Movie Movies You Remembered Wrong

[emuboy]

By nature human memory is inaccurate, and if a group of 12 people who experienced the same thing on the same day were reunited 10 years later, their recollections will have major inconsistencies.

Have you ever watched a movie, not watched it again for many years, then upon re-watching it found that you remembered something significant all wrong?

My main example was Footloose (1984). I watched it as a boy in the late 1980s, then did not see it again for some 15 or 16 years by which stage it was the early 2000s. I found that I had a majorly wrong recollection of the film. For some reason, I 'remembered' that the movie was set in the very early 1960s, when in fact it was set in the present day of when it was made, 1984. I thought perhaps I was confusing it with another 1980s film 'Dirty Dancing' which was set in 1963, but no, I distinctly remembered Dirty Dancing differently.

Maybe it was the religious aspect of the film, which is set in the American Bible Belt in Missouri, and very different from Australia that led me to think it was set in the past, especially as I saw it as a boy. Do you have any similar experiences with movies you saw?

 

[Shell]

Not exactly what you're asking for, but what about "Movies you loved first screening, then did a 180 on the second".

The Cell. and
The Bodyguard.

In both cases i was raving to a friend re. the first, and family re the second. I was like "wtf is this rubbish" on the second screening and i still dont get it to this day.

 

[Shell]

I thought perhaps I was confusing it with another 1980s film 'Dirty Dancing' which was set in 1963, but no, I distinctly remembered Dirty Dancing differently.

Maybe it was the religious aspect of the film, which is set in the American Bible Belt in Missouri, and very different from Australia that led me to think it was set in the past, especially as I saw it as a boy. Do you have any similar experiences with movies you saw?

For many years I legit thought Happy Days was made in the time it was set.

And maybe Grease as well.

 

[emuboy]

For many years I legit thought Happy Days was made in the time it was set.

And maybe Grease as well.

The early years of Happy Days were really authentic and very well done, you really thought you were watching people in the 1950s. The later shows, made in the 1980s and set in the 1960s, not nearly as convincing.

At the other end of the scale, some movies are poorly adapted from source material to a present day setting.

One I remember was 'Bridge to Terabithia' from 2007 and which was set in the present day. It was a good movie, well acted, good storyline and visuals etc. but something just felt off about it and what it was I just couldn't place. It wasn't until I watched a Nostalgia Critic review of the film on Youtube some time later that the reviewer was able to analyze and describe what I felt was off about the movie. Bridge to Terabithia was based on a 1977 novel, and the main premise of the film, how the kids interact at school between themselves and their teachers, in the community and at home with their parents, the family dynamics, the problems faced by the main family, a general lack of modern technology and the friendship of the two main characters seems more applicable to a movie set in the 1970s than one set in the 2000s. As one example, the school bullies use slang and insults many years out of date by the time the film was made.

You have to wonder, why didn't they just set the film in the 1970s as per the book?

 

[emuboy]

Not exactly what you're asking for, but what about "Movies you loved first screening, then did a 180 on the second".

The Cell. and
The Bodyguard.

In both cases i was raving to a friend re. the first, and family re the second. I was like "wtf is this rubbish" on the second screening and i still dont get it to this day.

I really liked Forest Gump when I saw it soon after it was released in 1994, but re-watching it years later I found myself thinking, 'This is terrible.' And I'm not the only one, a lot of other people I know have had the same experience, and from reading and watching online reviews on the movie, others think the same.

 

[Shell]

I really liked Forest Gump when I saw it soon after it was released in 1994, but re-watching it years later I found myself thinking, 'This is terrible.' And I'm not the only one, a lot of other people I know have had the same experience, and from reading and watching online reviews on the movie, others think the same.

Loved Forrest Gump at the movies.

Its an average at best now. (Fantastic soundtrack tho)

 

[Plugger35]

As a kid I wanted to join the US Army after watching Stripes with Bill Murray.




Then as I got older and watched Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Hamburger Hill I realised being in the US Army wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

 

[HahnPremium]

Then as I got older and watched Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Hamburger Hill I realised being in the US Army wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

 

[Shell]

As a kid I wanted to join the US Army after watching Stripes with Bill Murray.




Then as I got older and watched Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Hamburger Hill I realised being in the US Army wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Felt the same way re. The police Academy movies

 

[Plugger35]

Felt the same way re. The police Academy movies

Yeah they made joining the police look fun like Stripes made joining the army look fun, the reality is a lot less fun though.

 

[raskolnikov]

Not really wrong but something that didn't dawn on for me years. In The Sound of Music when the Von Trapps are leaving their house to avoid the Nazis they show the butler Franz looking on from a window in the house. It didn't strike me until after multiple viewings that he had informed on them.

 

[SnakeMan86]

Magic...? Mirror on the wall

 

[Shell]

Not really wrong but something that didn't dawn on for me years. In The Sound of Music when the Von Trapps are leaving their house to avoid the Nazis they show the butler Franz looking on from a window in the house. It didn't strike me until after multiple viewings that he had informed on them.

After watching Irreversible for the first time, i decided to watch the rape scene one more time (bc in my mind i knew id never watch this film ever again) and i wish i bloody hadnt. Second time around i noticed a blurry bystander, in the far background, casually stands there for a bit watching then just turns back and walks off.

I know its just a movie but i was ******* enraged

 

[iluvparis]

Not really wrong but something that didn't dawn on for me years. In The Sound of Music when the Von Trapps are leaving their house to avoid the Nazis they show the butler Franz looking on from a window in the house. It didn't strike me until after multiple viewings that he had informed on them.

When we were little kids we would watch this at my grandparents and my grandpa would have us almost crying because he would say this time the Nazi's actually catch them.

Classic Grandpa shtick.

 

[Roobs321]

This thread has really failed the OP, who is talking about films you saw a long time ago and in the intervening years misremembered significant things about. raskolnikov is the only one who has really acknowledged this in any way.

A semi-example I'd use is Watership Down. I'd never seen it, but I'd erroneously accrued the impression through pop culture and reviews that they all drown at the end crossing a river, a sort of tragic weepie conclusion. So when I actually saw the film I was surprised to find that this wasn't the case. I considered whether I might have confused it with that perilous rabbits river crossing sequence in Animals of Farthing Wood (a cartoon setpiece which I obsessed over as a kid), but I'm fairly certain I actually read this somewhere in the 2000s on a forum or in a magazine or maybe heard from a television panel show, and that I'd received a second hand mistake.

 

[phantom13]

By nature human memory is inaccurate, and if a group of 12 people who experienced the same thing on the same day were reunited 10 years later, their recollections will have major inconsistencies.

Have you ever watched a movie, not watched it again for many years, then upon re-watching it found that you remembered something significant all wrong?

My main example was Footloose (1984). I watched it as a boy in the late 1980s, then did not see it again for some 15 or 16 years by which stage it was the early 2000s. I found that I had a majorly wrong recollection of the film. For some reason, I 'remembered' that the movie was set in the very early 1960s, when in fact it was set in the present day of when it was made, 1984. I thought perhaps I was confusing it with another 1980s film 'Dirty Dancing' which was set in 1963, but no, I distinctly remembered Dirty Dancing differently.

Maybe it was the religious aspect of the film, which is set in the American Bible Belt in Missouri, and very different from Australia that led me to think it was set in the past, especially as I saw it as a boy. Do you have any similar experiences with movies you saw?

I honestly dont remember which movie it was but we were watching something recently and my wife turns to me and says "This person dies yeh" i said no... Turns out i was totally wrong. Im usually really good with that sort of thing too.

 

[phantom13]

Magic...? Mirror on the wall

Ive done a few quizzes on this stuff "The Mandela Effect". The two classic ones everyone cites are the Berenstein Bears and Jiffy peanut butter.

 

[phantom13]

The whole "Luke, I am your father" is another one.

 

[Shell]

This thread has really failed the OP, who is talking about films you saw a long time ago and in the intervening years misremembered significant things about. raskolnikov is the only one who has really acknowledged this in any way.

A semi-example I'd use is Watership Down. I'd never seen it, but I'd erroneously accrued the impression through pop culture and reviews that they all drown at the end crossing a river, a sort of tragic weepie conclusion. So when I actually saw the film I was surprised to find that this wasn't the case. I considered whether I might have confused it with that perilous rabbits river crossing sequence in Animals of Farthing Wood (a cartoon setpiece which I obsessed over as a kid), but I'm fairly certain I actually read this somewhere in the 2000s on a forum or in a magazine or maybe heard from a television panel show, and that I'd received a second hand mistake.

Oh excuse us

 

[Shell]

The whole "Luke, I am your father" is another one.

Frankly my dear I dont give a damn.

Thats another incorrect quote? Lots of misremembered quotes out there.


Crocodile Dundee and the knife.

 

[phantom13]

Frankly my dear I dont give a damn.

Thats another incorrect quote? Lots of misremembered quotes out there.


Crocodile Dundee and the knife.

I cant recall anyone getting that one wrong (that is the quote i believe) but yeh.

Play it again Sam, from Casablanca is one that springs to mind

 

[Shell]

I cant recall anyone getting that one wrong (that is the quote i believe) but yeh.

Play it again Sam, from Casablanca is one that springs to mind

Yeah articles like this have been in the paper over the years. Legit 10/10 shocked at how incorrect some of the quotes can be.

 

[Shell]

The 20 Most Misquoted Movie Lines of All Time - WeScreenplay

 

[Shell]

14. Wall Street

Misquote: “Greed is good.”
Actual Quote: “The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

Lol, I knew this one. And not from watching Wall Street, but from watching "Boiler Room"

 

[Shell]

I cant recall anyone getting that one wrong (that is the quote i believe) but yeh.

Play it again Sam, from Casablanca is one that springs to mind

7. Casablanca

Misquote: "Play it again, Sam"
Actual quote: "Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By"