Being Human (1994)

Better Late Then Never

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It's hard to tell what being human really is supposed to look like from these nebulous vignettes by Robin Williams. The best I can come up with is the above equation, but I don't really think that was his goal in this ill-advised attempt at a serious film about the subject.First, the narrators, far from provoking interest in the upcoming material, bore us to death with pretentious generalizations and leading questions until we no longer care much what's coming as long as it means they'll soon shut up for a while as the next vignette is dramatized.Second, Robin's recurring male character, Hector, presents us with a rather doubtful example of humanity, since he is out of step with the rest of his peers. How can Hector be a valid example when there are so many humans that contradict his character? Far from being an everyman, he is a marginal example at best. He never seems to aspire to anything higher than his own selfish desires. He takes advantage of people with nobler aspirations, and then wonders why they disparage him as a loser and a fool. If being human means being largely clueless about virtues, I guess that shows something, but I'm not buying it. Using a recurring male character as the focus of humanity seems also to be rather sexist, doesn't it?Then there's the whole question of whether reincarnation is implied..... Unfortunately, nothing in this film is consistent enough to say one way or the other. If Hector is being reincarnated, he's going to be at it for a long time, since he's not learning anything from one cycle to the next. He hates being a slave, but then becomes the same type of foolish master that he himself had in a previous incarnation. I think it's best to just not consider this question further, since either way this film proves nothing about being human either way.Bottom line, if Hector is being human, then count me out of humanity, PLEASE!

I got to see this for the third time at the Glasgow Film Theatre, with Bill Forsyth speaking about it. What treat! He calls this one of the most expensive art films ever made. It was intended to be even more abstract and mysterious than it is. He had big problems with the studio/ producers wanting it to be easier to understand and more mainstream accessible - hence the slightly awkward voice-over. Too bad it is not successful enough to warrant a Director's Cut. You can never get a 2nd chance at a first impression, but I would love to see it as Bill Forsyth intended. I expect it would be even more powerful. Robin Williams is great. It really is a good film, but don't expect a laugh-a-minute or anything Hollywood. Because of the changes that the studio insisted upon it inhabits some kind of strange middle ground.

Dear Movie Fans, I am a huge R. Williams fan so for me this was a treat... I watched this movie by accident while waiting for an extended repair on my car.. anyway it was great...His journey through time had my own imagination going wild...I sat traveling w/him thinking how I would react to these situations...I started to forget it was even Robin Williams in the film as odd as that sounds to some... I was completely sad when this movie ended...from that time on it has been a movie that comforts me when I'm down... please watch if you like both Williams & some soul searching.Psst also check out Mrs Doubtfire for a pick me up ;) Happy Viewing!

In Being Human, the movie title should explain to you mostly what it's about. This is not so. If the character William's is portraying is human, then we might as well call ourselves droids. His stiff way of acting and terrible forms of expression harm the respect one holds for him as an actor. Sure the script is bad and it should have stayed as a book or whatever, but whoever wasted their money to produce this tape of diaster was simply not aware of exactally how bad this movie is. And yes, if you analyze it to death I'm sure you can find parallels and connections to human responses to different situations, but for the regular people who just want to enjoy a movie, don't bother with this one. Nothing to enjoy. And if you happen to notice that Ewan McGregor's in it, yeah, definatly not worth sitting through to catch his evil glare and two one liners. I'd rather see a role where he actually gets to use his talent. This movie sucked. I'm sorry to rest of you who thought is was under rated, but honestly, I think you're just a Robin Williams fan justifying a bad choice.