The Gods Must be Crazy - Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

The Gods Must be Crazy

Director: Jamie Uys

Are the voices in my head bothering you? –Woman in lunchroom

The rhino is the self-appointed fire prevention officer. When he sees a fire, he rushes in and stamps it out. –Narrator

I said stop playing that bloody game! –Boga

Confession: the only thing I knew about this movie was that it included people using a language that incorporates clicking. And the only reason I knew this was because of Russell Peters’s stand-up bit where he travels to South Africa and realizes for the first time that what he heard in The Gods Must be Crazy wasn’t part of the writer’s attempt at comedy. Netflix shed a bit more light: 

Three vignettes highlight the surreal in this 1980 classic comedy written and directed by Jamie Uys. Among the three, the one about a Coke bottle falling out of the heavens and becoming a one-of-a-kind object coveted by everyone in a small African village is a cult favorite. The bottle creates such dissension that its finder, Nixau, decides the gods must’ve been crazy to give such a gift, so he sets out to drop it off the edge of the world.

Netflix mentions three vignettes but only describes the one. Going into this, I had no idea what to expect from the other two, or even that the three would be intertwined. After watching the movie all the way through, I don’t really quite know what to make of it. It’s a “classic comedy” according to Netflix, and I did laugh… but I don't think this will rank up there for me as one of the best comedies I've ever seen. The funniest part for me was the trip that Andrew Steyn took into the city to pick up Kate Thompson for the Reverend. I couldn't stop laughing as he worked to open and then close the gates without being able to stop his car -- it wouldn't start up again if it died, according to Mpudi -- and then as he fell repeatedly into the water trying to dislodge the car from the mud. And again as the whole comedic affair began anew as he and Ms. Thompson had to return the same way from which he'd come.

The Coke bottle vignette was definitely the best contrived portion of the movie. The story line was funny, and the setup was genius. Setting it up as a documentary allowed for the “natives” to remain in their own world without influence of the filmmakers. The casting, as well, was brilliant as I found it hard to believe that I was not, in fact, watching a tribe of bushmen in Africa. The character of Nixau was endearing throughout the movie, and I understand why this portion of the film became a cult classic, as it were.

The part of the film I enjoyed the least – aside from the fact that Mpudi’s voice never matched up with his mouth, which by the way, drove me crazy! – was the guerrilla war. I never fully grasped what was going on, and rolled my eyes whenever their portion of the story came back on the screen. I understood their existence only when they kidnapped Kate and the children, but even then I didn’t much enjoy their storyline. I suppose it’s all opinion, and someone else watching the movie may find this portion to be one of the better parts; I, however, just didn't like it.

For the most part, I feel like I laughed when I was supposed to laugh, I sympathized with the characters I think they wanted me to side with, disliked the characters I was supposed to dislike. I enjoyed the movie, but won’t be going out of my way to see it again, especially because I have confirmed that those 10 minutes or so of the car trip can be found on YouTube.

Takeaways: Different views are not necessarily better or worse than my own; they are merely different. Littering can have negative effects on more than just the environment. And Smokey the Bear is the regional, but apparently not the universal, mascot of forest fire prevention.