Being There

Being There is a 1979 American satirical comedy-drama film starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, and Melvyn Douglas. Directed by Hal Ashby, it is based on the 1971 novel Being There by Jerzy Kosiński, and adapted for the screen by Kosiński and the uncredited Robert C. Jones. Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, and Richard Basehart are featured in support.
Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Sellers was nominated for Best Actor. The screenplay won the British Academy Film Award for Best Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. In 2015, the Library of Congress selected Being There for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It has since developed a strong cult following and is a favorite among many filmmakers.
Middle-aged, simple-minded Chance lives in a wealthy old man's townhouse in Washington, D.C., along with the man's African-American maid Louise, who is kind to Chance. He has spent his whole life tending the garden and never left the property. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from television. When the old man dies, his estate lawyers order Chance out.
He wanders aimlessly, discovering the outside world for the first time. An African-American youth points a knife at him; Chance ineffectually tries to click him out of existence with a TV remote control. Passing by a TV shop, Chance sees himself captured by a video camera in the shop window. Entranced, he steps backward off the sidewalk and is struck by a limousine chauffeuring Eve Rand, the glamorous and much younger wife of elderly business mogul Ben Rand. When she asks him his name she mishears "Chance, the gardener" as "Chauncey Gardiner".
Eve brings Chance to their palatial estate to be seen by Dr. Allenby, who is resident there caring for Ben, who is slowly dying from a blood disease. After checking Chauncey out, the doctor invites him to stay to keep an eye on him.
Chauncey's manners are old-fashioned and courtly, and he wears expensively-tailored but outmoded 1930s clothes he took from his former employer's attic. When Ben meets him he takes "Chauncey" for an upper-class, highly educated businessman fallen on hard times. Ben admires him, finding him direct, wise and insightful.
Ben is also a confidant and advisor to the President of the United States, whom he introduces to Chauncey. In a discussion about the economy, Chance takes his cue from the words "stimulate growth" and talks about the changing seasons of the garden. The President misinterprets this as optimistic political advice and quotes "Chauncey Gardiner" in a speech.
Chance now rises to national prominence, attends important events, develops a close connection with the Soviet ambassador, and appears on a talk show during which his detailed advice about what a serious gardener should do is misunderstood as his opinion on presidential policy. Louise tells other African Americans as they watch Chance on TV that he has "rice pudding between the ears" and that whiteness is all that is needed to succeed in America. The President is shown as sexually impotent with his wife when watching the show.
Though Chance has now risen to the pinnacle of Washington society, the Secret Service and 16 foreign agencies are unable to find any background information on him. Meanwhile, Allenby becomes increasingly suspicious that Chance is not a wise political expert and that his mysterious identity may have a more mundane explanation. Allenby considers telling Ben, but remains silent when he realizes how happy Chance is making him in his final days.
The dying Ben encourages Eve to become close to "Chauncey". She is already attracted to him and makes a sexual advance. Chance has no interest in or knowledge of sex, but mimics a kissing scene from the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, which happens to be on TV. When the scene ends, Chance stops suddenly and Eve is confused. She asks what he likes, meaning sexually; he replies "I like to watch," meaning television. She is momentarily taken aback, but masturbates for his voyeuristic pleasure, not noticing he has turned back to the TV and is imitating Lilias, Yoga and You on another channel.
Chance is present at Ben's death and shows genuine sadness. Questioned by Allenby, he admits that he "loves Eve very much" and also that he is just a gardener. When he leaves to inform Eve of Ben's death, Allenby says to himself, "I understand."
While the President delivers a speech at Ben's funeral, the pallbearers hold a whispered discussion over potential replacements for the President in the next presidential term, and unanimously agree on "Chauncey" as successor. Oblivious, Chance wanders off through Ben's wintry estate. He straightens out a pine sapling flattened by a fallen branch, then walks across the surface of a lake without sinking. He pauses, dips his umbrella deep into the water to the right of his path, then continues on, while the President is heard quoting Ben: "Life is a state of mind."
Burt Lancaster was Ashby's first choice for the role of Ben Rand. Laurence Olivier was also considered for the role, but turned it down because of the masturbation scene.
Principal filming occurred at the Biltmore Estate, the largest private home in the United States, located in Asheville, North Carolina. According to MacLaine, "(Peter) believed he was Chauncey. He never had lunch with me ... He was Chauncey Gardiner the whole shoot, but believing he was having a love affair with me." The original ending as written in the script was filmed; it shows Eve finding Chance by the lake, they declare they have found each other, and both walk back together. However, Ashby was unhappy with this ending so he had a platform submerged in the lake for Sellers to walk on, creating the film's enigmatic final scene.
Melvyn Douglas's granddaughter, Illeana Douglas, visited the set and met Peter Sellers, who is her favorite actor. She has since credited the film for inspiring her to pursue a career in acting. According to Illeana, Sellers and Douglas had known each other since the 1940s, when they first met in the Burma campaign (1944–1945) during World War II. They often reminisced about their war days while on the set. The making of the film is portrayed in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, a biographical film of Sellers's life.
Incidental music is used very sparingly. What little original music is used was composed by Johnny Mandel, and primarily features two recurrent piano themes based on "Gnossiennes" No. 4 and No. 5 by Erik Satie. The other major pieces of music used are the Eumir Deodato jazz/funk arrangement of the opening fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra and "Basketball Jones" by Cheech and Chong. These pieces respectively accompany the title credits and Chance's first arrival to the Biltmore Estate. Mandel was also assisted by his cousin and fellow composer Miles Goodman with the orchestration of the film.
The film opened to positive reviews and gave Sellers a hit after many failed films outside of the Pink Panther series. Film critic Roger Ebert awarded a full grade of four out of four stars in his original print review. Gene Siskel also gave the film a perfect grade of four stars, calling it "one of those rare films, a work of such electric comedy that you are more likely to watch it in amazement than to break down and laugh". Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "a stately, beautifully acted satire with a premise that's funny but fragile". Variety called it "an unusually fine film" that "represents Peter Sellers's most smashing work since the mid-1960s". Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a gentle, exquisitely funny film", adding that "Sellers hasn't been so terrific—or had such terrific material—in years."
Vincent Misiano reviewed Being There in Ares Magazine and commented that "the film's humor never flags and yet its delicately bitter irony is never far away. It satirizes politics and politicians, business and businessmen, and, finally, all the rest of us and what we imagine we see when we look at one another."
In 2006, Roger Ebert mentioned the reaction of his students to the final scene (which is unique to the film, not appearing in the book), stating that they once suggested that Chance may be walking on a submerged pier. But, Ebert writes, "The movie presents us with an image, and while you may discuss the meaning of the image, it is not permitted to devise explanations for it. Since Ashby does not show a pier, there is no pier—a movie is exactly what it shows us, and nothing more."
The ending credits roll over the "Rafael outtake". Sellers was displeased that the outtake ran because he believed that it took away from Chauncey's mystique. He also believed that it prevented him from winning the Oscar.
As of 2023, the film holds a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 8.60/10. The critical consensus calls it "smart, sophisticated, and refreshingly subtle." In 2003, The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in:
A 30th Anniversary Edition was released on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2009. The Criterion Collection issued the film on DVD and Blu-ray in March 2017.