Difficult to Watch
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jamesk48 — 16 years ago(March 16, 2010 08:59 PM)
I felt exactly the same way about this film. It's a series of cringe-inducing awkward moments - the worst kind, too. Where you know that the other characters who interact with Chance are believing they're speaking to someone who's not really all there (if you know what I mean). And then everything Chance says is usually followed by silence, so there were constant scenes of people looking confused. I felt like I was watching an awkward "Meet the Parents" scene over and over again. It's hard to explain, but it was difficult to get through 2 hours of that. The haunting ending made it worthwhile, though.
Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all of its pupils. -
rwsmith29456 — 15 years ago(December 05, 2010 07:51 PM)
His encounters with 'real' people did rub on a lot of personal and societal issues. Our problem as the audience was that we KNEW Chance was socially and maybe even mentally impaired. I think the value in this movie lies in realizing that certain things do make us uncomfortable and whether or not it's a natural feeling or conventions produced by over-civilization.
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Perverzion — 14 years ago(July 15, 2011 10:41 PM)
Oh God, I'm glad I wasn't alone feeling itconstantly! Though, I was able do adjust a little towards the ending. And even laughed out loud couple of times.
But movie itself is still brilliant - because of this uncomfortable feeling, too. -
bubblegum3091 — 14 years ago(September 23, 2011 02:59 AM)
Yeah I know what you mean, I had to hide behind a quilt some of the scenes but it wasn't as hard to watch as most romantic comedies where they keep doing dumb things or have something to hide or some other part that keeps me on edge. The only scenes that were that bad where the ones where Eve tried to kiss him or played with herself for him and he was copying the TV and watching it and I was just so on edge that he would be found out. And the Russian ambassador bit and the talk show a little. But it wasn't too awful.
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PhoenixPhuck — 13 years ago(September 18, 2012 12:19 AM)
The only scene I really struggled with was the aforementioned bedroom scene with Shirley MacLainelike it was physically hard to watch the whole scenestill a great moviebut I understand what the original poster is talking aboutthis movie gives me anxiety.
Even the most primitive society has an innate respect for the insane. -
BobbyDupea — 10 years ago(July 10, 2015 08:03 AM)
The final walking on water scene was curious and I like the interpretations that some people have thrown out there in other posts.
He wasn't walking on water. He walked out into a shallow portion of the lake, then found that the water all around where he was standing was deep. Chance - get it?
My real name is Jeff -
Hyman_Flomax — 10 years ago(August 02, 2015 09:30 PM)
Difficult to watch because of how completely asinine and stupendously unbelievable the developments are. The suggestion that we're supposed to believe that the elite, educated class of the United States would not recognize Chance as being mentally handicapped within minutes requires an almost impossible suspension of disbelief and sheer gullibility. It's almost offensive how American movies portray people with handicaps as messianic figures who never do anything but bring love and enlightenment in to the lives of others. At least in
Forrest Gump
everyone in the movie recognized that the main character had a disability (save for the military drill sergeant) and weren't duped like complete pinheads. The message seems to be that Americans (especially white ones) are all dupes incapable of recognizing when the Emperor has no clothes, but here they're presenting a straw-man case, given the sheer impossibility that anyone in the real world could observe this man (either in person or on television) and mistake his retardation and simpleton platitudes for profundities. A horribly smug and condescending movie. -
johndworkin65 — 10 years ago(August 19, 2015 05:17 PM)
Difficult to watch because of how completely asinine and stupendously unbelievable the developments are.
Hey Fuzzy. The film isn't meant to be taken literally.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." -
franzkabuki — 10 years ago(February 16, 2016 04:18 PM)
"It's almost offensive how American movies portray people with with handicaps as messianic figures who never do anything but bring love and enlightenment in to the lives of others. At least in Forrest Gump everyone in the movie recognized that the main character had a disability".
Except that Being There is a purposefully absurdist satire while in Gump we're expected to accept the protagonist and the whole holy fool business at a face value. And Chance doesn't exactly bring anything to anyone, he's just "there", a blank slate upon whom others project their delusions.
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan -
Aticusfinch — 10 years ago(February 03, 2016 03:09 PM)
Thats the proof that the movie worked and established an emotional link between the viewers and the main character, so that they - or rather we - feared that Chance might be exposed anytime in a particularly cruel and pathetic way.