The Optimists

The role of Sam, which might have genuinely said to Sellers, I AM YOUR FATE
Though arguably Peter Sellers felt that Being There was his finest performance and that the role of Chance the Gardener spoke to him as no other had done, in my opinion, it is The Optimists that captures a deeply personal note and ultimately outshines the indeed transcendental Sellers swan song. For one familiar with the scope of Peter's films, in Being There you very much sense that Sellers knew he was not long for this world--that he was a man living on borrowed time who had too often accepted roles that did not manifest the wonder of his talents as Dr. Strangelove had done. He recognized in Chance the opportunity to revisit the quiet subtleties that were drowned in movies like What's New, Pussycat? and After the Fox and that marked his best work.

The role of Sam, the busker (The Optimists' main character--not Fred as another reviewer wrote) is one that director and co-writer Anthony Simmons had originally intended for Buster Keaton in the early 1960s, and later John...

A must-see for Sellers fans
I've read much about this rarely-vetted film but had given up hope of ever seeing it. Simply put, it's a treat. Sellers is subtle, funny, and sympathetic; the kids are real-to-life and the images of the English slums are unforgettable. If you enjoyed 'Henry Orient' and 'Being There,' 'The Optimists,' while perhaps a bit overlong, is essential viewing.

Ambitious Sellers Turn
I have made it my life's work to attempt to see every Peter Sellers film ever made-the good, the bad, "The Bobo". In the early seventies Sellers made some interesting career choices to distance himself from his comic persona. This wouldn't be the first time Sellers' film choices took a dramatic turn. In the early sixties he made a gangster film called "Never Let Go" that was laughable in an unintentional way. In the seventies, however, there were three film's that were intriguing and ambitious though could hardly be called commercial. The best of these is "Hoffman". In this film Sellers plays a seeming middle-aged lecher who blackmails a comely employee at his firm to spend the night with him. Less successful is "The Blockhouse", a dreary World War II exercise about a group of P.O.W.'s trapped in a bomb shelter. Some would say Sellers' performance here is low-key but I would say it's practically invisible. The success of "The Optimists" falls squarely in the middle of these...

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