The Twilight Zone - The Big Tall Wish

Serling’s compassion and heart, the awareness of hardship in the world (especially, the boxing world), and realizing that his show, The Twilight Zone, could offer a message wrapped in fantasy and science fiction for *all* television audiences; this episode, “The Big Tall Wish”, gives us African-American characters at the very forefront of the story where the belief of magic is important in how events transpire, as the harshness and misery of life taint the outcome of what could be success for down-on-his-luck, Bolie Jackson (a heartbreaking performance from Ivan Dixon), a boxer with scars on his face that remind him of all the fights he suffered trying to fulfill a dream.

There is this one scene where Bolie looks at his face in the mirror while chatting with this little boy named Henry (Steven Perry) who looks up to him and fully believes his “big tall wish” works and can bring about a miracle. When Bolie prepares to leave that night for his big fight with a much younger opponent on his way up, Henry tells him he’ll win because he’s going to wish real hard for a positive outcome. Bolie’s jaded view of the world has been shaped by a lot of disappointment and Serling’s script really gets that across in a realistic way many can relate to.

Henry, though, hasn’t been so jaded yet and, sure enough, his big wish “rescues” Bolie from a ten count on his back on the canvas of a blood-blotted ring, replaced by his dominant opponent with the entire fight “reversed”. While Bolie remembers everything including being laid out on his back with the referee counting him down (there is a really impressive in-your-face camera shooting right at the referee swinging his hand down towards the viewer as if we were on our back being counted out), the big wish has altered events for everyone else (besides Henry because he wished it and remembers).

When Bolie was getting himself psyched up for the fight as his trainer massages his shoulders, a sleazy manager actually bet against him and moves before being rightfully punched with Bolie’s right smashing into a wall, handicapping him. A bum right and a no-good left, Bolie is doomed before he ever sets foot in the ring. The direction ably works around perhaps the venue not being necessarily packed by shooting close ups of clinching hands, popcorn, the legs of the boxers, darkly lit ring, carefully avoiding blows while still getting us to invest in this dreadful one-sided contest. Bravura efforts to paint a bleak but honest picture of urban frustrations and life’s unfortunate defeats while delivering us people deserved of so much better; Serling truly cares about these characters, providing Dixon, Perry, and Kim Hamilton (as Henry’s mom, Frances) plenty to offer audiences then and especially now. I think there is enough meat on the bone in the episode for the cast to flesh out the characters Serling produces in his thoughtful script. The TZ allows the outcome Henry wishes but Bolie is just so beaten up and pummeled by life he can’t believe in the miracle while the kid begs him to so the wish remains “intact”. When Henry tells Bolie he won’t be wishing anymore, feeling he’s just too old for that, with Bolie pondering how miracles maybe do come true but there are just not very many who truly believe, we’re left knowing fantasy and reality are two completely different things.

This is the first time I’ve ever watched this episode. It is one of the few (if there are any left at this point) left of the series that was new to me. It hasn’t been featured favorably in marathons, so perhaps that is one reason, while another being I just seemed to miss it all these years…quite a miracle in itself considering I’ve been really into The Twilight Zone since the mid 90s when I was a teenager discovering it with great interest. It’s well acted, true about its time and place, and Serling uses his show as an opportunity to posit a heartfelt depiction of strong black characters at a time where they still weren’t quite yet given the fair shake they deserved. Just goes to show you there are lesser known gems peppered throughout the seasons of the Twilight Zone. What makes The Twilight Zone so special is that 60 years later and the show still unveils episodes often not as showcased that can tug on your heart and awaken serious thought about life and its shortcomings. Life doesn’t always give us happy endings but Serling evaluated the conditions of struggling people and used the TZ as a means to spin a fantasy and call our attention to them…he was a humanitarian and a brilliant man. 4/5