THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY

South Africa, 1980, 109 minutes, Colour.
Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, N!xau.
Directed by Jamie Uys.

The Gods Must Be Crazy is an entertaining comedy drama from South Africa. Many critics thought it excellent entertainment and were favourable towards the attitudes underlying it. However, other reviewers found it 'a quintessential product of apartheid' (British Monthly Film Bulletin, March 1982).

The film focuses on a tribe of Bushmen living in the desert. A Coca Cola bottle falls from a plane and they see it as a portent and have to throw it off the end of the world in order to save the tribe. By contrast, a journalist in a city goes to a mission school and encounters friendly workers and scientists as well as black terrorists.

The film is colourful in the use of location photography. It was directed by Jame Uys, director of Lost in the Desert, Beautiful People.

1. An entertaining comedy? Adventure? For South African audiences? For world-wide audiences?

2. Production values: Panavision photography, the use of South African locations, the bush, the desert, the city? Editing and pace both for comedy and adventure? Musical score?

3. A South African film - attitudes towards apartheid, towards the Bushmen, towards black terrorists, towards white teachers and journalists, scientists? Relationships between black and white? Principles of unity, racial harmony, apartheid?

4. The interweaving of the three plots? Humorous, action-packed, romantic? The structure of the film and the interplay of the three stories?

5. The focus on Xi - the Bushman living in the desert, in harmony with their surroundings, the harshness of the desert? The Coca Cola bottle falling? The quarrels in the tribe, the attitude towards the gods, the bottle seen as a portent (irony or not?), Xi with his mission to throw the bottle off the 'edge of the world'? Xi and his journey, moving out of his homeland, his killing the goat, offering to share the meal? No understanding of private property? His being in jail and oppression? His being released? His going on the expedition? The encounter with the terrorists? Xi and his helping free the hostages? Xi and his finding the edge of the world, the waterfall and the cliffs, throwing the Coca Cola bottle away? His sense of achievement and his mission?

6. The story of Kate Thompson, her work as a journalist, the decision to leave, the journey to the mission school - the comedy of the city person in the countryside? The encounter with Andrew? The mishaps? The terrorists, the taking of Kate and the children as hostages? Their escape? Andrew courting Kate? Jack Hind and his rivalry? Happy ending?

7. The background of the black terrorists, their mission, the escape, the encounter with the Bushmen, with the whites, the taking of hostages, the violence? Xi and his working against the terrorists?

8. Andrew and his work as a microbiologist, the bush, the succession of accidents, the courtship with Kate, the rivalry of Jack?

9. Jack and his work as a hunter, smooth operator, attentions towards Kate, clashes with Andrew?

10. Mpudi, his work with Andrew, helping Xi, the expedition, the terrorists?

11. The background of South African politics, race relationships? The heritage of South Africa in terms of nature, history? An entertaining film from that country?