- Actors: Robin Williams, John Turturro, Kelly Hunter, Maudie Johnson, Max Johnson
- Directors: Bill Forsyth
- Writers: Bill Forsyth
- Producers: David Puttnam, Robert F. Colesberry, Steve Norris
- Language English
- Classification: 15
- Studio: Warner
- VHS Release Date: 5 Jun 2000
- Run Time: 122 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00004CQPN
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 14,146 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Anyone having high hopes for the artistic collaboration betweenRobin Williams and director Bill Forsyth (who made Local Hero, perhaps the most enjoyable film of the 1980s) probably left this movie disappointed. Forsyth is attempting nothing less than The Ages of Man, using Williams as his representative of humanity through history. Cast as a kind of Everyman, Williams plays a guy who can't seem to get his family situation straightened out to his satisfaction, whether he's trying to protect his family from Vikings in prehistoric times, being a nomad in the Middle Ages or showing up as an unhappy divorced guy in contemporary times who's trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter. It's worth a look, if only for the opportunity to see how a big idea can go decidedly wrong and to observe what happens when a director gets a hold of an unworkable concept that he believes in completely. Williams wears a pained expression through most of the film. --Marshall Fine
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This isn't one of those movies where Robin Williams goes all hyperactive, weird...and sometime annoying. This is a thinking movie. A film that makes you think...duh.
The film shows the lives of five different characters with the same name, Hector, played by non other than Robin himself. All five characters live in different periods in time. All five tales of Hector have the underlying theme of "family".
A truly touching film although at times one loses the plot... or plots as it were. Remarkable performance by Robin. Highly recommended.
Format:VHS Tape
This is one of my favourite films. It gets slated generally in reviews. I think it is a pretty clever concept, following the five lives of one man through history and showing that basically things don't change, that the song remains the same. Maybe I am just a bit sentimental, but I love the end story with Robin Williams as the happless father connecting with his estranged children.
Likewise the opening "act" set on the west coast of Scotland, without any recognisable language is superbly done, showing us what it might have been like to have been suddenly put upon by a viking invasion.
Likewise the opening "act" set on the west coast of Scotland, without any recognisable language is superbly done, showing us what it might have been like to have been suddenly put upon by a viking invasion.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
20 reviews
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Robin Williams plays five men, each in search of "family."
18 Nov 1998
I think "Being Human" is one of the most underrated pictures of the last ten years. Robin Williams plays five different men through successively more modern time periods - the first segment being in prehistoric times, the second in ancient Rome, the third during the time of the Crusades, the fourth in the Renaissance, and the fifth in modern-day Manhattan. Each man is on a quest which relates to his family, as he first loses them and then, through the individual scenes, must find and develop relationships with them. Along the way, the human condition is analyzed in dramatic and funny ways, such as what are common threads among human existence - fresh food, good shoes, companionship, safety, honesty. Williams is joined by a stellar cast, including Hector Elizando, Lorraine Bracco, John Turturro, Vincent D'Onofrio, and several others. Bill Forsyth, the writer and director of "Local Hero," also made this film. One of my all-time favorite films.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
A beautiful, sweeping human experience
26 Oct 2001
Being Human is easily the most well crafted and intelligent film that I have ever seen as it truly does capture the unfathomable human experience.
Robin Williams transcends time as he is continuously "reborn" throughout the expanse of human history--beginning with an early European civilization and ending in what is the modern age. In each era, he depicts an average human being experiencing the trials of life particular to that time period. As a proto-neolithic, European man he witnesses the destruction of his way of life and the capture of his family by a marauding band from perhaps another clan or tribe. In this he experiences loss and pain, and likewise he drifts from life to life, immersed in the sorrows and joys of the human condition. From a slave to a shipwrecked noble, he spans time in order to bring us a vignette of humanity.
The movie is powerful and is one that leaves the viewer with that profound sense of depth that all universal, surreal movie experiences seem to convey. It is truly ashame that some critics claim that this movie was a good idea gone bad. I concur that most people more comfortable with exploding buildings and glittery special effects probably just didn't get this one.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
under rated
13 Feb 2004
Amazon Verified Purchase
"Being Human" is one of those movies you either hate or you love. For some it is slow and the historical vignettes uninteresting. I, personally, find the storytelling thread does an excellent job of interconnecting the five time periods covered (pre-history, ancient Rome, Middle Ages, Age of Discovery and modern America). Robin Williams is a good actor who brings depth to each man he plays Frankly I would have preferred more time in Ancient Rome and seeing the Middle Ages man return to his family but those aren't a slam on the movie. No, there are no heroic battles or monsters; this is the story of the average guy who is actually what most students in history course would love to learn more about.
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