The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Jamie Uys

Writer:

Jamie Uys (writer)

Release Date:

21 August 1981 (Norway)

Genre:

Action | Comedy

Tagline:

The critics are raving... the natives are restless... and the laughter is non-stop!

Plot:

A Sho in the Kalahari desert encounters technology for the first time--in the shape of a Coke bottle...

Plot Keywords:

Bottle | Kalahari | Desert | Terrorism | Rebellion

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Marius Weyers	...	Andrew Steyn
Sandra Prinsloo	...	Kate Thompson
N!xau	...	Xi
Louw Verwey	...	Sam Boga
Michael Thys	...	Mpudi
Nic De Jager	...	Jack Hind
Fanyana H. Sidumo	...	Card 1
Joe Seakatsie	...	Card 2
Brian O'Shaughnessy	...	Mr. Thompson
Vera Blacker	...	Mrs. Thompson
Ken Gampu	...	President
Paddy O'Byrne	...	Narrator (voice)
Jamie Uys	...	The Reverend

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

Botswana | South Africa

Language:

English | Afrikaans | Ungwatsi

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:All | South Korea:12 (DVD rating) | Australia:PG | New Zealand:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:Atp | Finland:S | Germany:12 | Norway:11 (re-rating) | Norway:12 (original rating) | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

South Africa

Company:

CAT Films

Trivia:

The film was made by a South African director and was financed with South African government funds, but was released as a Botswanan film because there was a hard international embargo against South Africa.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the end of the movie when Andrew is covered in flour he also has a lipstick kiss on his cheek before Kate kisses him for the first time.

Quotes:

Policeman: [to blindfolded assassin aboard helicopter] Where is Sam Boga?
[Assassin shakes his head]
Policeman: Where is your hideout?
[Assassin won't talk, so he pushes him out the open helicopter door. Assassin screams, but only falls a few feet because the helicopter is still on the ground]
Policeman: Next time you're gonna be a bit higher!
[laughs loudly]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Buster Reynolds Remembers Jamie Uys (2004) (V)

Perfection of Simplicity, nothing more, nothing less

This movie is not a big budget action film, this movie is not an emotional soap opera, or a tearjerker, this is a simple little film about the simple things in life. This South African produced film has proven to be one of the best I have seen in quite a long time. N!xau, a native bushman plays a bushman in this movie. A coke bottle has destroyed his villages life as it has been proven to be an excellent tool, but everyone wants it. So the young Bushman is told by the village elders to throw the ‘evil thing' off the ends of the earth.

On his long and perilous journey he runs into all kinds of different people, some terrorists, a man studying animals, an uptight urban teacher, and some trouble along the way, obviously. The movie is just so funny, the film is told from the point of view of the bushman, and is poignant as well. The movie manages to be very different, and extremely unconventional, at least by American standards.

I have to admit I am glad I got to see this movie. A lot of great foreign films do not make it over to America, and that is sad, but this movie is excellent, it is funny, sweet, and all around one of the best movies I have seen. The writing is congruent and sharp, the performances do not at all seemed forced and the ensemble here manage to come off appropriately hilarious without taking away from the plot.

There are some political overtones here as well, as the movie takes a few shots at apartheid, when it was still around. Also in my mind the movie is extremely satirical of the instability that the region faces. The funniest part of the movie were the terrorists. They were so incredibly inept and silly I couldn't help laugh at them. If they weren't tripping over closing doors they were tripping over themselves.

Marius Weyers as the biologist who is clumsy but well meaning also steals the show, and his assistant, played by Louw Verway is excellent, but the real star of the show is N!Xau, who makes such an excellent lead and does wonderful here. What amazes me about him was he was about forty when he did this film. There is no way for him to know when he was born, but the man looks so youthful, it is incredible, I thought he was a teenager! Shows you how much I know. Anyway see this incredible film, it is more than worth it.