OH man i forgot about this movie! i saw it a loooong time ago, but i am gonna have to go pick it up some time.
I'm gonna bump this thread that was started 4 years ago. All but one of the few ppl back then appear to be gone. But, I saw this in theater in 1980 and it was original and funny with the slapstick comedy - plus serious with terrorists in Botswana and Namibia as part of the story. The movie begins almost like a National Geographic documentary, studying the simple life of the mostly naked Bushmen who live off the land and have no knowledge of the "civilized" world outside of the Kalahari. The premise being that someone throws a Coke bottle out of an airplane and Xi, our Bushman protagonist finds this gift from the gods. He takes it back to his village and it serves many uses but for the first time there is squabbling in the tribe which previously had no concept of ownership. So, Xi treks off to throw it off the end of the world - which brings him into contact with "civilization," and all sorts of adventures. While watching the video, I noticed the slapstick not so funny as when I saw it at age 35. But it is a light, enjoyable movie and the main character is a real Bushman with an unpronounceable name - N!xau - (Gao is how it was pronounced on the features). He is not an actor; had never acted before and was found working at a school. He was hired for the film and told the rudimentary story elements where he stripped down like his ppl in the olden days and discovered the Coke bottle for the first time. Unbelievable that this guy was not an actor - he pretty much carried the movie, speaking in his native Bushman tongue (Clicking is part of this unique speech). The features did a real documentary on Gao's life 10 years after the movie where he was found back in the bush living in poverty. Then in another dozen years things got better and he did get some royalties from his movie and years later, when a computer was brought to the local school he actually gave talks after the kids watched the movie. I would suggest seeing this DVD, for both the interesting movie and the documentary on its star non-actor.
There was also a "The Gods Must Be Crazy Two." One of my favorite lines is about these crazy white people have all of these things to make their lives easier and all it does is make their lives more complicated. Peace Out, Rev J
Is this film available on DVD or is it uploaded somewhere on the internet? I watched Jamie Uhys (?) film Animals are Beautiful People and thought it was hilarious. Really need to see this one.
