08.23.06 Twilight Rejuvenile

Figures Rod Serling would’ve mined the rejuvenile meme 40 years before the idea occurred to anyone else.

A 1962 episode of Mr. Serling’s The Twilight Zone is startling in its foreshadowing of the rejuvenile phenomenon.  “Kick the Can” stars Ernest Truex as Charlie, an elderly occupant of the Sunnyvale Rest Home, which Serling describes as “a dying place for those who have grown too stiff in their thinking.”

Looking out his window at a gang of kids playing in on a wooded hillside, Charlie formulates a theory: “All kids play those games. The minute they stop playing, they grow old.”

And so, in a gambit reenacted more recently by the adult champions of kid games like kickball, tag and rock paper scissors, Charlie attempts to recruit his fellow codgers into a game of kick the can, or at least a quick run through the sprinklers. He’s rebuffed and told he’s “gone sloppy.” “Face it, you’re old,” a peevish friend hollers. “You’re used up!”

But Charlie is undaunted, rallying his housemates with the declaration that kid games hold magical power:

“Maybe the fountain of youth isn’t a fountain at all. Maybe it’s a way of looking at things, a way of thinking.”

You can guess what happens next. Charlie leads a group outside and starts up a game; when his pal goes looking for him, he discovers the old folks have vanished and been replaced by a mob of go-lucky bambinos.

It’s all played as high drama and arch surrealism, as if adults playing kid games was so fundamentally bizarre it might actually tear a hole in the veil of reality and reverse the aging process. Of course now that we’re living in a world where adults are free to rediscover kid games, we’re confronted with a more mundane but interesting realization: play won’t turn us into kids again, but it might just make us more playful adults.

It’s no wonder, then, that Steven Spielberg chose this episode to remake for the dismal 1983 feature film adaptation. Spielberg is of course a rejuvenile titan – he’s right up there with Walt Disney in his ability to create entertainment that crosses the generational divide (or as critic Robin Wood describes it, “surrendering to the reactiviation of a set of values and structures my adult self has long since repudiated”). It’s interesting, though, how forgettable Spielberg’s take on “Kick the Can” is now, and how badly his rejuvenile epic Hook turned out – seems he got into trouble with a direct, on-the-nose treatment of the forever-young ideal. When it comes to making rejuvenile entertainment, it might just be you’re better off creeping up from the side (E.T.) or practicing a little razzle dazzle (Indiana Jones)…

BTW, does anyone actually know how to play kick the can? Is it any fun?

never actually played it. sounds like a cross between hide-and-seek and tag.

http://www.ehow.com/how_309_play-kick-can.html

Why,yes!  I do!  There are actually several variations on the game, but the one most often recalled by old time players(and the one I play) is played with an aluminum can on a playground with some kind of hard surface (ie asphalt or the like- necessary for the kicking of the can to be heard).  The can is set in a central location.  One player is “It” and while he or she counts to, say 20, all the other players hide.  The person who is “It” then tries to find and tag the free players. When a player is tagged that player has to go to “prison” or a spot designated by the can.  The “It” then continues trying to tag other free players, during which time any of the free players can run and literally kick the can to free the player (or players) in prison.  When the “It” hears the can has been knocked over he has to go back and set the can back in its designated spot trying, of course, in the meantime to tag the freed player(s).  The goal is to get all the free players in prison.  I highly recommend playing in the dark.