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Features: DVD, Deluxe Edition
Editor's Note
BEING THERE is based on Jerzy Kosinski's short comic novel about a simpleton, Chance (Peter Sellers), raised in isolation whose only education came from watching TV. When he's forced out of the house where he worked as a gardener by the death of the wealthy recluse who raised him from infancy, he's fortuitously struck by a limousine carrying Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of a wealthy industrialist. He's mistaken, because of his well-tailored suits, for a man of means and taken to dinner with her husband, Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas). There, as Chauncy Gardner, his blank affect is taken for seriousness and his literal pronouncements about gardening for metaphoric economic predictions. Soon he's meeting the president (Jack Warden) and becoming a star on TV--where he's a natural.Kosinski was well known to be personally fascinated by the power of television. In BEING THERE, which he adapted for the screen himself, he presents a comic fable about a man whose entire sense of reality came from watching television. Sellers is marvelous as the always-deadpan cipher in whom everyone he meets sees whatever it is they need to see. Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, and Melvyn Douglas give outstanding performances in this biting satire directed by Hal Ashby.
| Features | Anamorphic Widescreen | | Additional Release Material:
| Outtakes | | Alternate Ending | | Featurette: Memories from Being There wit Illeana Douglas (Granddaughter of Melvyn Douglas) | | Additional Scenes: Two Recently Discovered Scenes |
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| Entertainment Reviews
 | Being There - Blu-Ray DVD Review By: El Bicho - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 2/19/2009 5:57 PM | | Directed by Hal Ashby and adapted by Jerzy Kosinki from his novel, Being There tells the story of the appropriately named Chance, a simple-minded man who finds himself gaining power and prestige in America because he is able to fill a need within people that they project upon him. Chance, played by Peter Sellers in one of his finest performances, is immediately revealed to be obsessed with television. No matter what room of the townhouse he goes to, there’s a television set and Chance turns it on....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 2/3/2009 |
| Original Release Date: 1979 | | Catalog ID: 1000044118 | | UPC: 00883929043521 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Academy Awards (1979) |  | Melvyn Douglas, Winner, Best Supporting Actor |
| Memorable Quotes| "I like to watch."----Chauncy Gardner (Peter Sellers) to Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine) |
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| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
"...Deadpan farce....Sellers in his greatest performance..." -- Rating: A- 01/15/1999 pp.64-5New York Times
"...A stately, beautifully acted satire....Sellers never strikes a false note..." 12/20/1979 p.C20 Chicago Sun-Times
"...A rare and subtle bird that finds its tone and sticks with it. It has the appeal of an ingenious intellectual game..." 05/25/1997 p.5 Premiere
"[Chance] is a cipher both funny and frightening, making utter vacancy look like Zen inscrutability." 04/01/2004 p.64 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] strange, evocative swan song whose charm is still strong after 30 years....It's an uncanny part for Sellers, who by repute was an empty vessel into which characters were poured." 03/01/2009 Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "Peter Sellers redeemed himself with one last major turn in BEING THERE....This is an exceptional comedy..." 04/01/2009 |
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