Sometimes a kid will choose to not accept what he sees - such as the
kid trying not to cry as he told me that Davy Crockett was still
alive.

We did this before - here's the whole 2002 thread - but I'm sure we
can add to it!
Lenona.

There was a thread, a while back, in rec.arts.books.childrens, about
books where we misunderstood details or even the main plot points
because we were young. One poster said (about the book "Little
Women") "I always missed the point when books weren't literal about
death. What was all the fuss about if Beth was "well at last," and
where did she get to in the next chapter?" Also, in the movie review
book "Feminist in the Dark," the author remembered crying over
"Waterloo Bridge" as a child and having no idea why, since the only
"sin" she could see was that Vivien Leigh wore tacky clothes.

Since I was lucky enough as a kid to have already memorized "The
Wizard of Oz" in book form before I was 5, I remember not getting the
movie's idea that it was supposed to be a dream, since that's not true
in the book - I thought her "waking up" was just a set-up by Glinda,
and it never occurred to me to think otherwise till I was practically
grown-up!

Any similar examples you remember?


Bill:
One that sticks in my mind was a 40s comedy about a woman whose
boyfriend had been killed in WWII and was pregnant, and the movie was
about her trying to find a husband before the baby was born. I was old
enough to know that having a kid out of wedlock was frowned upon, but
not old enough to know exactly how babies were made. So I drew the
conclusion that at a certain age women just became pregnant, and had
to get married before
then. Not really about misinterpreting the *movie.* Bill

(That would be Miracle at Morgan's Creek, I guess?) Lenona.

I read The Sun Also Rises when I was 12. And for the life of me I
couldnt figure out why Jake and Lady Brett just didn't get together
and live happily ever after... Ruth, ( Old war wound???)

I was a mere cine-tyke, maybe eleven years old, when I first saw a
reissue of Citizen Kane. I remember being shocked at the headlines of
"Kane and Singer Caught In Love Nest": I mean, all he did was visit
Susan Alexander, and help her with her toothache, and make funny
shadows on the wall, and listen to her sing. Right? Right...??? Bob
Keser

Wait... oh boy. Jesus Christ, I'm 21, and some "things" still fly
straight over my head. MadiHolmes

I remember when I was a kid, my friend Calvin and I "misinterpreted"
the ending of a kids' movie! -- specifically, the all-kiddie gangster
musical "Bugsy Malone." I remember him complaining about two things at
the ending:
1. Bugsy and his girlfriend stay totally clean throughout the whole
final piefight, and
2. After an entire movie explaining how getting hit with a pie will
kill a character, suddenly at the end the whole piefight has no effect
on any of the characters.
I think I was in my late twenties when I realized: Those pies *did*
kill all those characters! Bugsy and his girlfriend were the only
ones to survive, so they get to leave the club and drive away at the
end!

Oh, also, in Chinatown(SPOILER), even though Faye Dunaway shakes her
head no
when she's asked directly, her father really did rape her. Dave Gates.

My favorite misinterpretation--or should I say deliberate
misrepresentation?-- involved a friend of my younger brother, who when
watching A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM was informed
by his parents that all those sexy girls in Phil Silvers'
establishment were actually Phil's "daughters". --Hal E

LOL...for those of us who have no interest in pirates... Ivan

I can't remember the name of this movie, though it was written by
Lillian Hellman. It was about a student lying about the relationship
between two teachers. When I was young, I thought the lie was just a
lie. As I got older, I realized, it was the lesbian intimation of the
lie.

I can't remember the name of the movie, Us Three, Then There Were
Three, Three Hours, The Children's Hour. Damn I hate when that
happens!