Sarah Kurchak, writing about her grandfather’s apparent affection for Jar Jar Binks, who he called “Ho Ho Ding Ding” and believed was a talking camel, comes to some conclusions about the power of film.
I also came to understand the depth and diversity of roles that a film can play in someone’s life: it could be a mere amusement or a guiding force, your best friend or your nemesis, your muse or your medicine. Even the most maligned movie can distract a person from contemplating the void as they face certain and fast-approaching death, or it can try to fill the hole that’s left when that person’s gone.
It’s a very personal piece that shows how a movie experience can be seen from many different angles. Touching on her grandfather’s decline and the running half-joke that was his enduring fascination with one of the most hated benign characters in the cinematic universe, Kurchak hits at how powerfully context shapes the value we get from an artistic creation.
