Stuff not stated directly in books/movies you didn't get

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What subtexts in books read by you (or in movies), you didn’t understand if those weren’t stated directly?

I remember that reading “The Catcher in the Rye” I didn’t get that Holden was undergoing treatment in a mental hospital (until some time later I watched a movie in one scene of which students were discussing the book with their teacher). I also didn’t understand that “heaven” the main character of Palahniuk’s “Fight Club” was in at the end wasn’t heaven in fact but a hospital as well. I can also recall that I didn’t understand “Other voices, other rooms” by Capote was about a boy discovering his gayness.

I think I was pretty much oblivious to the deeper meaning of every movie or book i saw or read until the age of 19.

My advanced reading skills were completely wasted on me.

Was "Heaven" in the Fight Club about a mental hospital? I didn't get that.

I don't understand the fight at the beginning of the last Pirate's of the Caribbean movie. The action moved too fast for me to process.

I re-watched Gone With the Wind a few years ago (I saw it multiple times before as a child) and I was amazed about all the sexual references that I didn't get as a kid.

it's a dirty, dirty movie

I remember in Benny & Joon, when Benny takes Ruthie to her apartment because her car wouldn't start. He goes inside with her in the building and he is walking around and sits on her bed and bounces on it. I didn't know why he did that until my ex told me he was making sure it doesn't squeak. I asked him why and he said the neighbors would know they were having sex and he wants to have it. I didn't know the movie had that sexual reference in it. It's easy for kids to miss.

Also in the part where Sam and Joon kiss, they are under the blankets and I thought they were just hugging and kissing and I didn't understand why Joon had her pants off until I read online in the reviews they had sex.


In Beethoven 2nd, the guy locks Rice in his room at his cabin on the lake and I didn't understand why my parents said he was a jerk for it. I didn't get until this year that he wanted to have sex with her and she might have gotten raped if it weren't for Beethoven. She thanks her dog after he tears the side off the house with his leash because Rice had tied his leash around the pole that held up the porch. When he ran, he pulled it and the porch fell down and ripped the side off the house.

Of course some parents have a problem with those kind of scenes and they're real easy to miss for young minds.
Now that I have a dirty mind now, I can catch sexual scenes usually.

I can notice deeper meanings in books, but I wonder if I miss things in films. I watch very few films so it's difficult for me to judge, but lately I have had to ask about stuff in films I've seen. I watched a film called 'The Man Who Would Be King' or something, and there was a bit where he was going to marry this woman, but her eyes were funny and she was having trouble standing. I thought she had a horrible illness, but my dad explained that they drugged her because she was afraid. I had to ask about something in 'Snow Cake' but I don't remember what. I didn't get most of the film 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'. Apparently at the end he gets lobotomised. I didn't understand that. My mum just said I should read the book it's much better.

I didn't know that Romeo and Juliet had sex while reading the play. That's why I watch the movie.

Missing a beat topic

I have to watch a movie a few times before I figure out some of the non verbal language. But most of the actors have such wooden faces that I cannot read them. I just listen to the words and figure it out, but then again I have to watch a few times in order to get all the nuances.

Sometimes I feel rather clueless.

And when I was reading the Bible, I didn’t get what the crime of people from Sodoma and Gomorrah they were punished for was, even if I knew what sodomy was.

This is the case with me in many movies (not all). Often, I realize that I missed something when I watch the Special Features, where the actors and director talk about "what really happened". Then I re-watch the movie, with that thought in mind, and I finally see it. This was the case with "Elizabeth, the Golden Age", I totally missed a lot of the subtext there, so the movie didn´t make sense at times- (why people had outbursts, etc.) But now I get it.

When I saw "The Piano", I totally missed the love story the first time (as it´s mostly non-verbal). I remember wondering where the story was going, and feeling kind of bored...though now I love the movie!

I even had trouble with "Mozart and the Whale" at times, and I tended to take the text too literally (so I wondered why some of the people said the things they did). For this reason, I felt not-included. I think it was more geared for NTs.

Holden was undergoing treatment in a mental hospital ! !! OMG I sooo did not pick up on that. Now I need to re-read that book again.

I thought they didn't tell you that until the very end.

Given I watch a lot of anime and use subtitles whenever I can...have less of a problem. That and I turn on closed caption automatically when watching shows on TV. And sometimes I loop things I watch over and over to get what they say.

One of the advantages of the Star Wars (and other sufficiently-large sci-fi) universes is all the Expanded Universe materials, from novels, comica, games, official in-universe chronologies of the universe, etc. Making fitting things in easy and fun. And it becomes an excercise in archiving, reading obscure stuff, and remembering the source when debating obscure star wars stuff...like how big The Death Star II was

Well that and the nerds who do calcs and formilas to see how powerful x is compared to Y

wow- another thing i had not even connected with a.s! and obviously it is! i just assumed i was really thick!!

most books and films, in fact. i dont get things with 'will they, wont they' endings- well- WILL THEY????
oddly- i pick up on sexual references more than anything else- or perhaps they are more obvious. i saw a house programme on tv recently; looking at a house by the sea, the presenter made a comment about going sailing, coming in and 'washing all that salty spray off' and something else about 'youthful seamen' which was definatly rude.
other things seem to go straight over my head. i never got the biblical paralells of the narnian books until it was mentioned (books ive read almost every year for about 25 years)...

Sometimes I´m quick with sexual innuendos, but sometimes I´m not- and then I feel stupid when I finally get it. For instance, the 1st time I saw "Cannibal the Musical", I didn´t get it at all when the lead character sang a song of nostalgia about his missing horse, called "When I Was On Top of You". I mean, there flashed all these pictures from his memory of him riding on top of his horse, so I took it literally. I was wondering why the creators of South Park would throw in such a serious song....

They didn't have sex while reading the play