Being There

PG

Now Playing

2 hr. 10 min.

Comedy

List

95%

62 Reviews

Tomatometer

92%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Simple-minded Chance (Peter Sellers), a gardener who has resided in the Washington, D.C., townhouse of his wealthy employer for his entire life and been educated only by television, is forced to vacate his home when his boss dies. While wandering the streets, he encounters business mogul Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who assumes Chance to be a fellow upper-class gentleman. Soon Chance is ushered into high society, and his unaffected gardening wisdom makes him the talk of the town.

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Critics Consensus

Smart, sophisticated, and refreshingly subtle, Being There soars behind sensitive direction from Hal Ashby and a stellar Peter Sellers performance.

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John G

Too long. This is a satire and not much of a comedy. Acting was good throughout, but the story could have been told - the point made - in 90 minutes.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/27/24

Full Review

Blobbo X

Blobbo agree with other positive reviews: Highly original classic.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/16/23

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Normal D

Being There, a deeply strange and awkward film starring Peter Sellers, tiptoes meekly around deep ideas and then asks irrelevant questions. The film is a calm, gentle, and serene satire, of... society? Television? Being a white man? Being simple? Who can say. The film comments on all these topics, but it doesn't seem to have any strong convictions about anything, other than that if you're a polite, imbecilic white man surrounded by money, you're actually Jesus Christ (and I don't think the film even believes in THAT message very much either). Witness in disappointment how the movie spends its entire runtime trying to convince the viewer of its main characters mystique, only to end on a blooper reel, unspooling an entire films worth of whimsey in three minutes. That being said, the film is beautiful to look at and there's some great music and performances, which saves Being There" from being boring or shoddy, but not from feeling meaningless.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/22/23

Full Review

C

I can only take this movie for what it is, a movie. There really is no plot, no good or bad people, no secret messages. But this movie is all Peter Sellers, and he does a remarkable performance. After venturing from his home, it is unlikely he would wind up in an extremely wealthy family tycoon mansion. More likely he would have remained homeless and destitute. Sellars and Shirley MacLaine, Eve, had good chemistry together in this movie. Someone, especially the doctor, would have figured him out. The best part of the movie is when Sellars walks on water at the end. It gives his character, Chauncy, a divine dignity. It was good to see how the wealthy live in luxury. The photography of the movie was good. Cheers.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

07/31/23

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Steve M

I remember seeing this movie when it came out. Peter Sellers was a big star in comedies and this was his first non-comedic role. Kept wondering if he would slip in a little something, but no, he played it straight. An interesting story of how everyone sees and hears what they want when they meet him.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/14/23

Full Review

TheFilmReviewer 1

Showcasing one of Peter Sellers' best performances, Being There benefits from Hal Ashby's control over his film, and the outstanding supporting performances by Melvyn Douglas and Shirley MacLaine.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/02/23

Full Review

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Hal Ashby

Director

Peter Sellers

Chance ('Chauncey Gardiner')

Shirley MacLaine

Eve Rand

Jack Warden

President 'Bobby'

Melvyn Douglas

Benjamin Turnbull Rand

Richard Dysart

Dr. Robert Allenby

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Joe Pollack

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Under the direction of Hal Ashby, in his first film since Coming Home, Sellers gives an impressively disciplined performance, always taut and under control. The difficulty with the film, however, is that the screenplay is basically a one-joke story.

Apr 7, 2022

Full Review

Ed Potton

Times (UK)

Gently directed by Hal Ashby, this satire of a ruling class in which nobody knows anything is almost plausible, and certainly topical.

Rated: 4/5

Jan 17, 2020

Full Review

Richard Combs

Sight & Sound

The result must be one of the boldest of commercial comedies, for the way it turns on passages of dead time, the dreadful pauses while other characters struggle to see the significance in each of Chance's cryptically meaningless remarks.

Jan 16, 2020

Full Review

Christopher Lloyd

The Film Yap

Peter Sellers' last great performance came in this gently satiric look at the dawning mass media culture from the book by Jerzy Kosiński.

Rated: 4.5/5

May 30, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Alternately lovely and lacerating.

Rated: 3.5/4

May 24, 2022

Full Review

Michael Clark

Epoch Times

Devoid of finger-wagging, bellicose tirades, or emotional manipulation, Being There is a scathing commentary on politics and the media that points out how patently easy is it to fool people, often with their own willful, enthusiastic participation.

Rated: 4.5/5

Mar 8, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Simple-minded Chance (Peter Sellers), a gardener who has resided in the Washington, D.C., townhouse of his wealthy employer for his entire life and been educated only by television, is forced to vacate his home when his boss dies. While wandering the streets, he encounters business mogul Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas), who assumes Chance to be a fellow upper-class gentleman. Soon Chance is ushered into high society, and his unaffected gardening wisdom makes him the talk of the town.

Director: Hal Ashby
Executive Producer: Jack Schwartzman
Screenwriter: Jerzy Kosinski
Distributor: United Artists, Warner Bros.
Production Co: NatWest Ventures, Enigma, Lorimar Film Entertainment, CIP, Northstar, BSB, Fujisankei
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 19, 1979, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): May 7, 2015
Sound Mix: Mono

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