# Just rewatched Being There **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2004, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035 "2004-08-29T02:04:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/21 "2004-08-30T10:44:25Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > In _[Being There](http://imdb.com/title/tt0078841/)_, a rather distinguished looking man with a nice wardrobe and a brain made, according to the woman who raised him, entirely of rice pudding, becomes the Republican Party’s choice for President due entirely to the influence of television on the pudding-headed public. > > Eerily prophetic, no? No. Though your post is eerily stupid and pointless. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/22 "2004-08-30T11:39:08Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Kosinski also wrote the screenplay. and changed the ending. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/23 "2004-08-30T11:41:18Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Kosinski also wrote the screenplay. That should be - and changed the ending from the one in the book. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/24 "2004-08-30T11:47:58Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > No. Though your post is eerily stupid and pointless. If I were one to play junior mod, I’d–oh nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/25 "2004-08-30T12:17:17Z")
[Moderator Speaketh:] Your better response, **lissener** , is to hit REPORT THIS POST button. Then you don’t need to play junior-mod or to comment at all. **RikWriter** , you should know better. There’s a fine point here: you’re insulting the “post”, not the poster, and I’ll accept “pointless” as refering to the post. But “stupid” clearly refers to the poster, not the post, and thus is not acceptable in this forum. Consider yourself abashed, and I want you to throw some money in some charity jar in atonement. [/Moderator Speaketh] As Moderator, I’m ruling that “pointless” is acceptable, but as a poster, I don’t think it’s applicable. The question of whether a movie about how politics is manipulated is fair game, and neither “stupid” nor “pointless.” There have been several such movies, such as WAG THE DOG, if you’d like another one. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/26 "2004-08-30T12:34:55Z")
“The leaves will be green in the spring.” That is as cogent a statement as I’ve heard any number of real life political-types make. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/27 "2004-08-30T13:57:57Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > [ **RikWriter** , you should know better. There’s a fine point here: you’re insulting the “post”, not the poster, and I’ll accept “pointless” as refering to the post. But “stupid” clearly refers to the poster, not the post, and thus is not acceptable in this forum. Totally inaccurate. Stupid can refer to an idea, an action, a statement or a person. In this case, I made it very clear it referred to a statement made by lissener. His comparison was stupid and pointless. That doesn’t make HIM stupid…I really don’t know him well enough to make that judgment. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/28 "2004-08-30T15:10:00Z")
Ha[sub] …[/sub]irs Just to avoid wossname, I have edited the thread title so it can be a general discussion about relevancy to politicians over the last few decades, rather than the specific Bush-bashing (which would be moved to a different forum.) ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/29 "2004-08-30T15:34:56Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Great movie, marred only by Shirley MacLaine rolling around on the floor in the rug. The scene didn’t work then and it didn’t work when Nicole Kidman did it in _Moulin Rouge!_ She (Shirley) apparently (no cite) once said that that was the single most embarrassing scene she’d ever had to do. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/30 "2004-08-30T20:36:26Z")
I watched it for the first time ever a few weeks ago. Very funny concept, and a great character by Sellers, but it just dragged on and on after a while. As a matter of fact, I think I turned it off when Shirley started rolling on the floor. A more interesting satire of culture than any particular politician. [SPOILER DELETED BY MODERATOR–CKDH] ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/31 "2004-08-30T20:44:15Z")
I saw it a couple months back, for the first time. The version Netflix circulates has the outtakes. So, was the ending just a representation of Chauncey’s mind wandering, or perhaps a “surreal” moment inserted for surrealism’s sake, or was the writer trying to imply that Chauncey was the second coming of Christ? ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/32 "2004-08-30T22:11:38Z")
Interesting… When I saw it three or four years ago, from Netflix, there were no outtakes. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/33 "2004-08-30T22:59:14Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > I saw it a couple months back, for the first time. The version Netflix circulates has the outtakes. > > So, was the ending just a representation of Chauncey’s mind wandering, or perhaps a “surreal” moment inserted for surrealism’s sake, or was the writer trying to imply that Chauncey was the second coming of Christ? I think it was a little of both. Mostly, I think the director was showing just how surreal the whole situation is. I don’t think he meant to imply that Chance \*was \*Christ; only that the political process was capable of making people believe he was Christ. I think it was a cynical joke that took the entire premis of the movie to its bizarre, and absurd, conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/34 "2004-08-30T23:01:42Z")
> [@ruadh](#): > > She (Shirley) apparently (no cite) once said that that was the single most embarrassing scene she’d ever had to do. Yes; she absolutely hated it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/35 "2004-08-30T23:09:30Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Totally inaccurate. Stupid can refer to an idea, an action, a statement or a person. In this case, I made it very clear it referred to a statement made by lissener. His comparison was stupid and pointless. That doesn’t make HIM stupid…I really don’t know him well enough to make that judgment. Although you certainly have made a habit of such sentiments in other forums, so I’d take it as read. Dropping this; start a thread elsewhere if you want to pursue it. Thanks, CK; I apologize for setting such a stage. It was not my understanding that political content is verboten in CS, but I’ll keep such in mind in future. I thought about posting this elsewhere, but thought that this would mean the movie would not be the main subject of discussion. Relating a film to real-life situations does not seem unCS to me. Even if the the real-life situation is a contentious one, I believe it’s possible to have such a discussion in a manner entirely consistent with the mandated civility of CS (that is, if hypothetical kneejerk blowhards were to keep that tone in mind and refrain from derailing the discussion in such a way as necessitates title editing). Nonetheless, I’ll try to keep my CS threads politics-free, and of course I’ll refrain from poisoning any CS threads with Pit posts. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/36 "2004-08-30T23:22:34Z")
I would hesitate to say that Cafe Society is entirely immune from politics, but I’m hard-pressed to think of an example of what might be OK. I suppose that the political background for Swift’s satires, those would be OK. **Trunk** , hiding an anti-Bush comment in a spoiler, when the Moderator has expressly said NONE OF THAT HERE, is offensive, insulting to the Moderator, and damn close to a warnable offense. If you can’t play nice, you can’t play. Next offense, and this thread is closed and the person violating the rules is outta here. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035/37 "2004-08-31T01:44:22Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Although you certainly have made a habit of such sentiments in other forums, so I’d take it as read. Other forums? In which other forums have you and I interacted, exactly? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-rewatched-being-there/262035.md?page=1)