Being Human

For some reason (one can only presume his ego got the better of him) Bill Forsyth actually made a big-budget art-house film here. If that isn't an error of judgement sufficient to end a career, I don't know what is.

It's hard to fathom how he thought it would be possible for such a film to be released commercially. And while the producers presumably forked out for it without actually studying the screenplay - somehow persuaded that they should all go to Morocco to shoot some scenes on a beach and some dunes - it boggles the mind how the director and the producers managed to remain so far out of alignment on their target market, right through to the film's completion.

In any case, Warner Bros understandably couldn't market it to mainstream cinema audiences, and in a desperate attempt to salvage something, cut it severely and added a narrative voice-over to dumb it down. If anything, the surgery only made it worse. Not only has it lost its artistic integrity, it has a slapped-on narration - presumably in imitation of a bed-time story - that crops up at meaningful moments to let us know that it's a meaningful moment. The narration adds nothing, only patronises. Worse, it is incongruously done in strident tones and a raw, modern American accident. It's hard to think of a more botched attempt to salvage a film.

It's not a difficult film, but it does require some indulgence. Certainly, mainstream cinema-going viewers will only be nonplussed at having to think about what they are watching, having to tease subtleties, ambiguities, and ironies from a series of slow moving, wistful, existential stories.

Forsyth's original screenplay demanded even more indulgence, trying to extract depths of meaning out of every moment. This obsession at painting emotion is what really sinks the film - it's more literary than cinematic, and little of the attempt successfully translates to the screen. Thus, when Hector in the first story sees the boats coming in, he stands there hesitantly in full view of them and there is little sense of the absolute terror the screenplay he tells us he feels - mainly he comes across as simple-minded.

There is plenty, though, to appeal to the intelligent viewer who likes to reflect on life. The historical scenarios (except for the last segment) are interesting choices - it is rare to be taken to those times and places - some of them fairly unique. The moral or practical challenges presented to Hector each time are never boring. We like him for being hapless and benign, and we come to care for his welfare. This is excellent and engaging - for the thinking viewer - and is all the better for the straightforward technique, without any of the manipulative technology-driven tricks of modern Hollywood.

However, it's hardly an unsung masterpiece. No consistent theme emerges. Nothing really coheres into a whole. The stories needed to be much cleverer for it all to come together into a frisson of satisfaction at the end - nothing really does come together. Two of the stories have hopeful endings (if not entirely happy), the others have sad, wistful, or ambiguous endings. If there was significance in the ending of each, it was too subtle to grasp. By the last story we (might) realise that footwear seems to be a theme, though quite what the moral is there in terms of the human condition, is obscure. Other symbols, such as the windmill and the cross, if symbols they are, don't work at all, as almost everyone will miss them completely.

Worse, Hector hardly stands for the whole human race, having evolved apparently into the fashionably-sensitive liberal, the banality of which is revealed in the last story, which serves up the biggest cliché of them all: father issues, presented here with dismal earnestness as Hector bonds with his estranged children. When Hector is told that his son only needs a hug to solve everything, and his early-teen daughter gives him a little lecture on meaningful moments, I'm not sure whether my howls were of excruciation, disbelief, or disappointment.

Fables were used in the past to tell stories to children. Here Hector (Robin Williams) and a woman story teller (Theresa Russel) whom we never see but only hear, weave several stories for Hector's children to explain his absence from their lives for several years. Each story attempts to explain figuratively what emotions he went through during the period.

An attentive viewer is amply rewarded by director Bill Forsyth--if you are a casual viewer you will wonder what is happening and consider the film to be disjointed and hence poor entertainment.

Non-linear narratives are not Forsyth's invention--such films have adorned French and Hungarian cinema for decades. "Being Human" is above average in that company merely because of fine performances from Williams, the beautiful Anna Galiena (Beatrice) an Italian actress, Hector Elizondo, John Turturro, William Macy, and Ewan McGregor to mention a few.

While the imaginative storytelling technique was impressive, Forsyth never explains who the lady narrator is. Are we expected to imagine it to be Hector's new love? The gradual jumps in time scales, gives us a socio-historical perspective into Hector's education in life, seen through the eyes of his children. Forsyth is interesting but not the best director using this technique. His film demands attention, both literally and figuratively.

I understand that the director disowns the film after the studios forced him to truncate the film by 40 minutes. Probably the director's cut is far superior to the present version and is likely to be more satisfying to a discerning viewer.

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.

The life you live will be the same over and over again. You will repeat your lessons again and again in various forms until you have learned them. After learning it, there's evolution and wisdom. This is what can be said about this film except that it presents its stories without having this sort of spiritual value. It brings this idea of the eternal returning throughout this main character but it is developed almost like a fairy tale taken out of a children's book.

Travelling through different countries and periods of time, going from the Celts cavemen to the modern New York businessman, "Being Human" has Robin Williams playing a character named Hector and his appearances in distinct centuries trying to learn what means to be a human being. In the five short stories created here, Hector, living as a Celtic in the highlands, had his wife and children taken away by barbarians; was the slave of a dumb master (John Turturro) in a more civilized era; a married man who fell in love with a foreign woman, a few centuries later; a military during the Portugual's Maritime Expansion on Africa, conquering new lands and new treasures; and as a troubled divorced man trying to reconciliate with his children of whom he hasn't seen since the end of his marriage. The movie fails in being real or accurate enough in all of the stories except in the last one which is very close to us.

Slow, of mannered delivery and hardly getting better as the stories unfold, "Being Human" is the kind of film that really follows its lessons, it'll only grow on you after countless views. In my case four attempts, of these in two I fell asleep (but always believing that there was something interesting there), one in which I watched the whole thing and didn't like and the last one in which my perception changed and end up being a good film, far from being a masterpiece that it could be. So, you'll have to watch this film over and over until you get something from it, then you can evolve into really saying if this is a good or a bad film.

This whole idea of a man trapped in strange and quite horrendous situations where every kind of decision ruin his life but always running to something else thinking it'll be better and lead him to a good life, was brilliantly presented in a book called "The Star Rover" by Jack London. In it, the main character is a prisoner that can recall his past lives as a way of escaping from his current pain of being tortured. But in those lives things don't get any better and he's always getting into more and more trouble. "Being Human" falls as a pretentious art film with symbolisms that never work and stories that are difficult to be involved with. Luckily, they have Williams as a main actor and we root for him whatever the Hector he's playing. We care for Hector in all of his situations because there's something there that is involving enough to make us imagining what kind of decisions we would make if we were him. In at least, one of the stories you'll put yourself into Hector's shoes.

Won't blame director/writer Bill Forsyth for the flaws presented here since this is not his original project, Warner Bros. Forced him to cut the film and include a narration that is quite excessive and too much explanatory. The narration (provided by Theresa Russell) of a film destined to grown up's treats its audience as children, explaining many things we're seeing on the screen. It ruined some parts of the film. Result: poor criticism, a box-office failure and now who knows this film? I sincerely hope that one day Forsyth come out of the shadows and show to the world this film in its integrity in a director's cut DVD (even the known version is hard to find).

The things that attracted me into "Being Human" are the quality of the performances, not only Williams but also Turturro, Lorraine Bracco, Hector Elizondo, Jonathan Hyde, Anna Galiena, William H. Macy among others; the beautiful cinematography; Michael Gibbs fantastic musical score (specially the music presented when the movie enters into the 20th Century, a highly agitated theme). The story, at times, knows how to hold our interest but only for those who have an open mind to accept the concept of a man living over and over a similar life that bears only difference of costumes and periods of time. Hector's conditions and the way love acts in his life are quite the same, yet he fails to learn something from these experiences.

Very problematic but not enough to make you feel bad about it, "Being Human" comes as a good film about valuable and noble lessons that sometimes crosses our paths in this long journey of life. 7/10.

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.