- Also Known As:
- Unknown
- Year:
- 1979
- Countries:
- Predominant Genre:
- Comedy
- Director:
- Outstanding Performances:
- Premiss:
- A simple, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted adviser to a powerful businessman and an insider in national politics.
- Themes:
- Alienation | Christianity | Compassion | Destiny | Emotional repression | Empathy | Ethnicity | Humanity | Identity | Loneliness | Mankind | Materialism | Narcissism | Personal change | Republicanism | Self-expression | Sexual Repression | Social class | Snobbery | Solipsism | Stereotyping | White culture | White guilt | White supremacy
- Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
- Review Format:
- DVD
Amazing political satire (a comedy version of The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser) about the delusional way in which Whites see the world.
White culture requires such self-serving fantasy in its Alice in Wonderland world of make-believe that is necessary to sustain a culture based on White supremacy and - resultant - emotional immaturity. That which Whites do not consume via White media is regarded - by Whites - as either non-existent or unimportant; rendering the Black woman here the sole voice-of-reason - throughout - as she lucidly points out that no Black simpleton would be taken so seriously in an Institutional Racist country like the United States - as the White one is in this movie.
In the various White cultures, being White (literally & metaphorically) is more important than being talented, intelligent or hard-working. Thus, here we have a White man who appears to be the quintessential good-for-nothing, who yet becomes a candidate for the presidency of the United States through his sheer innocence being deliberately-mistaken for profound insight.
Whites speaking in code, rather than with direct honesty, is also carefully-satirized here - along with the emotional emptiness it implies. Whites get so caught up in the game of misinforming each other to obtain some kind of economic and psychological advantage over others (one-upmanship), that they end up losing contact with both the very reality they aim to define & control and their own selfhood.
Here White culture is revealed as built on quicksand; exacerbated by an obsession with believing that what appears in the media is far more real than ones own, actual experience. This leads to Whites not knowing what to do or say or think unless mimicking the media. This robotic inability to think for oneself - without seeking the approval of a White authority - leads one to become an actor reading lines, rather than spontaneously self-expressive.
Along with this infantilism, is the issue of endemic White emotional and sexual repression in the self-serving belief that such thing are necessary for civilization to take place at all; implying Whites are civilized precisely because they are less-than-fully-human. That this is explored through the dramatic agency of a character almost completely devoid of human feelings, thoughts and sexual abilities is perfectly apposite. He wants nothing, he is nothing, he says nothing, yet is admired by Whites as a great sage; eloquently reflecting the emptiness of those who admire him most; while they see him as the embodiment of the human virtues they lack. Being all things to all people, those who seek to exploit him merely project their fears, wants and needs onto a tabula rasa; getting them nowhere fast - as in the story of the The Emperor’s New Clothes. And yet, this man does not set out to defraud, he is - instead - a Christ-like figure of wonder, faith and hope - a man with a true sense of dasein; seeing essentials clearly, as with the eyes of a child.
The unsettling tension throughout the entire length of this film comes from our wondering when anyone is going to finally realize that the central character is not the guru they need to assume he is, despite there clearly being a great desire for most of the characters to believe their own bullshit and collude in their own deliberately-chosen misunderstandings about reality, because that is their reality.
Peter SELLERS’ performance is perhaps his best and very reminiscent of both Stan LAUREL (with added sex appeal) and Jacques TATI. Shirley MacLAINE is as good as an actress can get; while Melvyn DOUGLAS strongly conveys the sense of a man at peace with the fact of his impending death. Everyone here is excellent, in fact - an ensemble cast that is a wonder to behold.
It’s for sure a white man’s world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I’ll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no brains at all. Was stuffed with rice pudding between th’ ears. Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you’ve gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want.
Actual White political life is coming increasingly to mimic a movie meant to exaggerate actual White political life; shades of George W Bush, Network and the kind of media satire The Shining could have been.
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