Moronic Movie-Watching Moments

I was thinking about this the other day, just while driving around town. I do my best thinking when I'm just out for a drive, and sometimes the most random things pop into my head.

Here's one for ya...

Do you ever think back, and remember your first viewing of a movie that you NOW consider one of your all-time favorites? And in doing so, do you remember the way you saw certain scenes, and completely missed the mark on what REALLY happened?

I thought this would be a good topic for the ol' blog here, so feel free to comment and leave a thought or two.

Here's a list of movies and certain scenes that I either:
a) Misinterpreted
b) Remember differently
c) Missed something very crucial
d) Had/Still Have no idea just what the Hell was/is going on

This list is in no certain order, and I'm not even sure how many I can come up with, in case you're thinking this is a Dave Letterman-esque Top Ten or something. Away we go.

1. Vito Corleone's death in "The Godfather": I can't remember how old I was when I first saw this masterpiece. Must've been about 11 or 12. You'll remember that this scene takes place in Vito's garden, and he's playing with his grandson. The kid has the pesticide sprayer and Vito shows him how to use it, where to spray, etc. So, after doing the orange slice in his mouth bit, The Don collapses and passes away. Only I didn't see it that way when I was a kid. I knew he was having a heart attack/stroke/whatever killed him, but I always thought the kid played an accidental role in Grandpa's death by playfully spraying him over and over with the pesticide. Hey, call me an idiot, but I don't think its that hard of a conclusion to draw when you see "Godfather" for the very first time.
2. The briefcase in "Pulp Fiction": Nobody has ever been told just what was inside the briefcase carried around by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. All we know is that the two hitmen retrieved it for their boss, and it has a golden glow whenever opened. I guess you're supposed to draw your own conclusion, and I've heard ones ranging from diamonds to the soul of Marcellus Wallace to simply a 20-watt light bulb. I really don't have any conclusion myself, although I guess if I had to come up with an absolute answer, it would be diamonds/other forms of stolen jewellery.
3. The unborn baby's Daddy in "The Departed": When I first saw the film, the audience is told that it belongs to Matt Damon's character Colin Sullivan. But the more times I watched it, I realized that it might not be his baby and it could be the result of Madolyn's one night stand with Billy Costigan, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Further evidence of this is the scene in which Madolyn and Colin are discussing a certain "problem" that some guys have in a relationship as it pertains to sex, and near the end of the film, when she finds out Colin worked for Frank Costello, she remarks "And I thought I was the liar," meaning she was lying to Colin about the baby's father. Just my own observation.
4. The exact year it is in "Napoleon Dynamite": There's no indication as to what year the movie takes place in. I think its just one of those things where a certain family is behind the times and seem to be stuck in 1993 or something.
5. "I Heart Huckabees": That entire film. What the Hell was THAT?!? I've never seen a more pretentious film desperately trying to be commercial. I don't mean to woo myself here, but I'm pretty damn good at diciphering the message behind the medium. I tried watching this film with an open mind and I paid great attention, but I still do not know what that movie was about. A 5-star cast in a 0-star film.
6. "Mulholland Drive": Same thing here, and oddly enough, BOTH films star one of my favorite actresses, Naomi Watts. Just a shame that I'm ragging on her choice of work. David Lynch is a widely-respected filmmaker, and I myself applaud him for his success, but I'm not a fan at all. Experimenting with the material in ONE film is enough, but not when you've made a career of trying to confuse the Hell out of your paying audience. I'm not attacking director Lynch or his way of filmmaking, but there's a reason why studios stay away from his unproduced scripts and projects. If one wants to be known as mysterious but comes out looking pretentious, its his own fault. That's an important lesson I learned in film school in Victoria. In the end, your making a movie for THEM, not YOU.
7. Jack Torrance becoming part of the Hotel's history in "The Shining": I honestly still can't decipher the ending to this movie. I've read that we the audience unknowingly "Shine" Jack into the mysterious photo at the end, but I don't know. Maybe its just one of those movie mysteries that'll stay a mystery.

That's it for now. Feel free to comment on the ones I've written about, or tell me your own.

Keep 'em laughin',
Derek