The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)

Directed by Jamie Uys. Starring Marius Weyers, N!xau, Sandra Prinsloo, Michael Thys, Louw Verwey, Nic de Jager, (voice) Paddy O’Byrne. [PG]

A bushman (N!xau) in the Kalahari Desert, whose tribe has never seen civilization before, discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle and believes it to be a gift from the gods, which he tries to return to them (or, at the very least, throw off the edge of the world). This is just the setup for a peculiar and meandering comedy, a farcical allegory that will also involve a hapless biologist (Weyers), a village schoolteacher (Prinsloo), and a hostage crisis involving guerrillas fleeing government retribution. Starts out well with O’Byrne’s deadpan narration introducing the bushman’s world and the way he and his tribesmen react to the bottle and its influence on their uncomplicated lifestyle, but once focus shifts elsewhere, the pic becomes a sluggish parade of tacky misunderstandings, patronizing fish-out-of-water clichés, and tired slapstick, replete with cartoonish music, chintzy sound effects, and lots of sped-up action to “enhance” the humor. There are a small number of surprises and disarming gags in store, but not enough to make the bulk of this movie anything but a pale retread of old vaudevillian physical comedy routines and provincial self-deprecation (which happens to be conveniently apolitical in nature, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand). Juvenile jokes aplenty, so it may appeal to less-discriminating kids, but it also became a surprise international hit, enough so that it even spawned a sequel.

40/100