Being There (1979)
95%RT Audience Score: 92%
Awards & Nominations: Won 1 Oscar
14 wins & 15 nominations total
Smart, sophisticated, and refreshingly subtle, Being There soars behind sensitive direction from Hal Ashby and a stellar Peter Sellers performance.
Being There is a movie that will make you laugh, cry, and question your own intelligence all at the same time. Peter Sellers gives a performance that is both hilarious and heartbreaking, and Hal Ashby’s direction is nothing short of brilliant. Sure, the screenplay may be a bit one-note, but who cares when you’re having this much fun? Being There is a must-see for anyone who loves satire, political commentary, or just a good old-fashioned belly laugh. Don’t miss out on this classic film that still holds up today.
Production Company(ies)
B S B C I P Lorimar Film Entertainment,
Distributor
United Artists, Warner Bros.
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Biltmore Estate – 1 Approach Road, Asheville, North Carolina, USA
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1980
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 10m
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Language(s):English, Russian, Italian
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 19, 1979 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 5, 2002
Genre(s)
Comedy
Keyword(s)
Being There, Peter Sellers, Hal Ashby, Jerzy Kosinski, Comedy, Box Office, Budget, PG, Andrew Braunsberg, Melvyn Douglas, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, Richard Basehart, Mono, Critics, Reviewed by Joe Pollack, Ed Potton, Richard Combs, Michael Blowen, Ron Pennington, Frank Rich, Christopher Lloyd, Matt Brunson, Michael Clark, Brian Eggert, Barbara Brecher, Actors, Director, Writer, Producer, United Artists, Warner Bros, Chance, Chauncey Gardiner, Eve Rand, President Bobby, Benjamin Turnbull Rand, Dr Robert Allenby, Vladimir Skrapinov
Worldwide gross: $30,177,511
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $113,417,320
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 957
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 12,368,301
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Shirley MacLaine – Eve Rand
Jack Warden – President ‘Bobby’
Melvyn Douglas – Benjamin Turnbull Rand
Richard Dysart – Dr. Robert Allenby
Richard Basehart – Vladimir Skrapinov
Director(s)
Hal Ashby
Writer(s)
Jerzy Kosinski
Producer(s)
Andrew Braunsberg
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
14 wins & 15 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees, Oscar Winners
All Critics (62) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (59) | Rotten (3)
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.
April 7, 2022
Joe Pollack
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
TOP CRITIC
Gently directed by Hal Ashby, this satire of a ruling class in which nobody knows anything is almost plausible, and certainly topical.
January 17, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Ed Potton
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
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.
January 16, 2020
Richard Combs
Sight & Sound
TOP CRITIC
A brutal look at America and Americans that gently lifts up the mirror image that television gives us of ourselves, smashes it on the marble floors of our political institutions and holds a chunk of jagged glass to our throats. And then makes us laugh.
April 28, 2018
Michael Blowen
Boston Globe
TOP CRITIC
Sellers has never been better and he embellishes the detached, childlike innocence of this character with perfect style and timing. It’s a deceptively simple performance, but it is essentially the core and substance of the film.
December 19, 2016
Ron Pennington
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
Here is a comedy that valiantly defies both gravity and the latest Hollywood fashion.
July 8, 2014
Frank Rich
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Peter Sellers’ last great performance came in this gently satiric look at the dawning mass media culture from the book by Jerzy Kosiński.
May 30, 2022 | Rating: 4.5/5
Christopher Lloyd
The Film Yap
Alternately lovely and lacerating.
May 24, 2022 | Rating: 3.5/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
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.
March 8, 2022 | Rating: 4.5/5
Michael Clark
Epoch Times
Among the sharpest of all satires, Being There, released in 1979, would be the last great film made by director Hal Ashby, who had the most extraordinary track record of any filmmaker of the 1970s.
February 14, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
One of the rare cases in which a novel is translated into a film with its humor, insight, and pathos intact.
January 11, 2021
Barbara Brecher
Berkeley Barb
The humor continues to surface, regularly generating laugh-out-loud bewilderment and crushing awkwardness.
August 27, 2020 | Rating: 9/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins…
Plot
Simple-minded gardener Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. home of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run-in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of Eve and her husband Ben, an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Peter Sellers gives an impressively disciplined performance as Chance (‘Chauncey Gardiner’) in Being There.
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