The Muppet Movie – 35mm

NB! This screening is free for people who have purchased an NFK-kontingent this semester

In The Muppet Movie, we get a glance at a diff'rent America; an America once promised, where people of all kinds and creeds -- constructed by fabric or otherwise -- relish in a shared dream of uniting.

It is saddening --to be sure-- to see this dream exist now as the memory of a dream, a quarter century into the new millennium. The America of the Muppet Movie bears only a faint resemblance to that we see of the real America today, plastered all over our feeds; in the news and on our social media. The same diff'rences that should be celebrated, are now being violently exploited as fuel for a seemingly endless, self-perpatuating culture war. We seem further away from that 'rainbow-connection' our amphibian friend sings off, and the very notion of it can seem naïve --sentimental, even.

However, in the face of such morose thoughts, it behoves us all to choose naïvity, rather than fester in cynicism. It is tempting --and much easier-- to be cynical about the state of the world, than it is to actively look for that glimmer of hope. It's worth mentioning that when the Muppet Movie was released in 1979, America was only a few years out of the Vietnam War-era, where the country had nearly self-imploded. The folks who dreamt up the Muppets lived through this cynical time, yet still peered through the mire and dirt, at that aforementioned promise of America; the rainbow connection between all the folks who lived there.

Perhaps this parallel can shine a light on that glimmer of hope again? For if it was like this then, yet the dreamers existed; then perhaps the dreamers can awaken now, again?

James Frawley

USA

1979

35mm

95 min