SYNOPSICS
Being Human (1994) is a English,Scottish Gaelic movie. Bill Forsyth has directed this movie. Robin Williams,John Turturro,Kelly Hunter,Maudie Johnson are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1994. Being Human (1994) is considered one of the best Comedy,Drama movie in India and around the world.
Five bittersweet vignettes that span the entire human history about five different men, all called Hector and played by the same actor (Robin Williams), who find themselves at a critical juncture in their lives. In prehistoric times, Hector lives in peace with his wife and their little son and daughter in a cave on a quite uninhabited island somewhere in the north. His world is shattered when a group of foreign pagan raiders led by a young chieftain and a somewhat pacifistic priest arrive there. In Ancient Rome, Hector is a loyal well-treated slave of Lucinnius, a somewhat naive big trader with political connections. When his latest shipment fails to arrive and the local corrupt governor Cyprion refuses to lend him money for his further endeavors due to bad omen that a professional soothsayer saw while reading the future from a chicken liver, he is ruined. To make things worse, just as Hector plans to ask his master for freedom and elope with his master's female African slave Thalia, ...
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Being Human (1994) Reviews
A good, thoughtful film
This is one of those comfortable Sunday-afternoon-while-it's-raining films. It is one of Robin Williams more serious characters. A little moody in places, the film offers reflections on what it might have been like to live at other times, as a sort of social history (no being a king or queen or royalty). The main character plays his life issues out through time, from ancient Rome, a Viking raid, a 16th or 17th century continental vagrant, to the present. Love, life's tragedies, children, and home are all themes. There is a light-heartiness to the film, and it plays on the contemporary character's life as it unfolds. Robin Williams turns in a typically great performance. The themes and emotions all play in their times. Settings are as varied as the emotions. Sweet and sentimental, the movie captures and makes a statement about the human condition.
A Masterpiece.
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.
Cerebral storytelling
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.
Not as bad as the initial reviews indicated
Being Human is probably Bill Forsyth's "worst" film. And it got some of the LOUSIEST reviews ever when released. But Bill Forsyth's worst is still better than most people's best, and there was some positive reappraisal of it when the video came out. I think it's worth seeing, especially if you don't compare it to Forsyth's great films (Local Hero, Housekeeping, Gregory's Girl). Robin Williams is fine, as usual, as our anti-hero through time, and if the plot and running jokes wear more than a little thin by the end, the journey is still interesting.
A touching sequence of stories...
Well, I think everyone can find something about himself in this movie.Because it is the common story of humanity...We all face the same conditions(independent of time) in our life during the process of learning about courage, love, compassion, honesty and the similiar aspects of humanity. The story is told as a sequence of stories, each happening at a different time so that it emphasizes the same tragedy of humanity in all ages...The only different thing is the time parameter...Everything is just same apart from that... As a result I think the movie was perfect because of the story it emphasized and also(for me) because of the outstanding acting of Robin Williams...