Poignant on so many levels that it's very hard to describe. This movie surprised me. I had no idea how much I'd connected with Caroll Spinney and his creations throughout the stages in my life... Jim Henson, of course, plays a part in anyone's childhood but little did I know the background element Big Bird's (and Oscar's) character had played. Having been born in the 1970s, growing up with Sesame Street and its denizens as surrogate parents, brothers and sisters, I suppose I should have recognized the emotional attachments as they were: these characters were a part of my upbringing, my household. I cried during the revisiting of Mr. Hooper's loss, shown as it is here from the perspective of an ensemble cast beginning to understand its mortality, even as they create influence and art seemingly at whim.
Before Caroll Spinney ever was and is Big Bird or Oscar, he is first and foremost a human being and you can see his soul displayed here as vulnerable as Big Bird himself. There are judgments to be made and implications that could be sought in the lives of his children when compared to the life he lived with his wife but it becomes difficult to begrudge any such things at this distance. We know all too well that the greatest of people invariably have the deepest of flaws and that it is often despite these considerations that they become great. Indeed it is often in light of their most egregious errors that we hold their legacy even higher in esteem.
This documentary isn't so much watched for someone my age (I am 40 at the time of this writing) as it is a reliving of the age when television was king, when the hopes and dreams of a burgeoning youth could be pinned to the golden feathers of an anthropomorphic bird who never once felt anything less than the friend one happens to share with an audience of millions.
Were I to meet Big Bird on the street I believe I would still marvel and then reach in for the hug that I think Caroll Spinney always sought in his own way. They said he always wanted to be liked, that his father never thought he was good enough nor that Caroll choose an honorable or sustainable career... Caroll Spinney spent his life fighting the perceived connotations of his name, his passions, and his art. In so doing he gave a lot of the rest of us the courage to at least seek a little more out of ourselves and the rest of our days. For this, though I didn't know it until now, I love the man and his characters and Jim Henson for giving a lost puppeteer the break of a lifetime.
This documentary is worth watching quite more than once, if only so nostalgia's daily injection can be had... though that in and of itself would sell this film and its subject short: it is ever so much more. Bring in the kids and enjoy it with them, sure but also bring out the bourbon, later, and watch in engaged and cognitive awe. It's rather surreal. And utterly worthwhile.
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February 2, 2021 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $18.49 | $18.65 |
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