BEING THERE - DVD-CRITERION COLLECTION

Details

• Release Year: 1979
• Genre: Comedy, Drama
• Plot: In one of his most finely turned performances, Peter Sellers plays the pure-hearted, childlike Chance, a gardener who is into the wilds of Washington, D.C, when his wealthy guardian dies. Shocked to discover that the real world doesn't respond to the click of a remote, Chance stumbles into celebrity after being taken under the wing of a tycoon (Melvyn Douglas, in a Oscar-winning performance), who mistakes his protg's horticultural mumblings for sagacious pronouncements on life and politics, and whose wife (Shirley Maclaine) targets Chance as the object of her desire. Adopted from a novel by Jerzy Kosinski, this satire, both deeply melancholy and hilarious, is the culmination of Hal Ashby's remarkable string of films in the 1970's, and a carefully modulated examination of the ideals, anxieties, and media-fueled delusions that shaped American culture during that decade.
• Cast: Peter Sellers, Shirley Maclaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, Richard Basehart, Ruth Attaway, David Clennon, Fran Brill, Denise DuBarry, Oteil Burbridge, Ravenell Keller III, Brian Corrigan, Alfie Brown, Don Jacob, Ernest McClure, Kenneth Patterson, Richard Venture, Arthur Grundy, W.C. 'Mutt' Burton, Henry B. Dawkins, Georgine Hall, Nell P. Leaman, Villa Mae P. Barkley, Alice Hirson, James Noble, Timothy Shaner, William F. Williams, Bill Dance, Jim Aar, William Lubin, Gerald C. McNabb Jr., Hoyt Clark Harris Jr., Ned Wilson, Stanley Grover, John Harkins, Katherine De Hetre, William Larsen, Jerome Hellman, Arthur Rosenberg, Sam Weisman, Fredric Lehne, Gwen Humble, Laurie Jefferson, Allen Williams, Janet Wells, Paul Marin, Melendy Britt, Hanna Hertelendy, Elya Baskin, Than Wyenn, Richard McKenzie, Sandy Ward, Danna Hansen, Mitch Kreindel, Richard Seff, Terrence Currier, Leon Greenberg, Austin Hay, Mark Hammer, Maurice Copeland, Hal Ashby, Basil Hoffman, Jerry Jensen, Alexandria Walsh, Jerzy Kosinski, Robert C. Jones
• Director: Hal Ashby
• Runtime: 2:10
• Company: The Criterion Collection, Warner Bros
• Media Format: Movie