The Gods Must Be Crazy

"The Gods Must Be Crazy" is a Comedy - Adventure movie in which we watch a Bushman traveling in the end of the world when he gets involved with modern civilization. He does not know anything about it so, a lot of crazy situations occur.

I found this movie simply amazing because it had a very clever plot, full of funny scenes and the narration of Paddy O'Byrne was equally good. The direction which was made by Jamie Uys who is also the writer, it was very good and he combined very well adventure with comedy while the narration added a new aspect in the movie. The interpretations of N!xau who played as Xi, Marius Weyers who played as Andrew Steyn and Sandra Prinsloo who played as Kate Thompson were very good. To sum up, I have to say that "The Gods Must Be Crazy" is a nice comedy movie to spend your time with and I recommend everyone to watch it because I am sure that you will laugh a lot and you will have a great time.

Don't be put off by the talk of poor production values, bad dubbing, goofy Benny Hill-esque slapstick, and questionable acting. Once you get a look at the enormous smile on Xi's face, you'll forget all of that. This is one of the most gentle, pleasant, and likable movies I've seen in a long time (all of that in a good way).

I'd always heard about it, but somehow managed to miss it over the years. Finally saw it this weekend, and it's a real gem.

For you DVD viewers, there's a documentary with interview footage of Xi. The only problem--no subtitles! Some bozo obviously blew it on the transfer, making it possibly the most frustrating doc ever produced...Be warned!

I don't know that I've ever seen a movie that had such innocent joy - I'm not sure if any other movie I've seen had any innocent joy, for that matter.

Perhaps what true joy I've seen in movies is civilized and therefore self-conscious.

Anyway, you can look at the crazy civilized world through the eyes of these innocents and have joy about it instead of cynicism. Can ordinary pain relievers do that?

The premise is how one empty Coke bottle in the garden of Eden could corrupt it. They do a totally believable job of it, too.

Lots of laughs, kids loved it. I saw it in the theaters in the mid-80's and am glad I saw it again. You'll like it. It will lighten your heart.

This is not a great movie but it uses the differences between the civilized white man against the uncivilized Bushman and with that simple tool it becomes hilarious. Civilized in the white man's eyes, I must add to that. This is one of those movies where every gag works, no matter how simple and silly it is. Most of the time the movie is slapstick comedy the way we see it in Chaplin- or Laurel & Hardy-shorts. We even have the fast forward sequence where people are running away from something.

The movie opens with a look on the Bushmen and a narrator (Paddy O'Byrne) tells us what kind of people they are; friendly and without any knowledge about the world not that far from their Kalahari desert. When they see a plane they think it is a strange bird or even a god. One day a pilot throws a glass bottle out of his airplane and the thing is found by the Bushmen. They have never seen anything that is a smooth and hard as this object and they find it very useful. They think it is a gift from the gods. The problem is that the gods have given only one object and for the first time they have to share something that is very hard to share. For the first time they feel emotions such as anger and jealousy. It is decided that the thing is an Evil Thing and must be thrown of the earth and Xixo (N!xau, a real Bushman) is the one to do that. These early scenes give a very funny view on how the civilized white man has become what he is today.

In the meanwhile we have met Andrew Steyn (Marius Weyers) who does field research not far from the Bushman and Kate Thompson (Sandra Prinsloo) who was tired of her job and now wants to do something with children in Botswana. Steyn must pick up Kate and bring her to the village and this is where the slapstick begins. Steyn is a man who gets very nervous when is around women and with Kate he must be the most clumsy guy there is. We have also met Sam Boga (Louw Verwey) who wants to do a coup but fails and he is now running for the police. We know how all these stories will come together but that is not a bad thing. It only uses the story to show us differences between people, to show that the white man is not necessarily the civilized man and it does this with great comedy.

‘The Gods Must Be Crazy' with its simple humor works a lot better then most of the modern comedies. The way the Bushmen talk is funny enough to like this movie. Fortunately there is so much more including a little message.

What starts out as a simple tale of the bush turns into a wild adventure with a coke bottle, revolutionaries, a dis-enchanted office worker turned teacher, and a scientist who studies animal dung with no skills around women. Add a smart-tongued mechanic and a 4x4 called the antichrist, and you have one of the funniest movies ever to come out of South Africa. You laugh as much at the ludicrous nature of some of the situations as much as what they want you to laugh at. You may never look at Africa the same again.