Being Human

Being Human is definitely an anomaly for a movie that touches on medieval life. Most medieval-era movies are about the plague, bloody battles, or bloody battles in a plague-ridden area. In comparison, Being Human with Robin Williams is slow, thoughtful, and looks at how people lived.



This is actually a movie about five different time periods. Robin Williams starts out in prehistoric days, living in a cave with his wife and two kids. Then he's a Roman-era slave. Then he's a medieval crusader returning home. Next he's a Renaissance man who is shipwrecked. Finally he's a modern day man. It's sort of like he's being reincarnated, although of course he doesn't know that. All he knows, in each life, is that he's struggling with issues of family, home, children, and responsibility.

So, for example, in the first one he fails completely. His wife and kids are stolen away by raiders, and while he eventually tries to get them back, he isn't able to. He has to watch, sadly, as they are taken from him. In the very last one, he'd been an absent father after a divorce. He's tentatively trying to reconnect with his kids and rebuild a relationship with them.

The medieval scenes fall between the two. He's been off at the crusades, which was fairly common for men in this time period. His wife and kids are home waiting for him to return. But along the way he falls for a French woman even though the two can't talk to each other because they speak different languages. He sleeps with her and goes back with her to her house.



He realizes she's a widow - she has her mother and a young child living with her. The house is warm, clean, everything he could hope for. And he's tempted. But at last he says no. As much as it would be lovely, he has his actual wife and kids to get back home to. They are waiting for him.



The medieval scenes are fairly well done. The style of house, the clothing, all of it fits reasonably well with this era. There are minor issues - at this time period the people wouldn't have had plates to eat off of. Food would be served on a platter and then the people would use old crusts of bowled bread to eat the food from. Nothing to wash up afterwards :).

So a good movie, slow, but interesting. The use of recurring themes across the timelines is fun, and the message that we all face the same sorts of hardships no matter what era we live in is fairly poignant. There's nothing new under the sun.

Buy Being Human from Amazon.com

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