Midweek Mention... The Gods Must Be Crazy

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Cris: You just love it, don't you

Reegs: So much.

Imagine, this has got all my notes on it. Imagine what somebody would pay for that. Like, literally

Sidey: Yeah, Oh

Cris: no, it would be, that would, what are you talking about?

Reegs: All the movies, all the notes.

Cris: Chris. a

Sidey: Hello. Chris. This is a film that I think you've referenced in the top five.

Cris: 5

Reegs: Yes.

I

Sidey: I can't remember what the top five topic was, but it's I think it's called The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Yes. And it's from way back in 1980.

Cris: Must Be Crazy.

And it's from way back

Sidey: Maybe when we talk through the plot, we'll,

Cris: I'll remember. Yeah. Although with my memory these days,

Sidey: Well, who knows? But we are a trio. Dan may be along.

Cris: Oh,

just

Reegs: right now

Cris: right on cue.

Reegs: but is he

Sidey: This comedy film. It's a, like, out of the gate, it is a mishmash of styles, I would say. Yes. Because it starts off, well, I mean it tries, well, whatever. It starts off as a, like a documentary.

Reegs: Yeah, well, yeah.

Sidey: it

Cris: well, yeah. It kind of explains the, the life and the, the

Sidey: it's it's footage of of the Kalahari Desert and it explains all about that and it has a narration a voiceover like a budget Attenborough type affair and it's describing a tribe of people.

Well, he's talking of the only people, Bushmen, who live there

Reegs: and

their culture and their sort of willful disconnect from the rest of society, their respect for animals, and really crucially their lack of a sense of ownership because there isn't anything there so nothing can be owned and everything they have they need in in the moment. And then it sort of zooms cuts away to sort of 600 miles away and it tells you about civilized man, this juxtaposition.

And this did make me laugh, the description of in which everyone has to

Sidey: of their day busy

Cris: That's actually quite, yeah, I found that quite funny when I, the only thing is when I, the main reason why I recommended this movie is because I've seen it when I was about eight and it was such a cultural.

Shock to me out of just going out of communist Romania to, to see, we, I've never seen one black person until I've seen this movie probably and then to see this was such a cultural shock and also to see the, the differences and, and the kind of the perspective of civilization and nothing really where they would have a bone to, to smash the food and these vegetables and all that.

And then. I remember at the time it was a comedy for me because I didn't really understand. Obviously it was still subtitled and I couldn't really, I couldn't really understand this as in what civilized man and what the Bushmen would have been the difference, but rather movie that obviously now watching it, I, it does say it's a comedy.

It's obviously it's a 1980 movie, so you have to kind of always remember

Sidey: definitely comedy stylings of the time

Cris: yes. Yeah.

But yeah, that's, that's the main reason why I've,

Reegs: So, I think the beginning is the strongest stretch of the movie, even if it is a bit problematic, which we can talk about maybe towards the end, I don't know.

We get this strong opening 10 minutes of these juxtaposition of these two worlds and then we get into the Coca Cola bottle, which is the thing I had heard about in relation to this movie. And so what happens is a plane is flying overhead and a guy just casually drinking from a Coca Cola bottle throws it out of the window of his plane and it lands.

Down in amongst these people and they find it and basically it's this weird kind of product placement where it's being used as a symbol of Western culture's negative influence on indigenous people. And it introduces the Bushmen to concepts of envy and ideas of ownership and greed and,

Sidey: because they're able to use this as a multi tool for doing all kinds of different things they do. Sort of mashing things up,

Cris: Well, at the beginning there's also the, there's

Sidey: it's indestructible

Cris: narrator. Yeah. And he keeps saying that, oh, this the, the thing they didn't know, and then all of a sudden everyone wants it.

Yeah.

Reegs: The thing that they'd never had before. Suddenly everybody needs it. It had a variety of uses. I think they're using it for the animal skins and to eat.

And there's a pestle and whatever. A mortar, maybe

Sidey: it's the most indestructible glass bottle of all

time.

Cris: indestructible glass

Sidey: G,

Cris: of all time.

Reegs: It's clicks,

Cris: Yes, it's loads of clicks rather than noises. What you would, what I would associate with words really is loads of clicks.

So it's actually quite interesting that it means something when

I

I wouldn't know that that's a language

Reegs: Yes. It's not a common thing. So, the villages all compete over their affections for this. And it brings this sort of sullen silence to the village where they'd always been happy before.

And they call it, they christen it, the, the evil thing and decide that it, it, you know, they notice the impact it's have on them. I think when one of the kids bashes, another one over the head with it.

Sidey: it's also it's fallen from the sky. So they're interpreting that to mean it's come from

Reegs: come from the gods,

Sidey: and so they're thinking of gods are angry with us or the gods are testing us. And so she decides that it's just got to go because it's causing such problem in the, in the world.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: And he just takes it.

He snatches it away and and says he's going to leave and get rid of things throw it off the edge of the world. I

Cris: of the world, I think.

Sidey: So that's that's the plan.

Reegs: plan. Yeah. Meanwhile so on, he's gonna be set off on this odyssey effectively to get rid of this cursed evil object and give it back to the gods.

And we're gonna get introduced to a number of other characters who will be, you know, part of his journey. One is a disaffected journalist, Kate.

She's shown in a sort of super idealized version of what South Africa might've been like in 1980 in a progressive office where a black colleague passes or something.

And you think fucking bullshit. Anyway, she, she is feeling kind of, used by the industry, isn't she?

Cris: Yes. She's been writing about teachers.

And she's like, it seems like she's been getting a hard time about not getting a

Sidey: guy that tried to pass the story is about is about disaffected teachers.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: And she's like,

so she seems like she's been getting a hard time about not having decent enough copy to sell newspapers.

So, she goes to the fellow and says, give me that story about the teachers. He said, oh, you wanna run it? He's like, no, I think I'm gonna be a teacher and that's her journey. She then goes off to these rural parts to teach youngsters.

Stuff. And so that brings into another character who's gonna have to collect her.

It's supposed to be a reverend pastor type. He's gonna take the discovery and pick her up but he for reasons can't do it because the vehicle is fucked

Reegs: The vehicle's still bugged.

Sidey: such an extent that this bumbling oaf character, I couldn't even bother to remember his name.

Reegs: Andrew Steen.

Sidey: Oh

Cris: Yes, yeah,

Sidey: he, he has to do it because basically the car won't stop.

it.

Reegs: it's got no brakes.

Yeah. It

Sidey: to be started in a particular way. And if it stops, it won't pretty much won't be able to start again. So we get some This this kind of footage where they speed it up.

reminiscent of Benny Hill Yeah

Reegs: Speeded up footage and it goes on for a long time of this car going up to a gate, him getting out to open the gate, the car rolling down the hill, him closing the gate, going back, getting the car, blah, blah, blah, eventually

Sidey: all again with her

Reegs: yeah, doing it all again with her.

Eventually realizing he should put a rock under it only to get to another gate goes on and on and on. There's also a political backdrop to this, not unlike our main feature this week in Beasts of No Nation where there's a

Sidey: Guerrilla army

Reegs: Army,

and I did like this bit, this was pure, like, Buster Keaton stuff, when the army is arriving to do the assassination and they're, like, clinging to the, you know, Hood of the truck and it like literally throws the guy almost through the doors.

And as they do come through the doors, they just sort of slam back on them. And they comically shoot everyone. You can really see the budget. 'cause like nobody, some of 'em haven't even got guns. They're like just going, ba, ba ba be,

Cris: But they, yeah, they just, yeah, I know,

Reegs: And so,

Sidey: Of these strands then are going to cross over and intertwine. Yeah, because You At a certain point, the the guerrilla battalion will kidnap all the children and and there's, there's also

Andrew Stain he's been shown up to be, You know, very handy and useful out of the bush, but fucking useless when it comes to talking to a

Reegs: to

Sidey: he has this, he has this romantic fantasy of getting with the teacher.

Reegs: although he's sort of almost sort of repeatedly.

She thinks he's sexually assaulting her like repeatedly for

Sidey: For

Reegs: Yeah. It's sort of comically it works better in the movie that than when you say it out loud.

Sidey: And the, what's his face with the glass bottle? He with the glass bottle, he will come across across the mall and at the point where it all intersects they, they, the, the guerrilla guys come up with this plan where they, they, they've obviously Got a goal and they're going to try and achieve that by kidnapping all these kids and then they're marching on to meet someone and they've arranged for every 20 miles a drop of the army or whoever it is to drop food rations so that they can, you know, feed and water their kids and everyone and keep them moving.

And The

the lady is like berating the main leader dude and telling him you know These kids can't fucking walk that far and they were crying and blah blah blah blah blah and How does she and stain come together? I can't

Reegs: Well,

Cris: well, they have the car, the car in the tree. No.

Reegs: Yeah. We've got the car in the tree. That's a great little gag. It's a, she gets arrested eventually because he

Cris: he shoots a goat.

Reegs: goat.

Yeah. That is is the property of a shepherd. And he doesn't really understand that. And he's trying to talk to him and say, Oh, well, we'll share the goat. I'm just hungry. That's why I'm eating it shooting it. But anyway, he ends up getting

Cris: gets arrested and then the, the mechanic, yeah, the mechanic is like, listen, that guy. He doesn't know. We need to, we need to take him out of there. He doesn't know what he's doing and he's going to die in prison.

That guy's never seen a wall in his life. And now he's surrounded by four of them. And, and Mr. Stein, he's like, all right, well, we'll hire him. And they eventually hire him as a helper, tracker. Yeah. That's basically what they're doing. They take him comically. They try to teach him how to drive and try to teach him.

Reegs: I quite liked that

Cris: I don't know.

Sidey: is that when he is standing on the bonnet driving it in reverse? Yeah, he's

Reegs: it

Cris: So they're trying to teach him how to drive and trying to teach him how to. use civilized things. And then they go in the wilderness or in the bush to,

Sidey: They've got an enormous telescope

Cris: to collect dung because that's what he does.

Reegs: He's a scientist interested in manure.

Cris: Yeah, exactly. And then from the top of the mountain while they're counting antelope or whatever, wildebeest, they see through the telescope miss teacher.

Sidey: Well, first of all, they see one of the food drops, don't they?

And they're like, that's weird. Why have they done that? And then, then they see this group, this big group come along and start eating it. And they're like, Hmm, it's weird.

Cris: and then obviously they see he, he's the teacher,

Sidey: Well, mate, Xi sees the guns, doesn't he? He says there's people down there who've got stuff. They've got, I can't remember how to describe it.

It was a strange way of describing it. Anyway, they look through this enormous telescope that they've got. Yeah, I've got there. These are hostages. Yeah,

and this is my favorite bit

Reegs: they come up with a plan, don't

Sidey: they come up with a plan to

By making this tranquilizer and a comically small bow and arrow.

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: It's like the one

Reegs: Gizmo uses. Gizmo uses. Yeah.

That's what I thought of as well. Yeah.

Sidey: And it could be a paper clip. It is honestly does seem as small as a paper clip with a little bit of twine. And he's able to,

Reegs: Which he disguises himself as a school

Sidey: he goes and drag. Yeah. And And he is able to fire this little miniature bow and arrow. It's got a bit of twine to pull it away so that the person that gets hit by it thinks they've been bitten.

And then after 10 minutes or so they just fall asleep. Because

Cris: pass out.

Sidey: there's these two that have been playing this silly card game the whole while. And they're missing, so they don't know where they've gone when they've tranquilized six of them. They're like, shit, there's still two out there with guns.

Reegs: Yeah. One gets the, like, sap from a rubber tree.

Sidey: It wasn't explained by, I, I thought it was, it was going to release something that, ants or something would get on it. But it seemed to be toxic in and of itself. Yeah.

Yeah, he's hiding behind a rock shooting at Stain and he just machine guns this plant to drip all this sap on him, which looked like fairly fierce It was had a pretty hideous reaction

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: That's how they subdue those two

Cris: Yeah. And then obviously they release the prisoners, whatever you call them, the kids and the teacher.

Reegs: Yeah, there's been another guy, hasn't there? A love rival, Jack Hind. He's like everything that Andrew

Sidey: yeah, he's, he's much smoother than,

Reegs: and he has at some point sort of, charmed Kate or whatever her name

Cris: He's got a really cool

Reegs: we

Cris: got

Reegs: quite said clearly is that in and amongst this, like, hostage bit and dramatic scenes, where

Sidey: Yeah. What, what we haven't probably got across quite so clearly is that in and amongst this like hostage bit and dramatic scenes.

Reegs: like

Sidey: They're interspersed with these bursts of Benny Hill like comedy.

Reegs: The whole

movie is mostly like that and it's you know, a lot of it is Pratt falling around stains, nervousness around women, knocking things over, like standing in a fire,

Cris: standing in a bin, putting his foot in the bin,

Sidey: There's a rhino that puts fires out at one point.

Cris: Yeah, that's apparently a fact.

Reegs: But anyway, eventually he is able to explain to her at the end that it's basically her, you know, intoxicating womanness

Sidey: that helps

Reegs: him yeah.

Unable to,

Cris: And, and this is the thing he explains to her. She gives him a kiss and then we kind of go to chi and he

Carries

on with his journey.

Reegs: kind, yeah. Well, he's been given a load of money, which he just burns or

Cris: No, he throws them on the floor and you just see them rolling into the savannah where he's like the whatever Pansu or what? Pudi, he's like, Oh, you can't give him money.

He doesn't know what that is. And the guy said, no, but I got to give him something. We'll just give him something else.

He,

Sidey: the Coke bottle off him.

Cris: he won't understand. No, because that's the whole idea throughout the movie. He speaks of the evil thing. And even in Pudi, who.

Reegs: about.

Yeah. Because a few times he, he thinks, like when he meets Kate for the first time, he thinks she's a God and tries to give the bottle back to her. And

Cris: she's like, no, you

Reegs: white people are seen as the gods that he tries to give it back anyway. He eventually does the end of the movie, sees him arriving at God's window, a popular vantage point along the ensberg in escarpment.

Sidey: nice looking place. It

Cris: a nice looking place. I think that might have been a Matt

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah. I think that might have been a matte painting. I'm not sure. But anyway, he loves the bottle

Sidey: Yeah, they're just letters. Letters,

Reegs: yeah, litters. exactly.

That's what you do. So yes,

Sidey: And there's the sequel, there is a sequel. Yeah,

Cris: I think there's three parts.

Sidey: Oh is there?

Cris: Yes,

Reegs: Well, this was a wildly successful movie,

Sidey: Right, so I didn't know if this was true because I, I did, I got the financials. And on IMDB it says the budget for it was five million. Which seems a hell of a lot for what I saw on the screen.

Reegs: Yeah. Well it's fairly ambitious though, although like sometimes when they, like when they blow the helicopter up you can see how much of a like a model it is and that

Sidey: to IMDB it was 30 million US, then in the trivia, if you go into that, it starts talking about some other stuff. And I thought, is this just someone going in, you know, like Wikipedia and just making

Reegs: just someone going in, you know, making stuff? It was a, I

Cris: it was a, I know it as a, obviously I'm not from the UK, but I know I've seen it when I was living in Greece, that was on the telly. I'm not saying people would, I don't know, queue up to watch it, but it was a success even ten years ago, let alone

Sidey: So in quite a few places it ran for you know, however many consecutive days there was a record.

The the thing says that it grossed over 200 million dollars worldwide

Reegs: I'm

Sidey: is not what IMDB said, but, you know, I don't know which one's true, but that's a fucking

Cris: one

Reegs: money though. But anyway, money aside, obviously very popular.

What did you think of it, Chris? Did it, did it

Cris: anyway, money aside, obviously very popular. What did you think of it, Chris? Did it, did it The comedy at the time, that was the comedy, the Benny Hill style, the fact that he would trip over, he would put the rock under the, the wheel he would be a klutz around her and he would always fall over and be silly.

The, the rhinos putting out fires, the car in the trees, the little bow, all these things would, would, it's almost like a cartoon.

Sidey: Yeah.

Cris: If you look at it now, I would say it's a three out of 10 now.

Sidey: It's,

Cris: And it shouldn't be that long now that

Reegs: Oh, it's so long, even though it's so much of it is sped up. It's

over

Sidey: If it was a half hour episode or something, it would've been a lot more palatable. I sort of enjoyed it in the sense that. It was so culturally different and and sort of an oddity of its own.

But that kind of sped up Benny Hill comedy. It just looks so shit now. There's no getting away from it. It's fucking shit. It's not funny. Slapstick stuff. can still be funny but this that's the only real style of comedy that they bring to the table and so it wears thin like really fucking quick and obviously this would have been I think date wise like slap bang in the middle of apartheid

Reegs: Right, so you can't ignore the broader sort of cultural context around this against the backdrop of apartheid. And so it trading on the sort of problematic noble savage type tropes.

deeply patronizing about the Bushmen themselves. I think the lead actor Chi sort of disowned it later said that he understood it was a racist betrayal. And also it's sort of idealized version of what South Africa might have been like, which it obviously

Cris: was not.

Reegs: So it's very distasteful looking at it now, I think, and a bit exploitative.

And I Fucking hate slapstick, so this

Sidey: it's not gonna do it for

Reegs: for me. Although that opening, the opening 20 minutes is really strong, even if a bit problematic.

Cris: What does slapstick mean?

Sidey: Like Custard Pie in the Face kind of shows.

Reegs: falling over.

Cris: Oh, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Reegs: over, and

Sidey: Like Clowns.

Cris: The usual, okay, yeah, yeah,

Sidey: the, when it was just, like you said, the opening bit where they're just talking about the Chivesmen and how they exist in the Kalahari and it's so idyllic. I was like, man, they don't worry about time sheets or fucking, you know, deadlines and stuff. It sounds so great.

Yeah,

Reegs: quite good. And, you know, like the, the, the movie is being funny, but it's portrayal of like civilized man in inverted commas next to, next to them, you know, and, and they are both the butt of the joke, but obviously with all of the shit that was going on at the time, it's not quite as simple

Cris: I feel if they would have made it into an hour or 40 minutes, that would have

Reegs: I still would have thought it was fucking awful yeah.

Sidey: Too long and Questionable yeah a questionable recommend a

Reegs: problematic. Problematic. Recommend.

Sidey: Yeah

Cris: Okay.