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(Note: This review refers to the Blu-ray version of the DVD.)
"I like to watch." Peter Sellers delivers the most controlled and nuanced performance of his career as Chance the Gardener, an illiterate recluse cast out of his protective Eden with nothing but a fine suit and good manners, in Hal Ashby's film of Jerzy Kosinski's satirical novel. Adopted by the Washington, D.C., political elite, the rechristened "Chauncy" smiles, nods and repeats his simplistic mantras to the elite of American political power brokers. They think he's a philosopher genius couching economic theory in gardening aphorisms, but he's simply a guileless naïf waiting for the channel to change. The picture of demagoguery, media saturation and gullibility is hilarious, oddly touching and gently directed. Melvyn Douglas won an Oscar as "the kingmaker," and Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart and Richard Basehart co-star.
Caleb Deschanel's elegant cinematography looks amazing in Blu-ray, but the image has been adapted to 1.77:1 wide-screen rather than the theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 listed on the case. It's a minor adjustment and may ultimately be more effective for home viewing on wide-screen TVs, but it is a change from the original version. Both the DVD and the Blu-ray feature two recently discovered deleted scenes (barely a minute long) and an alternate ending. The short retrospective documentary "Memories From Being There" (with actress/director Illeana Douglas, granddaughter of actor Melvyn Douglas) puts that alternate ending into context. The gag reel features a jokey promo apparently ad-libbed by Sellers with Ashby grinning beside him like a hippie wild man.
