Being There (Blu-ray)

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Sellers puts in what may be the most effectively understated performance he ever committed to the screen. He never raises or lowers his voice beyond a monotone (Sellers said he patterned his voice inflections after Stan Laurel), he never makes a gesture of hand, face, or body beyond the slightest increment of movement, yet he conveys a world of meaning with every nuance. He is able to make all of those around him draw their own conclusions about him, and in the film they are all wrong. The Russian ambassador (Richard Basehart) thinks him brilliant, at an embassy party the rumor floats that he speaks eight languages, the CIA and FBI can find no trace of him in their files, leading them to believe that he must have enormously influential connections, and Eve falls in love with him. "He's such a kind and sensitive man."

"Being There" is a film that begins slowly and becomes funnier by the minute as it gets ever more absurd. By the end, to the people around him, Chance can walk on water.

Trivia: The Academy nominated Sellers for an Oscar for Best Actor, which some people said he lost because of the outtakes shown during the closing credits. Sellers thought they spoiled the tone of the movie. I agree.

Video:
The image quality in this newly remastered Blu-ray edition looks clean and clear after three decades, with no obvious age marks, scratches, fades, or lines. Warner Bros. went out of their way to capture the 1.85:1-ratio picture as well as possible, using a VC-1 encode and a dual-layer BD50. However, the image remains fairly soft and pale most of the time. Director Ashby appears to have shot many if not most of the indoor scenes using natural light, or he tried to emulate natural light, which doesn't provide a very bright or vivid image. Nor has the picture the sharpest delineation, with colors sometimes on the dim and dusky side. When Ashby is shooting outdoors, the colors and definition come into their own. Therefore, the disc's video quality is basically true to life, yet it is not such that will impress many fans of high-definition Blu-ray.

Audio:
We get the English audio track in both Dolby TrueHD 1.0 and Dolby Digital monaural, neither of which is anything special. The TrueHD adds a slight degree of clarity and weight to the sound, but it does little for the dynamics or frequency extremes. Still, the all-important midrange is smooth, rich, and truthful, and for a dialogue-driven story such as this one, that's all that really matters.

Extras:
The 30th Anniversary Blu-ray and DVD releases contain a small but notable collection of extras. First among them is a 2008 featurette, "Memories from Being There," a fifteen-minute set of reminiscences with filmmaker and actress Illeana Douglas, the granddaughter of the film's co-star, Melvyn Douglas. After that are two recently discovered scenes, totaling around two minutes, followed by a two-minute alternate ending that is far less memorable than the one the director chose to use, and then a six-minute gag reel.

The extras conclude with a generous thirty-six scene selections but no bookmarks; a full-screen theatrical trailer; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired.

Parting Thoughts:
"Being There" is not a comedy that will thrill everyone; it isn't deep, dark, or sidesplitting, just placid and poignant. The movie's satire is perhaps more topical today than ever, and it remains a gentle reminder of Man's eternal gullibility, our susceptibility to be taken in by appearances. We believe what we want to believe. We make people into what we want them to be. The movie ends in one of the most remarkable scenes in cinema. There is apparently nothing Chance is incapable of doing.

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