[debeguiled]

(03-06-2018 09:28 PM)ed pluribus unum Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 08:30 PM)YossariansRight Wrote:  

Can someone tell me what the ending of “Being There” means?

Did Chance die?
Was he an angel?
Was the whole movie a dream?
Other hypothesis?

I have watched that movie maybe 5 times...and every time the ending blows my mind.

I think it's supposed to be something along the lines of "he can walk on water because he never learned/doesn't know that he can't" or some similar kind of boomer/hippy sentiment.

If ever it comes on I only tune in to watch Peter Sellers cracking up in the bloopers during the closing credits.

This was the seventies, a time when everyone was tired of the Vietnam war, Watergate, college protests, violent lefties, the whole sixties shebang.

No one wanted to deal with grownup stuff, and there was a pretty serious retreat into nonseriousness: Disco. Pet Rocks. Streaking. Superficial pop psych.

Being there came out in '79, and it was only a year later that I saw a nostalgia shop open up in Berkeley for people in their twenties which had their favorite candies, lunch boxes with their favorite cartoons.

So it is no surprise that people wanted easy answers rather than hard questions, and the figure of Chauncey Gardener was perfect. Keep it simple. The wise fool. All we need is a retreat to childish simplicity.

One of the bestselling books at the time was a self help book called



It had such classic advice as:

Quote:

1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put things back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Stryrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first workd you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.”

Might be the inception of the safe space mentality.

I liked Being There. It was well acted, well written, and was a beautiful fable. It was fine without the "Maybe Jesus will come back as a moron" twist ending.

It also laid the groundwork for Forrest Gump, and this is unforgivable.