Chance On Television example essay topic

In the film Being There, Director Hal Ashby very effectively makes a satirical comment on the effect of television's impact on society. Chance, the central character in the spoof, is a mentally challenged man who has lived his entire life enclosed by the walls of his rich master's luxurious townhouse that isolate him from the actualities of the real world. He passes his days in a totally routine manner, tending the master's garden, watching television and being fed by a black servant. Any need to go beyond these daily rituals is precluded by his content state of mind and lack of knowledge and interest in anything exceeding the boundaries of gardening and television. His habitual means of living, however, comes to an end when his master is found dead in bed. Forced to leave home for the first time in his life, he dresses himself in his master's elegant, specially tailored, 1920's apparel, and abandons the townhouse's shielding walls.

While walking the streets of Washington, he is awed by what to an average citizen would be mundane occurrences, for example kids playing basketball. To him this fascinating phenomenon had been previously depicted only on the television screen. Early in his induction into society he is struck by a limousine whose owner, Eve Rand, is the wife of multimillionaire Benjamin Rand, an industrialist whose lofty connections tie him even to the President of the United States. Chauncey Gardiner, the name Eve mistakenly interprets from Chance the Gardener, is welcomed into her home to receive medical attention from her husband's personal physician. Ben, Eve's husband, quickly becomes fond of Chance, mistaking his garden references, such as "spring is a time for planting", for metaphorical axioms in relation to politics.

Unable to distinguish that Chance, who comports himself and is dressed in a manner that suggests he is a man of prestige, is the simple-minded person he truly is, even the president takes his perceived symbolic garden metaphors and quotes them on national television. Soon the media is stirred to action, trying to determine just who this intellectual is. Audiences are captivated by the insightful messages they see him present on television, and Washington considers him a candidate for presidency. Being There, through the character of Chance, poignantly depicts the power that television holds.

Growing up Chance attained all his knowledge first through the radio and then through the televison, once that means of communication was introduced. Chance in a sense did see the television as a, "tiny box into which people are crowed and must live" (Carpenter 262). Because of this reliance on the television, he was so overwhelming immersed in the medium that he was unable to relate on a personal level to anything that occurred in reality. An example of this is when the servant tells Chance his master has died. Upon hearing the news, Chance continues watching television unable to express any emotion because his routine living has never called for it. The television plays its purpose wonderfully by capturing Chance's attention with numerous images flashing on the screen.

He reacts to these images with interest and awe just as the first audience did with the onset of the television. For them, it did not matter the quality of the programming but rather the novelty of the technology. For Chance it did not matter the quality of the program because of his lack of discerning judgement. The problem with the television in the case of Chance, however, is that it is unable to provide the interaction necessary to develop intimate and emotion filled relationships.

Other than television, the only event Chance takes part in during the day, other than eating, is working in the garden. Even when working in the garden, however, he still lacks any interaction that would foster his development to the point of allowing meaningful communication with others. This complete lack of interaction is heightened when he leaves his deceased master's home and wanders around the streets of Washington. When Chance is faced with a scene that causes him discomfort, such as a gang of street kids antagonizing him, he reaches for his remote and tries to switch the channel to a more pleasing prospect, not able to distinguish the difference between television and reality. It is ironic that something so detrimental to his personal and social development as the television could in fact help him become respected and renowned in Washington. When Chance arrives at the Rands' house, it is the mannerisms he mimics from the televison such as shaking hands and looking pleasant that provide him with a semblance of normalcy.

His inability to interact intelligently manifests itself as a kind of quiet wisdom. Chance's garden references are mistaken by Washington's elite for political metaphors. As a result, his status as a sagacious innovator takes hold and grows to the extent that he is quoted by the president of the United States on national television. Following his televison appearance on a talk show comparable to Leno, where once again his simplistic gardening advice is misinterpreted, his credibility is enhanced and his celebrity status is established.

A media frenzy ensues, because like in the movie Quiz Show, where seeing is believing and the audience is deceived by the suggestive power of televison, so too is the audience deceived by Chance's naive innocence. After the broadcast, the nation is charmed and impressed and begins to develop its own opinions and views on Chance, the latest televison dignitary. Miss Hayes, a lawyer who at the beginning of the movie sees Chance as an anomalous inconvenience, labels him a man of brilliance following the telecast. Miss Hayes' co-worker, Mr. Franklin, believes himself to have been fooled by the act Chance put on at their meeting, thinking Chance fabricated his oblivious state of mind. After seeing Chance on television he believes he, "must have been involved on some major financial level with the deceased". Because Chance had no background, for reasons that are unmentioned in the movie, the public begins to think that the information has been suppressed.

One man quotes, "No telling what he could be involved in. Could be extremely confidential matters". There is even a heated debate as to whether it was the FBI or the CIA that destroyed the documents, surely a parody of what happened in regard to Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. These examples exemplify satirically man's acceptance of television's assertions. No sooner had Chance left the televison studio than the American public move to action, starting conflicts with one another, diversely labeling a man no one knew hardly anything about, and basically blowing things out of proportion. When watching the movie it is humorous to see the chaos that the fictional character Chance causes, but what Ashby is daring to say with ridicule, is that there is in fact truth in the plot.

That we as a society do place tremendous importance on the televison, believing what we see on nonfiction programs to be creditable. Ashby's most powerful scene unfolds in the last minute of the movie, leaving the audience stunned. While watching the movie I thought I had Chance figured out -- his character, his abilities and his limitations Unlike the gullible and television-duped characters in the movie, I thought I had totally discerned Chance's background and character and was feeling quite complacently smug about it. The ultimate irony then occurs when Chance decides to walk across river, and he does just that, walk across the river. This of course leaves the audience breathless realizing that they too did not know just who Chance really was. Because we, this movie's audience had seen Chance at the beginning of the movie we believed we understood who he really was and were not fooled by his supposed metaphorical garden analogizes.

When Chance took his stroll atop the river, submerging his umbrella into it, it heightened Ashby's tacit contention that the audience just like the characters in the movie began to see Chance as something deeper and we are now the umbrella trying to penetrate the hidden depths. Being There is a film with few limitations. The main drawback of the film is after the extremely philosophical ending when the viewer is still searching for meaning the credits appear with out takes that ruin the mood of reflection. Another limitation of the movie would be its audience. Because of the complex content, it would only appeal to more mature viewers falling short of a diverse market audience. The cast for the movie come together to wonderfully pull off the spoof that Ashby masterfully puts together.

Peter Sellers whose acting credits are usually more of a boisterous and undignified nature, Captain Clouseau from the Pink Panther for example, plays the lead role of Chance the complete antithesis of The Pink Panther. In Being There, Sellers successfully fulfills the necessary character traits of Chance such as his expressionless facial features, unawareness of the events enfolding around him, and dignified overall appearance that makes Chance believable. Shirley MacLaine who plays Eve Rand preforms her part as the wife of a dying husband depicting flawlessly, the desire for sex that comes after months without being intimate with her husband. Melvyn Douglas, who in fact won best supporting actor for his part as Benjamin Rand, most spectacularly portrays a loveable, dying billionaire who is first to form the misconceptions of Chance that flourish into a country wide debacle. The sound in the movie is most prominent in relation to the televison. Any time Chance is in the room watching television the viewers can clearly hear what he has tuned into regardless of the conversation that is taking place foreground.

It can be said that Ashby uses this method to reveal to the viewers exactly what Chance hears. Although Chance is taking place in the conservation his main focus is always the televison thus the sound of the television must always be in focus. To be outright honest, this film should not have a sequel, prequel or be made into a televison version. What makes this film so exceptional is the mystery of who Chance the gardener really is. To have a sequel or prequel the answer would have to be unfolded thus ruining the Ashby's angle. The ending if the movie can be taken in many forms.

When Chance walks atop the water some could compare it to the Jesus story and try and find a parallel there. Others may think that he walked upon the water because in his lifetime nobody told him he couldn't. What I think Ashby did was make Chance walk on the water just because he could knowing that people would search for the meaning, such as some of the reasons mentioned above. I know after I saw the end I sat for hours trying to figure out just what was the point Ashby was trying too make about Chance. The fact of the matter is, in my opinion he is not trying to make any real point about Chance rather highlight his satire on televison yet again. However, not having a sequel, prequel, or television version is not an option to the successful completion of this paper, so if I had to choose I would make a sequel where Chance learned to accept and comprehend the other communication mediums.

In the sequel, eventually people are going to find out that Chance's metaphorical speeches are not in fact that but rather advice in how to maintain a heathy garden. Eve Rand would be the one to help Chance adapt to the communication era since by this point she had already fallen in love with him and her dead husband had left Chance his fortune. In the movie, every communication medium would be explored by Chance. He would even have to start right from the beginning with verbal communication learning how to maintain and participate in a formal conversation. Next would com the telephone where he would learn the basics such as actually picking it up when it is ringing, not hanging up without saying goodbye and saying hello, rather than waiting for the person on the receiving end to do so. Finally he would learn how to read and write.

By its very absence from Chance's life promoting and sustaining Chance's celebrity status, the all powerful print media is thereby ridiculed in Ashby's movie. Chance has risen to top celebrity status without influence from the print media. Nieve simplicity We don't watch TV; it watches us: it guides us". Carpenter 265 (top right) Television, it was said, would bring the family ever closer... Spigel 270 (top right) "It keeps us together more". Spigel 273 (very bottom right).