Hi everyone,
Was just watching Hal Ashby's "Being There," with Peter Sellers, and thought
I'd bring it up to the group. Besides being a great work (IMO) in it's own
right -- and certainly one of Ashby's two or three greatest films (From a
director whose work is far too often neglected these days -- not a single Ashby
film, not "Last Detail," "Bound for Glory," "Harold and Maude," was on the
recent A.F.I. 100 Best List), it also has several interesting
connections/homages to Kubrick's work: The casting of Peter Sellers, in
probably one of his best performances since "Dr. Strangelove" and "Lolita"; a
scene in the first half hour is a pretty obvious homage to "2001," with the
music "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and some very "Kubrickian" camera angles.
On a deeper level, in shares with Kubrick's work -- especially "Strangelove,"
his only overt political satire -- an ability to say a lot of things without
looking like it's trying to make a point. More recently, it was compared to
Peter Weir's "The Truman Show" (Discussed a bit in a thread a week or so ago),
although that film seems to be more in line with the themes and obsessions
common to all of Weir's films -- the individual's place in society, a person's
status in a world he did not create. To the contrary, "Being There" is about
those themes and more: the gullability of politicians and the general public to
mindless platitudes ("Spring is a time for planting!" always has me laughing)
and our willingness to believe what we see.
Ashby himself deserves some comparison to Kubrick: Both filmmakers produced a
small body of work (Shortened, sadly, in both cases by death) and both tackled
a wide variety of genres and styles while still retaining their own unique
unifying vision. You might even go so far as to compare...
The Last Detail=Full Metal Jacket
Coming Home=Paths of Glory
Being There=Dr. Strangelove
Thoughts/comments/corrections?
Peter
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