The Gods Must Be Crazy is a 1980’s comedy that has a very intriguing,
and surprisingly insightful, message about the dependency on technology that
man has created for himself in an attempt to make life simpler. This movie
begins when an airplane pilot tosses an empty glass coke bottle out of his cockpit
window where it falls unbroken into the middle of the Kalahari Desert. The
bottle is then found by Xi, an adult male bushman of one of the most isolated
tribes on the planet, the Sho. Xi takes the strange object back to his
family-tribe, who all believe it is a gift from the gods. As they find more and
more uses for the coke bottle, they all become extremely dependent on this
“tool” that makes many of the tasks they do simpler. Problems soon arise for
this bushman family as they begin to fight over the bottle and feelings of
jealousy and violence start to take root. These are emotions that the Sho tribe
people have never felt before because of the simplicity of their lives; they
don’t even have a word in their language for “property”. Xi decides that the
only way to keep the “evil thing” that the gods have given them from ruining
their lives is to take it to the edge of the earth and throw it off. The
majority of the movie follows Xi’s journey to the place he believes is the end
of the earth with plenty of humor along the way. There is a huge amount of
insight into mankind’s refusal to adapt to his surroundings, but instead adapt
his surroundings to suit his purposes, and the complications we have created as
a result. In oversight, this film begs the question: Is it better for man to
live with modern-world technology that can potentially improve our lives and
allow us to make the most of the time we are given, or are our lives worse
because of our dependence on this technology that dictates our every waking
moment and diminishes our humanity? Pretty deep for a comedy, right?
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This link is for the entire movie on youtube.
You don’t have to watch it, but 5:24 is where the narrator gives a very
interesting assessment of the “civilized world” we live in. I think it’s worth
the watch.
