Gods Must Be Crazy I and II, The

The late N!xau stars as Xixo, a bushman who lives with his tribe in the heart of the Kalahari desert . One day the pilot of a passing plane tosses a Coke bottle out his window, which lands near the tribe's home. The clan takes to the strange new artifact at once, believing it to be a gift from the gods. However the gift brings other strange new concepts into the tribe, such as greed and jealousy. Xixo decides to leave his home to give the gift back to the gods.

Meanwhile, Kate Thompson (Sandra Prinsloo), a South African journalist, has had just about enough of her hectic urban existence. She accepts an offer to become a schoolteacher in Botswana , and upon arrival in the country she is met by Andrew Steyn (Marius Weyers), a local researcher working on his doctorate by examining and analyzing animal manure. Not the most impressive of pickup lines, to be sure, and Steyn's attempts to impress the lovely new schoolteacher result in a series of unintended disasters that make him look like quite the exquisite jackass.

While all of this is going on, Sam Boga (Louw Verwey), the leader of rebel/terrorist gang, is wanted by the government of an unnamed African republic. In an attempt to assassinate the president, his gang of incompetent lackeys only succeeded in murdering the Minister of Education, and as a result Sam Boga and his gang are on the run with the government militia hot in pursuit. But don't forget... it's a comedy!

Writer/director Jamie Uys constructed a scenario based around four separate stories: those of Xixo, Kate, Andrew, and Sam Boga, and by the time the film reaches its climax all four stories have become utterly intertwined. Along the way we are treated to a lot of slapstick, physical humor, tidbits of information about life in the Kalahari Desert, and gentle storytelling that has made this comedy one of the most beloved international films of all time. One could certainly analyze The Gods Must Be Crazy from a cultural/sociological perspective and find a lot of patriarchal and imperialist overtones that range from mild to utterly disturbing. If you're going to waste your time going down that particular avenue, good luck. I won't join you, as I find The Gods Must Be Crazy to be a delightfully charming and low-key affair that entertains just as much now as it did when it first burst upon the scene two decades ago.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the film's 1989 sequel, The Gods Must Be Crazy II. N!xau returns in his signature role, but the remainder of the principal cast are all-new. Again, Uys's scenario is based around several unrelated stories that somehow become converge together as the movie progresses. During this sequel, Xixo's children find themselves as accidental stowaways on a truck belonging to a pair of sinister (if extremely incompetent) ivory poachers, and the intrepid bushman endeavors to find them by tracking the vehicle. At the same time, a high-strung lawyer (Lena Farugia) is en route to a conference when she and her pilot (Hans Strydom) - who is also a zoologist - find themselves stranded in the bush after their plane crashes. Then we have two soldiers, the Cuban soldier Mateo (Erick Bowen) and the African soldier Timi (Treasure Tshabalala), who are also stranded and determined to make life difficult for each other in a disastrously incompetent game of cat-and-mouse.

The sequel is full of the same type of humor as the original: plenty of pratfalls, slapstick, and loads of the fast-motion and freeze-frame humor we saw in the first film. It doesn't quite gel as well the second time around. The romantic principals lack the kind of wacky, humorous but good-natured chemistry that the leads from the original had in abundance. The humor seems more forced this time, and while watching The Gods Must Be Crazy II - no matter how entertaining it gets at times - it still registers as just another unnecessary sequel. That having been said, it's certainly not a bad film. The film still has a sense of fun, adventure, and breezy charm, even if it cannot sustain interest as well as the original did. In the end, The Gods Must Be Crazy II is a slight, average film which breezes by in a pleasant but ultimately forgettable manner.

Video:

The Gods Must Be Crazy is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and has been anamorphically enhanced for your widescreen-viewing pleasure. The film definitely shows its age: every print I have seen of the film has always been in slightly a "beat up" state, so in that vein the overall transfer is somewhat reasonable. The film definitely has a worn, aged look. The transfer displays some inherent flaws: nicks, speckles, debris, print wear and scratches are evident, and the print sports a fair amount of grain structure. Sharpness levels vary throughout the picture and slant toward their negative, from somewhat reasonable to extremely soft.  Colors are well-rendered, although the excessive amounts of browns and light yellows combined with a limited degree of shadow delineation in dark-lit scenes make the movie appear slightly washed-out. While contrast levels are pleasant, there are many instances of edge-enhancement and haloing throughout the film. Objectively, I cannot say this is a good transfer. Personally, the film appears as good as (if not better than) I've ever seen it look.

The Gods Must Be Crazy II fares much better. The image is a lot more stable this time around, with more vibrant colors, sharper definition, and much less contrast haloing (although again, edge-enhancement is noticeable.) The video is presented in a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is also anamorphically-enhanced for your widescreen-viewing indulgence. The print isn't perfect; there still is a good deal of wear, debris, and markings on the transfer, but overall it is a marked improvement over the first film.

Audio:

The audio in The Gods Must Be Crazy is presented in monaural Dolby Digital 2.0, and the presentation again is acceptable if not exceptional. The audio features the horrifically-dubbed English soundtrack that has been prevalent in North America for nearly twenty years. Dialog is presented with clarity and is quite natural sounding, although the dub was recorded in a somewhat limited fashion, sporting some inherent hollowness and clipping. Surround and LFE activity is nonexistent.

As with the video, the audio on the sequel is definitely superior. Although it is also in Dolby Digital 2.0, the quality and fidelity of the soundtrack is much more pronounced. The dialog this time around is in its original English language and sounds much clearer and more natural. There is significantly more directionality and spaciousness to the front channels, and surround activity, while minimal, is evident.

Extras:

Disc One contains the extras relating to the first film. Journey to Nyae Nyae is a twenty-five minute documentary that returns to the locations in South Africa used to film The Gods Must Be Crazy. The narrator makes his way to Nyae Nyae to interview N!xau, the star of the movie. He ended up disillusioned by both N!xau's struggling existence and the less-than-idyllic surroundings in the area. He also visits local schools and, rather patronizingly, acts surprised that the children adapt to the latest technology faster than those in the movie took to the Coke bottle.  Baraka School Photos contains a handful of photographs of local schoolchildren, and there are trailers for such completely unrelated fare as Cops and Robbersons, Ghostbusters, and So I Married An Axe Murderer.

Disc Two contains a six-minute feature entitled Buster Reynolds Remembers Jamie Uys, in which cinematographer Buster Reynolds reflects back on the director of the films, who died of a heart attack in 1996. Finally, the disc contains trailers for Groundhog Day, Hanky Panky, and Murder By Death.

Final Thoughts

While I can't say the transfer on The Gods Must Be Crazy looks good, it certainly looks no worse than I have ever seen it before. The Gods Must Be Crazy II appears to be a much better transfer, but then again it's a much inferior film. I suppose you can't have it both ways. In any case, fans of these Crazy films will mostly be pleased that the movies were released at all, although I would have enjoyed stronger transfers and some more substantial supplemental material (a commentary on the original, at least!) I'd give this set a split rating: for those who have seen and loved the original, I can definitely rate the set as "Recommended", but with reservations. If you are new to both films, I'd definitely advise you to "Rent It" first.