The late John Candy passed away three years before I arrived on this earth at Atlanta, Georgia’s Northside Hospital. So, for someone coming in on the first wave of Gen Z, it would make sense that the only knowledge about the late John Candy comes from parents and the collection of the almost 40 films Candy performed in.
The earliest John Candy cinema moment I can remember is, of course, Home Alone. I remember first seeing his character and the banter he and Catherine O’Hara had, and not really understanding the point of the scene. Yeah, of course, the mother trying to get back to her son by any means necessary was an essential part of the story.
However, running into Gus Polinski, of the best traveling polka band out of Cheboygan, Wisconsin, made no sense to me, and I never understood how that had anything to do with the story. Call me crazy, but I always asked my parents to skip that scene on our DVD player (RIP mid-2000s DVDs from Walmart).
I was a kid! I wanted to see Kevin booby trap the bad hombres, not Gus in a U-Haul. Although that was the pre-adolescent cinema brain working, the almost 30 cinema brain now knows good and well the importance of the presence Candy brought to his limited screen time in Home Alone.
I just finished watching the new John Candy: I Like Me documentary on Amazon Prime, and what a feel-good walk down memory lane it proved to be. A larger-than-life figure, there’s a reason why entertainers such as Candy have become immortal in pop culture. It starts with character.
No, not the persona Candy cultivated on screen or the many characters that he portrayed on Toronto’s Second City TV; it was his personal character and nature that has left a lasting impression in the mainstream. It resonated throughout the entire doc that Candy was just a good human at heart. He treated others the way he wanted to be treated. He looked out for the little guy. He was humble. And with a smile that clearly shone through the silver screen across North America and the world, it was clear to see that his bright personality resonated so clearly.
My personal favorite John Candy movie is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I saw this movie randomly a year ago when I was on a road trip from Indianapolis to Chicago for work. It was one of those times where you’re just looking for a smooth 2-hour escape from reality and a good laugh.
So when I was searching under the comedy section of Amazon Prime for any comedic film I’ve never seen, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles rolled across the screen, and I figured, why not? Perhaps it was the timing of watching this film on a cold bus ride on a frosty, midwestern afternoon with some new co-workers who might as well be strangers, or the fact that in the 48 hours that followed, I would find myself on a plane heading to another city with the same group.
Or maybe it was the hilarious irony of being on trains every other day when I was working in Japan for the year, and could remember the calamity a rush hour train ride from Tokyo to wherever you were going would cause. Nevertheless, I came away from the film with a smile. I wasn’t only smiling because the movie was a charming feel-good movie, but it made me remember in that moment, the people in this world who love me for me.
The people you work hard for in life. The people or the person you want to see at the conclusion of an extensive road trip through states 700+ miles away from your home. In this moment, for the first time, I think I understood the magic of a John Candy movie.
I will never not watch documentaries because I learn something new about the person or the subject every time I watch. Maybe it’s the human nature in all of us to be curious about a person’s life and go behind the curtain of what “made” someone’s public persona.
It’s rare, though, to find a documentary that can only show the good nature of a person and struggles to find actual dirt on them. But maybe that’s the point of the John Candy documentary. Maybe that was the point in all his films. Just maybe, did an entertainer come along that wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel or become obsessed with living the superstar lifestyle? Just maybe, there was an actor who wanted to make you smile no matter what. There’s a reason why certain names like John Candy don’t fade away.
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