It's hard to tell what being human really is supposed to look like from these nebulous vignettes by Robin Williams. The best I can come up with is the above equation, but I don't really think that was his goal in this ill-advised attempt at a serious film about the subject.First, the narrators, far from provoking interest in the upcoming material, bore us to death with pretentious generalizations and leading questions until we no longer care much what's coming as long as it means they'll soon shut up for a while as the next vignette is dramatized.Second, Robin's recurring male character, Hector, presents us with a rather doubtful example of humanity, since he is out of step with the rest of his peers. How can Hector be a valid example when there are so many humans that contradict his character? Far from being an everyman, he is a marginal example at best. He never seems to aspire to anything higher than his own selfish desires. He takes advantage of people with nobler aspirations, and then wonders why they disparage him as a loser and a fool. If being human means being largely clueless about virtues, I guess that shows something, but I'm not buying it. Using a recurring male character as the focus of humanity seems also to be rather sexist, doesn't it?Then there's the whole question of whether reincarnation is implied..... Unfortunately, nothing in this film is consistent enough to say one way or the other. If Hector is being reincarnated, he's going to be at it for a long time, since he's not learning anything from one cycle to the next. He hates being a slave, but then becomes the same type of foolish master that he himself had in a previous incarnation. I think it's best to just not consider this question further, since either way this film proves nothing about being human either way.Bottom line, if Hector is being human, then count me out of humanity, PLEASE!

Could be the movie that had the greatest impact on me of all time, no doubt more than likely because I was going through the identical same struggle with fatherhood at the moment I saw it. It was shortly after release on satellite in summer of 1995 (we had an early 10-foot dish) and I saw it with my "new" family at our home in an old mining town in Arizona. I had just gotten home from work and in stone cold sobriety managed to see myself in turn so exquisitely entrapped in the same quandaries as "Hector" that specifically at the moment of the simple act of his being given a pair of boots during the African shipwreck vignette, I had to run outside into the cool starry night. The top of my head seemed to explode and my "self" spontaneously shifted levels and merged with the consciousness of the universe. I unaccountably became a bodhisattva for some months (i. e. you could say I flipped my lid.) My co-workers were terrified of me when I returned to work, but my family and most everyone else I knew marveled at the change and soon grew to approve of it. For a while I was like John Travolta's character in "Phenomenon." This kind of effect from watching a movie isn't unheard of in history. In fact it occurred to me on another occasion upon reading a tiny little book by an author with the pseudonym "Alcyone." That a movie or book can have that type of effect on another human being implies that it's nothing short of marvelous, some kind of mystic key. I don't want to be a spoiler so I'll say nothing more than that. I saw it only that one time, and it worked magic on me that I still can't comprehend. What a director...

In one of his serious roles sans beard, Robin Williams stars in this somewhat confusing movie about a man portrayed in five different stories, always trying to find meaning in life...or something. Maybe the movie was trying to make a point about something, but I couldn't really tell. In a way, it almost seems like they made the movie for fun and just stacked the whole thing with a giant cast. Director Bill Forsyth, who had a very clear goal in making "Local Hero", seems somewhat confused himself here.I should identify that I didn't hate "Being Human". It's an interesting look at world history. It's just hard to get a grip on the movie. An OK way to pass time, but I wouldn't recommend making it your first choice. Also starring Theresa Russell, Robert Carlyle, John Turturro, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jonathan Hyde, Hector Elizondo, Ewan McGregor (in his debut) and William H. Macy.

Fables were used in the past to tell stories to children. Here Hector (Robin Williams) and a woman story teller (Theresa Russel) whom we never see but only hear, weave several stories for Hector's children to explain his absence from their lives for several years. Each story attempts to explain figuratively what emotions he went through during the period.An attentive viewer is amply rewarded by director Bill Forsyth--if you are a casual viewer you will wonder what is happening and consider the film to be disjointed and hence poor entertainment.Non-linear narratives are not Forsyth's invention--such films have adorned French and Hungarian cinema for decades. "Being Human" is above average in that company merely because of fine performances from Williams, the beautiful Anna Galiena (Beatrice) an Italian actress, Hector Elizondo, John Turturro, William Macy, and Ewan McGregor to mention a few.While the imaginative storytelling technique was impressive, Forsyth never explains who the lady narrator is. Are we expected to imagine it to be Hector's new love? The gradual jumps in time scales, gives us a socio-historical perspective into Hector's education in life, seen through the eyes of his children. Forsyth is interesting but not the best director using this technique. His film demands attention, both literally and figuratively.I understand that the director disowns the film after the studios forced him to truncate the film by 40 minutes. Probably the director's cut is far superior to the present version and is likely to be more satisfying to a discerning viewer.