Employing a relatively simple comedic conceit, Hal Ashby’s Being There manages an incisive social satire which excavates a rather overt commentary on the American polity and the foundations of power which oversee it. Narratively, the story of a simple-minded gardener named Chance, who through largely happenstance becomes a part of the ruling class in America, Being There is quietly incendiary about the underlying privileges of white males in America. Through its comedic tone that oscillates seamlessly between droll comedic sensibilities and melodrama, Being There details through its main protagonist how success isn’t always driven solely by individual merit but also by collective perceptions out of one’s control. Chance is granted more leeway due to both his gender (patriarchal traditionalism) and race (white majority), implicitly perceived as being of value, someone worth listening to, for no other reason than aesthetics. Chance’s discursive naiveties are interpreted as metaphorical wisdom at every turn, seeing this older-aged White gentleman sleepwalk to power and prestige, not due to any merit but the baked-in perceptions of others. A commentary on the uninformed or inattentive American, who has collectively succumbed to consumer culture, Being There places the television at the fulcrum of its story both narratively and as a symbolic device in its own right – an electronic device that was developed and cultivated out of the world of advertising, the content creation itself subsidized by advertising dollars due to the allure of mass consumerism. Chance is likable and empathetic from start to finish - he is pure, manipulated by those around him who aims to more control and power. For Ashby, the state of the American politics is met with pensive satire and a semblance of hope, not polemic diatribes, the final denouement being as much a plea for more empathy but also intellectual-based observation in positions of power than those which come from a place of assured authoritarianism.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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