Being Human

I Love Robin Williams. The Guy is simply Amazing. So when I took my girlfriend to see this Movie in the theater I thought we would both be in for a treat. Instead... we watched a train wreck. Both of us kept looking at each other in disappointment as we started to fall asleep. About 50 Minutes into it we actually walked out. We had to. We Both wanted to! This thing just wasn't getting any better. I have never walked out of a movie in my entire life..... until this movie came on the screen. The Movie "Being Human" is truly Horrible. However I do recommend that you Rent it just so that you can see how horrible it is for yourself. I highly recommend it for people who have trouble falling asleep. When pills won't work..... This movie will.

The first scene, sometimes referred to as cavemen, Goths or Vikings in reviews seems more accurately to be ancient Celts. The language they speak is made of broken Scottish or Irish Gaelic. On the other hand, maybe it was Robin Williams who was the Celt and the marauders spoke broken Gaelic because it was foreign to them. Hmmm. Without more information (they are a fairly laconic lot) I would assume they are probably a rival tribe of fellow Gaelic-speaking Celts of Scotland or Ireland. This was a welcome tidbit at the beginning of the film and probably added to my enjoyment.

I appreciated the attempt to portray the ordinariness of life throughout the ages and I view the slowness of the film in this light. Life is often slow. These were interesting vignette-like character studies of one man who is never able to be completely in control of situations around him, but who perseveres.

Unfortunately, many people who have seen and reviewed this movie have not taken the time to see its true meaning. Being Human is not the story of man's development over time, it is the story of one man (Robin Williams) and the stages his life has passed through. I watched this movie in an Advanced Cinematography class, and I hated it. But as I began to see the connections between water and shoes as symbols, I began to appreciate it even more. Perhaps I am giving it away, but to really "get" this movie, just look at the title. Forsyth's movie is about being a human being. Hector (Williams) is simply being human, and having a tough time of it. My advice in watching this movie is to pay careful attention to the last segment. It is the key to understanding Being Human.

In the first story a caveman's family is taken away by raiders despite he does his best for stopping them and she recommends him to take care of the children. In the second story Hector (Robin Williams) is a slave to the foolish Lucinnius (John Turturro) who loses his fortune and finds forced to kill himself, and Hector helps him in doing so but can't return to his family because he becomes slave to another man. In the third story Hector is a Spanish crusader that has to return to his family, but can't because he befriends a priest (Vincent D'Onofrio) and even wants to join him. In the fourth story he is a portuguese man in the Renaissance shipwrecked in Africa and his wife from the previous story here is his lover. In the fifth and final story Hector lives in the present New York and is helped by his wife and kids to find a good way in life since he is in sorrow for the mistakes he did in his past lives, and they too, deal with this.

BEING HUMAN is certainly not a movie for everyone, but it's one of the most original movies I have ever seen. The way the stories are connected is focused and it makes you think and ask the question if you might have been someone in another life in the past. Robin Williams gives one of his most straight performances of his career as the same man in different settings that has always different challenges connected to one thing. The need to return to his family. The supporting cast (Turturro, D'Onofrio, WIlliam Macy and a few others) are all pretty entertaining and the direction is very focused.

Overall, one of the most unique movies you can find and mostly recommended to folks who on occasion love seeing something different. I would also recommend to not think too much while watching, because your head might explode if you focus too much on the details and try to analyze them.

Contrary to some negative reviews, this is neither a bad film nor one of Forsythe's "worst." Such criticism issues from the fact that this film is about the lives of ordinary people, with Robin Williams playing a succession of classic Everyman characters. As such, most people won't find it "entertaining" enough, particularly if they're of the gimme-gimme-now post-MTV generations. This film tells stories about small people, not notable ones, and the emotions which they feel.

*Being Human* is a slow and philosophical story--as the title suggests, it's a story about what it is to be human. Love, loss, slavery, hopelessness, faithfulness, lust, hope--all these themes are touched upon as the story moves throughout the ages, presenting us with various Everyman characters all played by Robin Williams in what are surely his best dramatic performances.

This film is much like *My Dinner with Andre*--a truly meaningful and important film which isn't meant to appeal to everyone, just a more intellectual crowd. Its unfortunate spate of negative reviews comes from the fact that, unlike *My Dinner with Andre*, it was targeted for broader public consumption with a fairly large theatrical release, and to this day plays on premium cable channels to audiences who want to be watching fast-paced blockbusters rather than introspections into our humanity.

If you can appreciate a film with a slower and more deliberate pace and real insights into humanity, watch *Being Human*. It's a masterpiece.