Being Human | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Bill Forsyth |
Written by | Bill Forsyth |
Produced by | Robert F. Colesberry David Puttnam |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Michael Coulter |
Edited by | Michael Ellis |
Music by | Michael Gibbs |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 122 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom Japan |
Languages | English Gaelic Friulian |
Budget | $40 million [1] |
Box office | $5 million [1] |
Being Human is a 1994 comedy-drama film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Robin Williams, John Turturro, Bill Nighy, Vincent D'Onofrio, Robert Carlyle, Theresa Russell and Ewan McGregor in his feature-film debut. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and Japan, the film portrays the experience of a single human soul, portrayed by Williams, through various incarnations. Williams is the only common actor throughout the stories that span man's history on Earth.
An attempt on director-screenwriter Bill Forsyth's part to depict by visual means the ordinariness of life throughout the ages, Being Human is deliberately slow in its pace to emphasize how slow life often is. The structure is one of vignette-like character studies of one man (actually five distinct men, all with the same soul) who keeps making the same relationships and mistakes throughout his lifetimes.
In the first incarnation, a caveman's family is taken from him by raiders, due to his cowardice and hesitation. Before his wife is taken away, she shouts, "Don't lose the children!".
The next incarnation is in ancient Rome, where he, Hector, is a slave to a "foolish master" who loses his fortune and is compelled by his creditors to kill himself, and he orders Hector to join him. Hector longs to be free to find the children and wife he had before he became a slave, but he has fallen in love with another slave and forgets his waiting family.
In the third incarnation, Hector is a Scottish crusader on his way home to his children. The soul of his master from his life in Rome is now a crusader trying to decide whether to become a priest. They travel together until Hector finds his soul mate from the life in Rome. She is a widow and wishes for Hector to join her family, but his duties to his children in Scotland pull at him.
In the fourth incarnation, Hector is finally forced to confront his capacity for cowardly indecision. He is a Portuguese man in the Renaissance shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. He is the master in this life, his wife from the first incarnation shipwrecked with him as his spurned lover, and the raider who spirited her away is her steadfast friend.
In the fifth incarnation, Hector is a modern man in New York, paying the consequences of cowardly indecision, and gaining the strength to address the children who he lost lifetimes ago. He is joined in this life by his master/slave/friend/soul mate, and ex-wife, Janet, and her husband/raider from lifetimes past. They support him, but they are people who are trying to find their own way, as in the past lives.
The film had a very problematic production, mainly due to financial issues and the ambition of Forsyth's screenplay. After poor test screenings, Warner Bros. instructed Bill Forsyth to trim 40 minutes from the film, as well as add narration and a happy ending. Forsyth subsequently disowned the film. [2] [3]
Despite the changes, the film was still not well received on release. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 54% rating, based on 13 reviews. [4]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "F", and said that the film "demonstrates what can happen when a director with a gossamer comic touch tries to become commercial—the movie is so flat and banal it's like a Mel Brooks parody in which someone forgot to put in the jokes". [5]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times was more positive, declaring, "Aiming high and falling short of his own mark, Mr. Forsyth remains a film maker of vivid, unpredictable imagination." [6]
The film was one of the worst-performing films of the year, grossing just $5 million against its $40 million cost. [1] It grossed $1.5 million in the United States and Canada. [7]
Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical mystery-drama film directed and produced by Robert Redford. Dramatizing the Twenty-One quiz show scandals of the 1950s, the screenplay by Paul Attanasio adapts the memoirs of Richard N. Goodwin, a U.S. Congressional lawyer who investigated the accusations of game-fixing by show producers. The film chronicles the rise and fall of popular contestant Charles Van Doren after the fixed loss of Herb Stempel and Goodwin's subsequent probe.
Local Hero is a 1983 Scottish comedy-drama film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Peter Riegert, Peter Capaldi, Denis Lawson, Fulton Mackay and Burt Lancaster. Produced by David Puttnam, the film is about an American oil company representative who is sent to the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland to purchase the town and surrounding property for his company. For his work on the film, Forsyth won the 1984 BAFTA Award for Best Direction.
John Michael Turturro is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his varied complex roles in independent films. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler, and Spike Lee. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for four Screen Actors Guild Awards and three Golden Globe Awards.
William Francis Nighy is an English actor. Known for his work in several stage, television and film productions, he has received several awards including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, and also has had nominations for an Academy Award, a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a 1994 science fiction horror film directed by Kenneth Branagh who also stars as Victor Frankenstein, with Robert De Niro portraying Frankenstein's monster, and co-stars Tom Hulce, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holm, John Cleese, Richard Briers and Aidan Quinn. Considered the most faithful film adaptation of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, despite several differences and additions in plot from the novel, the film follows a medical student named Victor Frankenstein who creates new life in the form of a monster composed of various corpses' body parts.
William David Forsyth. known as Bill Forsyth, is a Scottish film director and writer known for his films Gregory's Girl (1981), Local Hero (1983) and Comfort and Joy (1984) as well as his adaptation of the Marilynne Robinson novel Housekeeping (1987).
Michael Beck is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Swan in The Warriors (1979) as Sonny Malone in Xanadu (1980), and as Koda in Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1983).
Pamela Reed is an American actress. She is known for playing Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic police partner in the 1990 film Kindergarten Cop and portraying the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho. She appeared as Marlene Griggs-Knope on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. She is also well known as the exasperated wife in Bean.
Fresh is a 1994 American crime drama film written and directed by Boaz Yakin in his directorial debut, and produced by Randy Ostrow and Lawrence Bender. It was scored by Stewart Copeland, a member of the Police. The story revolves around a preteen boy named Michael, nicknamed Fresh, who runs drugs for gangsters. Inspired by the chess lessons of his father, an alcoholic speed-chess master, Fresh devises and executes a brilliant plan to extricate himself and his drug-addicted sister from their hopeless lives.
Little Buddha is a 1993 drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, written by Rudy Wurlitzer and Mark Peploe, and produced by usual Bertolucci collaborator Jeremy Thomas. An international co-production of Italy, France and the United Kingdom, the film stars Chris Isaak, Bridget Fonda and Keanu Reeves as Prince Siddhartha.
Elias Koteas is a Canadian actor. He is known for playing Alvin "Al" Olinsky in the Chicago franchise, as well as appearing in lead and supporting roles in numerous films. He won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film Ararat (2002). He appeared in such films as Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), The Adjuster (1991), Exotica (1994), The Prophecy (1995), Crash (1996), Living Out Loud (1998), Fallen (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998), Harrison's Flowers (2002), Collateral Damage (2002), Shooter (2007), Zodiac (2007), Skinwalkers (2007), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), and Shutter Island (2010).
Color of Night is a 1994 American erotic mystery thriller film produced by Cinergi Pictures and released in the United States by Buena Vista Pictures. Directed by Richard Rush, the film stars Bruce Willis and Jane March.
Davy Jones is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean film series based upon the legendary character of the same name. He is portrayed through motion capture by Bill Nighy and voiced by Nighy and Robin Atkin Downes. He is first mentioned in the film The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and appears in Dead Man's Chest (2006) as well as At World's End (2007).
Milk Money is a 1994 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Benjamin and starring Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris. The film is about three suburban 11-year-old boys who find themselves behind in "the battle of the sexes," believing they would regain the upper hand if they could just see a real, live naked lady.
I'll Do Anything is a 1994 American comedy-drama film written and directed by James L. Brooks. While a large part of the film is a satire of the film industry, it also skewers relationships from various angles. Its primary plot concerns a down-on-his-luck actor who suddenly finds himself the sole caretaker of his six-year-old daughter. The film starred Nick Nolte and Whittni Wright, with supporting roles filled by Albert Brooks, Julie Kavner, Joely Richardson and Tracey Ullman.
Exit to Eden is a 1994 American comedy thriller film directed by Garry Marshall and adapted to the screen by Deborah Amelon and Bob Brunner from Anne Rice's novel of the same name. The original music score was composed by Patrick Doyle.
I Like It Like That is a 1994 American comedy-drama film about the trials and tribulations of a young Puerto Rican couple living in a poverty-stricken New York City neighborhood in the South Bronx. The film stars Lauren Velez, Jon Seda, Lisa Vidal, Griffin Dunne, Jesse Borrego and Rita Moreno, and was written and directed by Darnell Martin who, in her filmmaking debut, became the first African-American female filmmaker to take helm of a film produced by a major film studio.
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is a 2009 American action horror film directed by Patrick Tatopoulos from a screenplay by Danny McBride, Dirk Blackman, and Howard McCain, based on a story by Len Wiseman, Robert Orr, and McBride. It is a prequel to Underworld (2003) and the third installment in the Underworld film series. The film stars Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra, Steven Mackintosh, and Kevin Grevioux. The plot focuses primarily on the origins of the characters and the events that lead up to the Vampire–Lycan war. Kate Beckinsale, who starred in the previous Underworld films, appears briefly at the end of the film.
Glorious 39 is a 2009 British war thriller film written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, starring Romola Garai, Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, Jeremy Northam, Christopher Lee, David Tennant, Jenny Agutter and Eddie Redmayne. The film was released on 20 November 2009.
Living is a 2022 British period drama film directed by Oliver Hermanus. Its screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro was adapted from the 1952 Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru. Set in 1953 London, it stars Bill Nighy as a bureaucrat in the public works department who learns he has a fatal illness.