synopsis:

'being there' is about Chance, a reclusive, illiterate, passive and simple-minded gardener who is well-groomed, fed on schedule, and dressed in custom-tailored suits. he has lived his whole sheltered life on the walled-in estate of an eccentric millionaire named Jennings. His only knowledge of the "real" outside world, an encroaching inner-city ghetto area, is through watching television.

When Chance's benefactor dies, he is evicted by the estate's lawyers and wanders aimlessly and helplessly into the streets of Washington, D. C. chance is confronted by a young urban gang, and threatens to 'turn them off' with a TV remote control channel-changer. Later in a freak accident, he is struck by a limousine owned by Eve Rand and bruises his legs. She takes him to her dying, patriarchal, industrialist husband Benjamin's home for treatment from her personal physician Dr. Allenby and recuperation. During the trip, he identifies himself as "Chance...the gardener," which is incorrectly interpreted to be his full name - Chauncey Gardiner.

Chance's empty-headed pronouncements and generalizations, delivered dead-pan, are taken to be profoundly intelligent, metaphorically deep, and wisely insightful. He becomes wealthy, is treated as a famous celebrity in the media, and becomes a political advisor for the rich and powerful, including President 'Bobby'. His new-found popularity leads to talk-show appearances, insider parties, and book publisher advances. Eventually, Chance's female benefactor is widowed and marries him, and there's talk of running him for PresidentThe last line of the film is a quote from the late Mr. Rand, read at his funeral: "Life is a state of mind." The final scene of chance walking on water across a lake gives the film a fanciful element, and leaves the viewer debating, wondering about, and struggling to interpret the fable-like story.

about this movie:In 1971, Jerzy Kosinski published the novel 'Being There'. Soon afterwards he received a telegram from its lead character, Chance the Gardener: "Available in my garden or outside of it." A telephone number followed and when Kosinski dialed it Peter Sellers answered. For years afterwards, Sellers would try to get this film made. "That's me!" he would tell people of the Chance character. Finally, in 1979, with the clout he had gained from 'the Pink Panther' series, he was able to fulfill his dream.

What followed was the culmination of Peter Sellers' career: a masterpiece of double-edged satire on politics and television, starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas and Jack Warden.

What kosinski and director Hal Ashby expose in this movie is a self-serving and self-deceived society. Through the innocence of the Chance character, all the schemes and manipulations of the world are laid bare for what they are: pure folly.