The Story Archive

Being There

Hal Ashby · 1979 CE · Film · Modern / American · Contemporary

Chance has spent his life gardening inside a Washington townhouse and learning everything else from television, so when his employer dies and the lawyers put him out he has no papers and no idea how to cross a street. He is taken into the house of a dying industrialist, whose circle hears his remarks about seasons and roots as economic prophecy. Sellers played him without a wink and Ashby ran the joke to the edge of allegory.

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Attributes

Genre
SatireComedyAllegory
Theme
Appearance vs RealityPower & CorruptionIdentity & SelfIndividual vs Society
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
InnocentWise FoolEveryman
Plot structure
Rags to RichesMistaken IdentityIronic Reversal
Symbol / motif
The ScreenThe GardenThe Garment
Conflict
vs Society
Mode / tone
SatiricalAllegorical
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues