Review of The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) by Jake G — 05 Nov 2009

Half dark comedy and half slapstick, THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY is a humorous KOYAANISQATSI set in South Africa, poking fun at the craziness people accept as normal-- life out of balance, basically.

Well...that's a stretch.

But there is a roughly five minute introductory part in which the narrator contrasts the untamed Kalahari with the tamed Johannesburg. "Which is really crazier?", the narrator seems to ask. Excerpt-.

"Only miles to the south, there's a vast city. And here you find civilized man. Civilized man refused to adapt himself to his environment. Instead he adapted his environment to suit him. So he built cities, roads, vehicles, machinery. And he put up power lines to run his labour-saving devices. But he didn't know when to stop. The more he improved his surroundings to make life easier, the more complicated he made it.".

But I'm getting ahead of myself-- most of those reading don't know what the film's about. Synopsis is RT's, couldn't sum the film up better: "A tribe of bushmen living in the Kalahari Desert find their peaceful, happy existence threatened when a Coca-Cola bottle falls from the sky. The natives squabble incessantly over ownership of the mysterious item, which they believe to be a gift from the gods. Hoping to restore order, one tribesman is elected to return the bottle by journeying to the ends of the earth, which brings him into contact with modern civilization.".

I may be making it sound a bit heavy handed. Don't get that impression. THE GOD'S MUST BE CRAZY is a comedy, and a heartwarming one at that.

I won't give away any more. It's a clever, inventive plot, and I wouldn't want to spoil it.

So see it for yourself, and tell me what you think. "Recommended" or "Two thumbs up" would be a bit of an understatement.