for mattresses; the ad comes complete with the image of a woman sleeping on a bed}}.
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* [[Prophetic Name]]: Two.
** ''Chance'' was named such, according to the book, because "he was born by chance." The [[Meaningful Name]] becomes prophetic when his ''chance'' encounter with Eve and the series of subsequent misunderstandings bring him to power.
** ''Eve'' is the first person he spends time with at length outside of the
* [[Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic]]: Sellers essentially used this trope in creating Chance's manner of speaking; it would ''have'' to be completely devoid of realistic diction/inflection because his language development would have been primarily based on how people on TV speak...
* [[Roger Ebert Great Movies List]]
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