Them Crazy Gods

The Gods Must Be Crazy is a fantastic film. It is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, yet it strays from the typical humor from the era in which it was made. It starts of as almost a documentary, and if you don't pay close enough attention, you might just think that a documentary is just what it is. Yet the narration itself is hilarious. And that presents one comedic theme that we see throughout the entire film. That is, sarcasm. The narrators' explanation of the Bushman people is the perfect demonstration of this. For example, when he states the Bushman's instinctive lack of child-directed discipline, he follows by saying that one can guess that the Bushman children are, of course, VERY well behaved. Mpudi is also a great example of sarcasm. Almost everything he says to Steyn or anyone else for that matter, is laced in sarcasm. That makes this film very enjoyable.

However, that is not the sole reason for my enjoyment of this film. I really liked the entire theme, or point of the story. That is, the theme of civilized vs. non-civilized, or I suppose urban vs. rural life. The whole movie is this great clash between the two, And each side has it's complications. While the Bushmen (non-civilized) try incredibly hard to understand the meaning of the Coca-Cola bottle, Ms. Johnson and Steyn (civilized) are both trying incredibly hard to understand the Bushmen. This creates a problem, however. The Bushmen will never really understand civilized culture, because as the narrator said in the beginning, the Bushmen are, or were unaware of everyone else in the world. They may run into another family across the desert every once and a while, but they have no idea that there are literally billions of other people sharing the planet. So, in essence, the civilized may never understand the opposite, and visa verse.

In a way, there is a criticism involved in the clashing of the two groups. The uncivilized make it a point to distance themselves from society, not wanting to adapt to a new environment. This shows an unwillingness to learn civilized culture. The civilized, however, seem to have no appreciation for culture or ideals either. Out with the old and in with the new. The whole bottle incident occurred because a civilized individual littered the desert by just carelessly throwing his bottle out the window. This all circles back to the unwillingness to learn from foreign perceptiveness.

In essence, this represents our world today. People, especially in the U.S. are increasingly resilient to any type of change. We talk, eat, dress and act like Americans. Just like many of those who live in Germany, France, Italy and Russia talk, eat, dress and act like Germans, Frenchies, Italians and Russians. It's in our nature to be proud of who we are. It is when we get too proud that we step on a dangerous line. And that is what the film The Gods Must be Crazy pinpoints. It is important for us as a nation, and as a world, to bury the hatchet and start to try to relate to each other, Just like Steyn and the Bushman. Can't we all just get along? Ha ha. No.