Tale of Sand
Booby traps.
But now, not only are Indians and Arabs after Mac but suddenly football players, too, all again for no discernable reason. Much like the travails of Time Piece‘s protagonist, all is confusion and dreamlike imagery that manages to be simultaneously whimsical and threatening. There’s eventually a Mexican standoff between Mac and Patch in a deserted old Western town, a scene highly reminiscent of a later one at the end of The Muppet Movie, and just like Kermit, Mac also throws his gun down, refusing to fight.
Patch continues to shoot, however, and Mac runs off, finally finding a bicycle, which he manages to ride through quicksand, finally inexplicably finding a used car dealership and buying a car for $6–another scenario remarkably similar to one from The Muppet Movie, this time Sweetums’ classic introduction scene. He rides off, soon followed by Patch and a mysterious blonde woman who seems to be the mans’ evil sidekick, and then the Arabs, football players, and more, all in their own used cars. Soon afterwards, Mac goes over a cliff, crashing, and emerging banged up. Patch’s car also goes over the cliff, but unlike Mac, Patch gently lands to the ground by pulling out a black Victorian parasol and floating down.
Finally after all this, Patch catches up with Mac, whispers something silent in his ear, looks at him, and suddenly collapses into sand, leaving nothing on the ground but an old-fashioned pocketwatch (another echo of Time Piece). And then the blonde woman appears, removes all of her clothes, standing naked before him and then unzipping her skin to reveal that underneath it, she is him, Mac a la Luke Skywalker’s vision in the Dark Side cave on Dagobah. Mac runs and runs and runs and then…BAM! Finds himself returned to the original town, surrounded by cheering crowds and the smiling sheriff. “Congratulations, boy,” he tells him. He gives a grateful Mac a cigarette, which he is finally able to light and smoke. The nightmare is over! Until the sheriff pulls him aside and repeats the same words that began this entire ordeal: “This is a big day for us…Come in, son. It’s about time for your instructions…” And we end there, with the cycle presumably about to begin all over again.
Jim, the director, and Patch in drag.
Again, like in Time Piece, one can tease meaning out of it–the idea of a running, pursued Everyman who we know nothing about other than the very fact of his existence, caught in an endless cycle in a world he doesn’t fully understand, his prismatic journey underscored and amplified by the imagery from the pop culture he has presumably grown up with and which constantly surrounds him–but at the same time, most of its power is in its elusive mystery and deliberately esoteric, nonsensical juxtapositions.
It’s funny but often in a deliberately uncomfortable way that thrusts the audience into a relentless dreamworld that drives its increasingly desperate protagonist more and more crazy as it goes along. Described along these lines, it also foreshadows Labyrinth in many ways, as well, also a coming-of-age tale similarly pervaded by questions of what is reality and what is fantasy and keeping its protagonist and the audience constantly on their toes, never 100% sure of which way is up and which down.
I can understand why it never made its way to the screen. A full-length, at least seemingly-narratively-incoherent-on-the-surface art film of this scale and complexity would seem like a long shot for a mainstream audience. But, at the same time, it’s a fascinating, further peek at a side to Jim Henson’s art that most people today don’t know of, and likely few people did back then, that, while it doesn’t seem to have a great deal in common with his later work, actually has a number of key thematic overlaps. At the same time, it also foreshadows Jim’s fantasy art film, The Dark Crystal, and other post-Muppets projects, most of which had a similarly difficult time making it to the big screen and a large majority of the audience didn’t seem to get at all. And I’m so glad that the Jim Henson Co. and Archaia decided to put out this book, and that we are able to get such a great taste of what the film might have been via Ramón Pérez’s gorgeous illustrations.
And you can purchase a boxed set of the graphic novel and original screenplay for yourself here.
Tomorrow: I check out futher variety show appearances by Rowlf, and more!
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