The Gods Must be Crazy

Part One Movie Review

by Eena Shrestha

21 November 2017, Tuesday

Directed by Jamie Uys; Produced by Jamie Uys; Nǃxau as bushman, Marius Weyers as Mr. Steyn, Sandra Prinsloo as Ms. Thompson, Michael Thys as M'Pudi (the person with 7 wives), Louw Verwey as Sam Boga(bad guy leader); Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes; South Africa; 1980

The Gods Must be Crazy is a good movie. I liked the movie because it shows how people survive in the wild without a lot of food or water.

The tribal people in the Kalahari Desert live a happy life. One of them finds technology for the first time, in the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle falling to Earth from an airplane unbroken. He takes it back to his people, and they use it for many tasks, like making music, cooking, smoothening out snake skin and more. The villagers started fighting over the strange distant object, so Xi decides to take the bottle back to the gods, where he thinks it came from, to restore the peace that was in his tribe.

It felt weird seeing the bottle fall from a very high place and land unbroken on the Earth’s ground.

Meanwhile we see the very awkward greeting with Mr. Steyn and Ms. Thompson. The car wasn’t able to cross the river so they are forced to stay the night in the wild. In the morning Mr. Steyn tried to get the car out of the river with the help of a tree, but when Ms. Thompson calls for help, he goes to help her. When he came back from helping her he finds that the car is out the river but is hanging on the branch of the tree.

When Xi comes across goats, hungry, he shoots a goat with a tranquilizer arrow, but is caught and imprisoned. M'pudi, who once lived with the tribe and still speaks Xi's language, says that Xi will die if kept in prison, he and Steyn employ Xi as a tracker for the remainder of his sentence in prison.

Meanwhile, the bad guys invade Kate's school and take her and the students as protection for their escape to the bordering country. Mr.Steyn, M'pudi, and Xi soon discover their wild life observation work is on the bad guys' path. They manage to stop them as they are passing by and save Kate and the children. However, Jack Hind takes Kate away, and Mr. Steyn is left there alone even though he saved her and the children. 

Mr. Steyn says his goodbye to Xi and heads to talk to Kate about his problems when with girls, with the moral support of M’pudi, and Kate is alright with the fact.

Xi was given money but as he walked away he dropped all the money and went to find the “evil thing” and throw that off the end of the world. We saw him find the “evil thing” and throw it off a really, really high cliff, that was above the clouds.

I felt really confused when Xi went to the cliff that was above the clouds with pretty much no clothes on. I would rate this movie an 8/10.

The Gods Must be Crazy

Part Two Movie Review

by Eena Shrestha

22 November 2017, Wednesday

Directed by Jamie Uys;Produced by Jerry Weintraub; Nǃxau as Xi, Eiros as Xiri (son), Nadies as Xisa (daughter), Hans Strydom as Dr. Stephen (the man that steps on the skunks), Lena Farugia as Ann Taylor (the lady), Erick Bowen as Mateo, Treasure Tshabalala as Timi; Runtime 1 hour 38 minutes; South Africa; 1989

The Gods Must be Crazy is an incredible movie. I personally liked the movie because it was really funny and enjoyable.

Two elephant poachers crossed the area in which Xi's tribe lives. Curious about the    truck, Xi's son, Xiri, and daughter, Xisa, climb onto the water tank and are then taken on an uncontrolled ride as the poachers continue. Xi follows the truck’s tire print on foot, strong-minded to save his children.

A young attorney, Ann Taylor, reaches at a bush clinic to partake in a speech. Since she has some spare time, she accepts an offer from a young man to take a ride in his two-seat, twin-engined light aircraft. They go to see scientist Dr. Stephen Marshall, who exchanges places with the other pilot so he and Ann can continue on, but the plane crashes because of a storm, stranding them both in the middle of the Kalahari Desert.

A war is starting, that includes a lost Cuban soldier (Mateo) and his Angolan enemy (Timi), who non-stop try to take each other as a prisoner to their bases.

I really liked when Ann meets the two soldiers and found them fighting she makes them hold hands while she holds a gun and shows she isn’t afraid to shoot them.

In the course of the movie, all these people cross paths with Xi and/or his children. The poachers capture Xi, Ann, Stephen, Mateo, and Timi.

Xi succeeds to save them, and one of the poachers, who is truly a nice guy kept under the ordered of his boss, gives Xi the directions to his children. The boss poacher is caught, both soldiers come to somewhat unwilling terms and go their separate ways without any extra violence, Taylor and Marshall return to civilization and Xi and his family are happily united.

I got really happy when Mateo and Timi kind of ended their mini war with trying to take each other to their bases and ended up friends.