"The Gods Must Be Crazy"

Paul wants to know the story about how Fiji was responsible for turning "The Gods Must Be Crazy" into a world-wide smash hit.  This is how it happened ... although the real credit must go to Keith as he was the person who actually made the connection.

Many decades ago, back when we were humble university students in Brisbane, Australia - was it 1982 or 83? 0r 84? - Keith and I went home to Fiji for Christmas.  Had the usual great time but this holiday everyone - like seriously EVERYONE - kept trying to drag us off to see "this amazing and gorgeous film".  It was all "I've seen it 14 times and need an excuse to see it again."  and "I've seen it 28 times already and really want to share it with someone who hasn't seen it before."

Seeing films while on holiday I've always thought of as a waste of time, but when EVERYONE is on your case it becomes an irresistible force and thus we finally surrendered.

So that was our introduction to "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and because everyone talked about it and made jokes based on it we practically knew the entire story before we finally made it to the cinema. But nevertheless, yes, we too fell in love. 

Why was a Botwana film showing in Fiji? It's not at all a surprise. Back then, Fiji had no TV so we had cinemas by the dozen, all over the islands, and because only the big franchised cinemas could afford to show blockbusters, these little cinemas had to find interesting non-mainstream features (and so people in the film industry are perpetually shocked at the range and scope of the films I know) but this little film from Africa no one had ever heard of, turned out to be their most successful venture EVER.

Yes, Fiji was the first country outside Africa to buy the screening rights to "The Gods Must Be Crazy", and it began small in a single cinema, but word-of-mouth meant it was only weeks before bidding went crazy and within a few months just about every cinema was showing it in high rotation and playing it to packed houses.  And this had been happening for nearly a year before our holiday.

Back in Brisbane, we were then living close to a lovely little art cinema called "Crystal" and, over the two years we lived in Windsor, and because it was usually only Keith and me alone in the cinema watching films like "Eraserhead" and "Jubilee", we became good friends with the two elderly guys who ran the place.

So, about two months after we returned from our Fiji holiday, as we were leaving "Women in Love", they stopped us to give us the horrible news:  "We can no longer afford to run this place. We're practically bankrupt and have to close down." and "We want to go out with a bang.", "We need to finish with one big success!" and "Knowing how much you two love films, do you know of any truly amazing films no one has ever heard of that we can buy cheaply?"

I was stumped.  Keith, however, was instantly "The Gods Must Be Crazy".  The guys hadn't heard of it but immediately wanted to know more.  Me? I wasn't going for it.  "Yes, Fiji loves that film but that's just because Fiji is seriously BENT and has the weirdest sense of humour!" I kept saying, but the men overrode me in that way men usually do!

Thankfully!

It was about two days later when they rang us.  "If we buy the International Screening and Marketing Rights to this film for three years, will you come to opening night and bring friends?"

Not remotely a problem!

Soft opening was Wednesday night a fortnight later and it was only Keith and me and our six friends in the cinema.  Knowing our elderly friends had blown their entire life-savings, as well as begged, borrowed and mortgaged to the hilt, on the venture and were facing down a grim old age if it didn't work out, our hearts too were in our mouths because we knew everything was riding on Andrew and co. loving it.

But they didn't.  No one laughed, not even once. And I kept hearing mutterings of "What is this shit?" followed by a grim and restless silence.  (Yes, Andrew honey!  That was indeed your reaction! You can't deny it now!) As we were leaving afterwards, our grim-faced and entirely unamused friends augured so badly I could hardly look at our heartbroken elderly pair.  "We'll bring other people tomorrow." we whispered to them in passing, gaze averted.

Went out for drinks.  A glass of wine later, I said to the others "Wasn't he so gorgeous, that Xu?  And he was playing a character called Xi; how hilarious is that?"  "Yeah, I have to admit that was funny!" said Andrew.

Second glass of wine.  "Oh, that bit with the rock and the gate.  I've never enjoyed over-the-top, on-the-nose slapstick, but that was amazing comic timing!"  said Andrew.  "And what about that bit with the truck in the water." said Paul.  "Oh, lordy!  Yes! The Anti-Christ!"

And that's when the laughter began.

Thursday night, we returned with another six friends from another part of our lives, hoping they'd not be such hard work ... and walked with them into the cinema to see Andrew sitting there with his mum.  "Realised I needed to see it again. And I thought mum would love it." he said.

And then Paul came in with his mum and dad, and then there was Debbie arriving with her parents, then Nancy with a new boyfriend, and so it went on.  Yes, they ALL came back because they realised they needed to see it a second time to overcome the alienation they initially felt because of the strangeness ... remember, this was Brisbane in the early 80s ... and it was a very special occasion wherein a night out turns into a party.  And because it was a second viewing for our friends, they knew when to laugh and that got the others going.

 "We'll bring more tomorrow" we told our old friends as we left and we all crossed our fingers at each other.

Friday night, we brought another six friends from a different part of our lives only to find the cinema was almost full. And what was especially surprising was we hardly knew a soul.  YES!!!

This time it was thumbs up to our old friends as we were leaving.

Saturday night, as we drove into town, there was a line outside Crystal of people waiting to get in and we knew our work was done!

It was shortly after that we moved away from Brisbane and didn't give it another thought until we saw on the news that Crystal had been showing "The Gods Must Be Crazy" to packed houses for an entire year and were throwing a huge birthday party with a giant cake in the shape of a coke bottle. And they interviewed our old friends who said the Cineplexes were offering millions to buy the rights off them, but they weren't going to do it for another year: that, for the following year, they were only leasing the screening rights to small independent art cinemas like themselves. And after that year was over, the Cineplexes could come back and do any deal they wanted.

And the rest, as they say, is history!

 


So, Paul, that's the story of how once again Fiji led the way, just as it always seems to do.