List of Crap #115: Top 50 Movies of the 70s Countdown!

[Johnny Unusual]

#40

32 Points, 2 Lists, #10 Cleat & Cole Stratton

This is just like television, only you can see much further.

Year 1979

What's it about?

Chauncey Gardiner is a man of great influence.  He might even change the world.  He has the ear of the president and has provided him with great advice.  He develops a great connection to a Soviet ambassador.  He's a celebrity, a toast of the town.  But only one person suspects the truth... there is no Chauncey Gardiner, a down on his luck businessman with a riches to rags to riches story.  But there is Chance, a gardener, a sweet, simple-minded man who has spent his life in a mansion who only experiences the world through TV...

What's it REALLY about?
Based on what I've read, I feel it might be about perspective and how we can project our own ideas onto something unknowable to make sense of the world.  But I'll leave this to someone who has seen the movie.  I do like Ebert's quote about it...

What is Being There about? I've read reviews calling it an indictment of television. But that doesn't fit; Sellers wasn't warped by television, he was retarded to begin with, and has TV to thank for what abilities he has to move in society. Is it an indictment of society, for being so dumb as to accept the Sellers character as a great philosophical sage? Maybe, but that's not so fascinating either. I'm not really inclined to plumb this movie for its message, although I'm sure that'll be a favorite audience sport. I just admire it for having the guts to take this weird conceit and push it to its ultimate comic conclusion.

Legacy
In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected Being There for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The film is largely thought to be one of Peter Seller's finest roles, which is saying a lot.  I like that he is just saying literal things but his tone and pacing give it much more weight to his audiences.

Trivia
Peter Sellers was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. Some said the reason Sellers lost was because of the outtakes at the very end of the movie as the credits are rolling. Sellers himself later said the outtakes "broke the spell" of the movie.

Johnny's Thoughts
I've yet to see this one, but I really want to.

[Cyrusso]

That's a movie box cover I can remember seeing on rental store shelves as early as well... the 1980's I guess.

[Johnny Unusual]

Aguirre made my list - What an incredible movie. We bought the Herzog boxset ridiculously cheap a couple of years ago and marathoned his films, and we were blown away by how much we loved most of these films that all seemed like they might be quite a chore.

I feel like this happens to me sometimes when I get comics that I feel like I get just to get a break from the more genre-driven stuff and I'm afraid are going to feel like homework but then turn out to be amazing.  I think when people think "art house movie", it can scare some people away, but really, a lot of them turn out to be amazing in ways you don't expect.

[Edward J Grug III]

I have never seen Being There either - there's a mini Hal Ashby film festival happening here soon, and I really want to go and see all of the films playing, but not sure I'll be able to afford it.

[CJones]

Okay, so far these movies are some of the most obscure ones. Yes I've heard of Jesus Christ Superstar and Suspiria but aside from that I'm unfamiliar with most of these entries.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I have seen Jesus Christ Superstar, and I've tried to watch Suspiria, but the soundtrack is so grating that I couldn't stand it. Most of the rest of these I've never seen, and some I've never even heard of.

I guess I'm so used to watching bad movies that I never get around to watching good ones 

[Johnny Unusual]

I don't have the soundtrack problem with Suspiria, as I love the music by Goblin.  However, I do have a bit of that problem with Dario Argento's Profundo Rosso (AKA Deep Red).  It's music I like, but I feel like it doesn't give the film as much breathing room as I'd like.

[F-Zero]

I have never seen Being There either - there's a mini Hal Ashby film festival happening here soon, and I really want to go and see all of the films playing, but not sure I'll be able to afford it.

Don't miss the credits on Being There.

[F-Zero]

I've never heard of Days of Heaven or Aguire. Charles I'd really like to check out your list.

[Edward J Grug III]

I guess I'm so used to watching bad movies that I never get around to watching good ones 

I do get in a rut of watching bad (riffed) movies every so often and find it difficult to watch a great one. Like the idea seems like a big effort.

[Johnny Unusual]

I do get in a rut of watching bad (riffed) movies every so often and find it difficult to watch a great one. Like the idea seems like a big effort.

My problem is that if there's a good movie I haven't seen before, I kind of put it on a pedestal and wait for a special occasion to watch it and then take a long time to get around to it.  Plus there are a lot of great classics that I don't have easy access too.  Hopefully, when Criterion Channel comes around, I'll subscribe.  But then I might just watch my favourites again.  I'm always in the mood for Hausu (which didn't make my list).

[Edward J Grug III]

I do get in a rut of watching bad (riffed) movies every so often and find it difficult to watch a great one. Like the idea seems like a big effort.

My problem is that if there's a good movie I haven't seen before, I kind of put it on a pedestal and wait for a special occasion to watch it and then take a long time to get around to it.  Plus there are a lot of great classics that I don't have easy access too.  Hopefully, when Criterion Channel comes around, I'll subscribe.  But then I might just watch my favourites again.  I'm always in the mood for Hausu (which didn't make my list).

Wish the Criterion Channel was going to be available here.

Funnily we get better at watching the best movies when we DO make it into a kind of chore - Like when we watch a director's work chronologically (or at least, what we have access to).

Herzog, as I mentioned above, and Bergman are two recent examples. We're one film from finishing Kurosawa (slowed down at the end when all of the films because 2 1/2 hour epics ).

[Johnny Unusual]

Kurosawa I've got to see some of.  I did not see Seven Samurai yet (it is at my local library but it's a longer film and I went and put it on a pedestal and want to get a friend to see it) but Rashomon is great and I really like Redbeard, which is basically a crowd-pleasing medical drama set in feudal Japan.

[CJones]

The Seven Samurai is pretty good, but it is WAY too long. 3:30 hours to be exact.

[Cyrusso]

About 2 and a half to 3 hours or so is my personal cutoff point for a movie. Any longer than that and I think I'd stay home for the DVD/BD release. Lord of the rings is the ONLY exception to this rule for me.

[PsychoGoatee]

Seven Samurai does have an intermission at least.

Lot of cool movies, and cool looking movies I haven't seen so far.