Title: The Gods Must Be Crazy
Debut: 1980
Rating: PG
Starring: N!xau, Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo
Directed by: Jamie Uys
Summary: (From IMDB): A comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.
What we fondly remember: We owned this movie on VHS as a kid, and for a good portion of my childhood, I dusted it off every time I was home sick from school.
What was refreshing: This movie is such a delight. Truly, that’s the word for it. It’s charming, poignant, funny, and relevant. I worried that it would be too slow-moving for today’s movie-viewing kids, but not so: they loved every minute of it.
Red flags: The only violence in The Gods Must Be Crazy is at the hands of a band of terrorists/revolutionaries. There is a scene where they shoot automatic guns into a room of government types, but no blood is shown (only people falling over). Otherwise, this same band of bad guys are almost slap-stick funny, and not to be taken too seriously. No bad language, no sex, no inappropriate moments. The endearing scientist who falls for the teacher has some silly moments while he tries to impress her, but it’s all in good fun.
Kids’ Review: They loved seeing scenes set in Africa, and they found the whole movie funny. Watching it together led to several good conversations about the role of greed and ownership in our society (lacking in the Bushmen society shown in the movie) and the concept of what we all truly need (and don’t) for survival and happiness.
Want more after the credits roll? Catch up on past reviews here!
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This is one of my favorite movies ever! I actually still own the VHS–bought when the video store switched over to DVD. My kids watched it for the first time last year (due to that pesky-but-fairly-benign-considering-modern-movies shoot-up scene), and laughed hysterically through the whole thing. They love slapstick. I need to order the second movie–I think that will crack them up too. You should also check out “Animals Are Beautiful People” by the same director a few years before The Gods…it’s slapstick animal documentary and my kids loved it (the best scenes are the baboons somersaulting down the hill and the mongoose trying to grab an egg attached to a string, that someone outside of the camera keeps pulling out of the mongoose’s grasp).