- Actors: Peter Sellers, Shirley Maclaine, Jack Warden, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Dysart
- Directors: Hal Ashby
- Language English
- Run Time: 130 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000K4EBJ2
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 6,894 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
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Product Description
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of a woman (Eve) and her husband Ben, an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
A wonderful, funny, odd, surreal, and sometimes very sad satirical fable.
Sellers plays a man who is a complete blank, seemingly mentally handicapped, having spent his whole life working as a gardener, his only real enjoyment being watching TV. Through a wonderfully creative series of coincidences, he soon has Washington's elite read into his simplistic pronouncements whatever they want to hear, and the next thing you know he's an advisor to the President, and winning over TV audiences.
This could have been a one-joke film, but the terrific writing and directing, and the simply magical performance by Peter Sellers make this deep, complex, and moving. There's great supporting work too by Shirley McLain and Melvyn Douglas. Jack Warden overdoes the doofus bit a little as the president, and there are a couple of moments where the jokes feel forced, but this is as funny and socially incisive a film as has been made in the last 30 years.
Sellers plays a man who is a complete blank, seemingly mentally handicapped, having spent his whole life working as a gardener, his only real enjoyment being watching TV. Through a wonderfully creative series of coincidences, he soon has Washington's elite read into his simplistic pronouncements whatever they want to hear, and the next thing you know he's an advisor to the President, and winning over TV audiences.
This could have been a one-joke film, but the terrific writing and directing, and the simply magical performance by Peter Sellers make this deep, complex, and moving. There's great supporting work too by Shirley McLain and Melvyn Douglas. Jack Warden overdoes the doofus bit a little as the president, and there are a couple of moments where the jokes feel forced, but this is as funny and socially incisive a film as has been made in the last 30 years.
Saw this again recently and realised just what an understated and gentle film this was, also it was great to see Peter Sellers doing such a fantastic performance (after quite a lot of mediocre films). Such a shame to think he died so soon after. The acting from all the cast is excellent, particularly Shirley MacLaine, and Melvyn Douglas (who like Sellers got an Oscar nomination for his role). Douglas won the Oscar as Supporting Actor and looking back it's a shame Sellers didn't win the Best actor as well..probably if the Academy had realised just how soon he would die afterwards he would have got it !!.
The idea of a "simple man" becoming an adviser to a President/then maybe even a presidential candidate is of course absurd, after all just think how easy it would be for the powerful presidential backers to manipulate him however they wanted..wouldn't happen ..or maybe it already has !.
Anyway great film, superb performance, very much worthy of a re-release in the cinemas today (or if not a quality re-make, perhaps from director like John Sayles).
The idea of a "simple man" becoming an adviser to a President/then maybe even a presidential candidate is of course absurd, after all just think how easy it would be for the powerful presidential backers to manipulate him however they wanted..wouldn't happen ..or maybe it already has !.
Anyway great film, superb performance, very much worthy of a re-release in the cinemas today (or if not a quality re-make, perhaps from director like John Sayles).
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