Like Dan Kois, I vividly remember watching South African mockumentary The Gods Must Be Crazy as a kid in the ’80s. Also like Dan Kois, I’d assumed that no good could come of rewatching it as an adult, and that I’d be riddled with guilt for having enjoyed it as an oblivious elementary-schooler. Thankfully, Kois put his retro-shame aside and reported out the fascinating tale of the movie that at the time became the highest-grossing foreign film of all time. (Yes, it’s as problematic as you thought.)
In interviews about the film, Uys invented tales about his lead actor that reinforced this image of the “noble savage.” He told reporters that N!xau had never seen a toilet or slept on a bed. He said that because the Khoisan have no word for work, he simply invited N!xau to come play with him for a while, and “they are such nice guys that when you ask them for something, they say OK.” He said he tried paying N!xau $300, but the actor simply let the money blow away in the wind. He later said at various times that he’d bought N!xau a dozen cattle, or that he was sending a local game warden $100 a month to spend on N!xau’s behalf.
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