myers@utcsrgv.UUCP (Brad A. Myers) (11/05/84)
Has anyone out there heard of or seen the movie "the Gods must be crazy"? Is it funny/any good? Thanks.
clark@sdcsla.UUCP (Clark Quinn) (11/07/84)
<ambushbugs> In response to the request for info on "The Gods Must Be Crazy", I will attempt a review, bolstered by the information in the Reader (San Diego edition). But don't expect a Rieher or Leeper effort. Billed as "an epic comedy of absurd proportions", this movie doesn't quite live up to the billing, but as a modest comedy of reasonable proportions, it is an unqualified success. Written, produced, directed, filmed, and edited by Jamie Uys, this South African movie conveys honest emotion and rousing sense of what silliness is embodied in modern civilization. Starting slowly with a documentary-style narrative of the life of the bushmen, the other characters are introduced with small sections of their life. The businesswoman (Sandra Prinsloo, very good, attractive comedienne, reminiscent of Teri Garr) decides to escape the madness of city life by teaching in the bush. The scientist (Marius Wyers, playing the classic handsome-but-uncomfortable-with-woman hero) is persuaded to pick her up when she arrives. The bushman, in meantime has had technological rubbish ruin regular camp-life and heads out to throw the offending litter off the end of the earth. Meanwhile, an aborted assasination attempt has a group of desparate terrorists heading across the border to escape capture and probable execution. Any more would be a spoiler, suffice it to say that the complications make for an enjoyable, unbelievable, romp across the African countryside. With elements of slapstick comedy (fast-motion action, clumsiness), culture-juxtaposition, and sexual differences, this movie manages to maintain a refreshing newness (not the least due to Jamie Uys' mad-cap plot). Particularly worthy of note are the narration, the fine performances by the principal characters and the supporting cast, and the script. The direction sometimes seems amateurish, butoverall evokes the humor of the script. The bottom-line: See it. Do it now. I have recommended it to a number of people, and except for one person who did not appreciate it (let's see that's roughly 10 for and one against), the reviews have not been just good, but raves!
maylene@alberta.UUCP (Maylene McMillan) (11/07/84)
> Has anyone out there heard of or seen the movie "the Gods must be crazy"? > Is it funny/any good? > Thanks. It is delightful! It is beautiful (lovely scenes of Botswana), ethnographically fascinating (Kalahari Bushmen), uproariously funny, and very touching (message in a bottle). One of the best films I've seen in a long time - and I often see five or six a week.
jlh@loral.UUCP (Walter Mitty) (11/13/84)
> Has anyone out there heard of or seen the movie "the Gods must be crazy"? > Is it funny/any good? > Thanks. I saw this movie this weekend and no, its not good. ITS GREAT!! This obscure movie is one of the best comedies I've seen in my life. As an example, the beginning of the story concerns an airline pilot who, while flying over a desert in Africa, finishes a coke and throws the bottle out the window. Well, it lands by an aborigine who has never heard of white men, and the aborigine thinks it is a message from the gods. The rest of the movie deals with the aborigine taking the bottle to the end of the earth. There are some aborigine tits in the film, but other than that I wouldn't worry about taking your kids to see it.
strock@fortune.UUCP (Gregory Strockbine) (11/16/84)
>Has anyone out there heard of or seen the movie "the Gods must be crazy"? >Is it funny/any good? I read a couple reviews on it but didn't see it myself. One reviewer liked the movie, the other thought it was racist.
marie@harvard.ARPA (Marie Desjardins) (11/20/84)
I went to see "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and thought it was very enjoyable. I didn't roll around in the aisles as some people have said but I did laugh (a lot). Its social commentary is interesting (the main point it seemed to be making to me was that the aborigine was more civilized in many ways than the so-called "civilized white men"). The story has two main plot lines that cross in the middle -- one is about an aborigine who receives a "gift from the gods" that turns out to be a great curse to his tribe, so he journeys to the end of the earth to get rid of it. The other is about a biologist who falls hopelessly in love with a schoolteacher, but isn't exactly comfortable around women. Over all, I think it's a very good movie. I didn't think it was racist at all -- the black people in the movie are very primitive, but they're supposed to be a primitive tribe. Whoever said that probably didn't get out of the movie what (I think) the writer was trying to get across -- as I said above, in many ways, the primitive people are much more human and likeable than the civilized types. Marie desJardins marie@harvard