# Things it took you a long time to realise about favourite movies. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803 "2008-11-15T01:58:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/21 "2008-11-17T03:21:45Z")
Melanie to her dying breath never believed the rumors about Scarlett and Ashley. For a long time I misinterpreted Melanie’s death scene in _Gone With the Wind_ to reveal that she did believe the rumors, but just kept discretely quiet. But the novel set me straight: it was only Scarlett’s guilt that led her to initially infer that Melanie was admitting her knowledge about Scarlett and Ashley. But by the time Melanie finishes talking, Scarlett realizes that the opposite was true, that Melanie never once believed the rumors. This makes Scarlett feel all that more guilty after Melanie’s death, because she realizes that Melanie and her own mother were the only two women who ever truly loved Scarlett. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/22 "2008-11-17T05:39:16Z")
When I was a teenager and Braveheart came on HBO all the time, I watched it a lot. The last time was probably around 1998 or so. I caught it earlier this year and just now realized that Longshank’s son is gay. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/23 "2008-11-17T13:48:45Z")
**Godfather pt 2** , the “deal” between Hyman Roth and Michael. Could never get a sense of it… “what’s the point”, “How does this work”, etc. Until I finally realized: It’s a con that Roth is trying to pull on Michael. Roth gets $2 million, Michael gets screwed when the casinos he just shelled out $2 million for gets nationalized by the rebels. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/24 "2008-11-17T14:14:21Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > **Godfather pt 2** , the “deal” between Hyman Roth and Michael. Could never get a sense of it… “what’s the point”, “How does this work”, etc. I’m just wondering why Michael’s man agreed to assassinate Roth in the airport. Did he think he could get away with it or was it some sort of loyalty? Another moment, when I finally got the “beaver” joke from The Naked Gun. At age 13, I understood the jumbo condoms, but not the beaver :o ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/25 "2008-11-17T14:19:19Z")
I’ve read Rosemary’s Baby and seen the movie “Rosemary’s Baby” about fifty times. I wrote an annotated version of the novel. Two years later, I suddenly realized the title is a tribute to “Mary’s Baby.”:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/26 "2008-11-17T14:20:38Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > The archetypical small American city in (such films as) _It’s A Wonderful Life_ only came into being because of people who had no experience of archetypical small American cities, and who probably would have been made acutely uncomfortable in them. I don’t understand. Please explain. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/27 "2008-11-17T14:50:15Z")
Terminator Reese is the same actor that was one of the “Grunts” in Aliens also the Drop ship from Aliens appears in Terminator in the dreams about the future. I literally made that connection last week. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/28 "2008-11-17T15:47:42Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > I’m just wondering why Michael’s man agreed to assassinate Roth in the airport. Did he think he could get away with it or was it some sort of loyalty? I only saw this movie once in 1984, so I’m going off of hazy memory, but I seem to remember something about Tom Hagen explaining to Michael that the assassin had terminal cancer and was going to die anyway. Hyman Roth was too well-guarded for anyone to pull this off in private, so they needed a kamikaze style attack where it would have been least expected. I could be wrong about this, though. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/29 "2008-11-17T16:12:50Z")
2001, [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10458359&posted=1#post10458359) reminded me about HAL going mad, which reminded me that I thought years ago that HAL was programmed to kill the astronauts, who weren’t supposed to know about the aliens at Jupiter. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/30 "2008-11-17T17:04:07Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > That Kris in _Miracle on 34th Street_ really is just a nice old man with whiskers. The miracle is that the self-interests of all these different characters (Fred, Doris, Macy, Gimble, the judge, the political boss, and the old guy from Chico and the Man when he still worked in the post office) combined to save him – but not because he was really Santa Claus. > > –Cliffy > [@Asylum](#): > > It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but didn’t the movie end with them serendipitously finding a house, and when they went in they found Kris’s cane? Wouldn’t that make him Santa Claus? Or am I thinking of a different movie? > [@Zebra](#): > > He is too santa! > [@Kythereia](#): > > Nope, you got it right. “Maybe I didn’t do such a wonderful thing after all.” > > (I think the 1994 remake is more ambiguous about the whole thing, though.) > [@Rocketeer](#): > > You think all those things would have come together if he hadn’t been A Potent Force For Good? No way. He was the real deal. > [@Cliffy](#): > > No, it just makes him a dude who knows how to browse the Real Estate section. > > –Cliffy The real movie made it pretty clear that Kris was something more than just a kindly old man. The cane in the house was the give away. Besides if the post office says he was Santa, you best not argue. I don’t recall Jack Albertson (the man from Chico and the Man) being in the movie. Are you mixing up versions **Cliffy**? ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/31 "2008-11-17T17:07:32Z")
Took a long time to realize that in _The Big Lebowski_, the Dude has humpback whales on his checks…then is later listening to whale songs in the bathtub when the nihilists break in. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/32 "2008-11-17T17:08:30Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I don’t recall Jack Albertson (the man from Chico and the Man) being in the movie. Are you mixing up versions **Cliffy**? You could check the [Internet Movie Database](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0016776/). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/33 "2008-11-17T17:15:19Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > You could check the [Internet Movie Database](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0016776/). Wow he had an uncredited part as a mail sorter. I did not know that. ---
**Author:** ![History\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b19c9b/32.png) [@History\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/History_Geek)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/34 "2008-11-17T18:13:29Z")
It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized Han Solo was the real hero of _A New Hope_. Sure, that farmboy was a good shot, but the smuggler actually had to go against his self-interest to do his bit for the Rebellion. And if Han hadn’t taken out Vader, Luke wouldn’t have gotten to launch his proton torpedoes - he’d have been a cloud of incandescant gas. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/35 "2008-11-17T18:26:05Z")
> [@Freejooky](#): > > Took a long time to realize that in _The Big Lebowski_, the Dude has humpback whales on his checks…then is later listening to whale songs in the bathtub when the nihilists break in. Ah, _that_ movie. Its a theme that a lot of words and images are repeated again and again. Like the scissors the Nihilists use to try and chop off the Dude’s johnston in his trip, you can see them on Maude’s studio walls. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/36 "2008-11-17T19:32:49Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Wow he had an uncredited part as a mail sorter. I did not know that. He was the older mail clerk who came up with the idea of delivering the Santa letters to the courthouse. _Men in Black_ When Kay blows Jeeves’ (the pawnbroker) head off, the wandering eye changes sides when the head’s regenerated (“Do you have any idea how much that _stings_?”) ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/37 "2008-11-17T19:59:37Z")
Someone on this board pointed out that in **The Wizard of Oz** , the Scarecrow is the smartest, the Cowardly Lion is the bravest, and the Tin Man is the most loving…I never realized that! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/38 "2008-11-17T20:18:58Z")
> [@History\_Geek](#): > > It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized Han Solo was the real hero of _A New Hope_. Sure, that farmboy was a good shot, but the smuggler actually had to go against his self-interest to do his bit for the Rebellion. And if Han hadn’t taken out Vader, Luke wouldn’t have gotten to launch his proton torpedoes - he’d have been a cloud of incandescant gas. That’s why he got the girl. The hero _always_ gets the girl. Plus there was that whole sibling thing… ---
**Author:** ![AmericanMaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@AmericanMaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmericanMaid)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/39 "2008-11-17T21:00:13Z")
It took me a while to get the sexual connotations in Ghostbuters for the whole “gatekeeper”/“keymaster” shebang. Also, ghost blow-job earlier in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803/40 "2008-11-17T21:25:35Z")
Although I’ve really loved this movie (both versions) since I was a little kid, I didn’t realize until a few weeks ago that the title, _Imitation of Life_, not only referred to Sara Jane’s trying to pass in life as white instead of black, but also referred to the phoney, actress-ey way Susan Heyward’s character went through life and treated the people around her. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-it-took-you-a-long-time-to-realise-about-favourite-movies/472803.md?page=3)