maybe it's me who's crazy for working on a sunday

the other day at the grocery store i picked up a copy of The Gods Must Be Crazy on dvd. i thought "hey, why not? it's a fun movie and it's only ten bucks."

last night i watched and enjoyed the movie once again. it's a silly fun movie telling the tale of an African bushman that is cursed with a coke bottle and must travel a great length to dispose of it off of the end of the earth. the amusing ignorance of the bushman and the slap-stick comedy of the other characters make for a fun film that everyone should enjoy.

i thought to myself - "hey, this is a dvd - i'm gonna check out the special features too" as it shows a brief documentary-style feature following a man's trip to the bushman N!Xau's home village in the Kalahari desert. what followed was not the life in blissful ignorance portrayed in the movie. what you actually see is a family struggling to survive. the possessions they have are what's left of the shirts on their backs. food is in short supply and smiles are hard to force out when you're starving to death. it was kind of a harsh reality that i think most people who have seen the movie weren't or won't be prepared for if they watch this featurette.

the good news is that things do get a bit better for N!Xau and his family, but he certainly does not see the fame or fortune that starring in two largely successful movies may bring most people.

in short, the movie is loads of fun to watch. i loved it when i was a child and still love it now. the special features on the dvd provide a shocking look at reality, but they do at least leave you with a sense that although things can't become 100% right all at once, they at least can get better as long as people keep helping out.