Channeleven's Reviews: False Memory Confessional (spoilers)

Let's not kid ourselves here, we're all victims to false memories, even when it comes to movies. We catch things when we're young, but when we revisit them, chances are they'll be much different than you'd remember, whether it be things looking different, scenes occurring differently (possibly due to you not paying attention to the full scene) or a stark tonal difference. I'm going to go over my personal biggest false cinematic memories, ranging from least to most different.

!!!Spoiler Warning!!!

Honorable Mention: Nightmare on Elm Street 5

This doesn't come from the movie itself, but rather the beginning. I remember watching this film on television and seeing a drastically different opening logo. I knew it was for New Line Cinema, but the one I recall was drastically different. It had an ovular iris leading to a red/yellow/blue background with filmstrips flying by. Since the latter is part of the logo that does appear on the film, I guess I did see the real New Line logo and just didn't realize it.

There's Something About Mary

Starting off with the least different. This centers on the scene where Ben Stiller's character gets his testicles caught in his zipper. I saw it up to the last few seconds before he's loaded onto a gurney. This is lower because I knew the context. My parents actually told me what happened. I caught the film right at the scene so I had zero awareness of what kind of film it was. I'd go on, but I have enough common sense not to dispel damning personal information.

I remember the character.

Summer of Sam

Another small offender. I knew the context and when I saw it again, it played out similarly to how I remember it, but not by much. This was the scene where Berkowitz encounters the black dog. What I missed was the entirety of the dog's dialogue, and the cheesy atmosphere. I remember it being a lot creepier when I first saw it, but then again I was young and the film wasn't even a decade old by then.

Kill!

Arachnophobia

I saw this movie at the wrong age. I know it's retarded, but this movie actually gave me arachnophobia. Look at it like this, there're spiders that could kill you, I don't feel too bad about admitting it. Anyway, at the time I was in the dark about the more comedic aspects of this comedy thriller. I didn't see John Goodman nor did I pay attention to the way the dialogue was given, but one scene stuck in my head for some reason, the scene where Sam Metcalf dies. Like the previous ones, I knew the context, but the way I remembered it was much different. At first I thought that Sam's death caught his wife by surprise and that she called Jeff Daniels' character right from there, but when I watch the scene again, Sam actually walks her through on what to do, also the dialogue.

Spider Man (2002)

Right off the bat, I just wanna say that I love Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, even more to this day. It was one of the earliest movies I recall seeing in theaters. Now where do my false memories lie with this one? Well, the false memories lie not in what happened, but what I missed. For what happened, I remember most of the scenes looking different visually (namely the spider that bit Peter Parker), and that covers that.

I want to get into the fact that there're scenes that I had no idea were in the movie to begin with. For starters, in the lunchroom scene, there was a huge gap between Peter eating and him finding the fork stuck to his wrist. I didn't recall the part where Mary Jane slipped and Peter caught her. While we're on this, at first I thought Peter was caught off by spider webs, I missed the fork part, as well as the fight with Flash Thompson.

I also missed a chunk of the first scene with the Green Goblin where he killed the people on the balcony (though to be fair I was young at the time and I wound up dodging a mental bullet.) Strangely, I remember the scene where Norman Osborne transforms into the Green Goblin, but I missed the dialogue. Whatever the case it kept the same effect.

Another aspect I missed was parts of the scene with the bridge. I completely missed the part where the New Yorkers threw garbage at Gobbie. To close off, I missed chunks of the final fight with Gobbie and Spider-Man, and I misinterpreted the former's final moment. At first I thought the Green Goblin died the moment he revealed his true identity. I completely missed the moments right after.

Secret Window

Here's where I have the most false memories. Bear with me, because there're so many false memories that I have to bullet-point them.

First up there's the opening logo. I remember the opening sequence, but the opening logo really caught me by surprise. The Columbia Pictures logo appears at the start, but when I first saw it, for some reason I recall seeing a logo for a company that has been defunct for over a decade. Vestron Pictures. Don't ask me how I thought that up.
Next there's the character John Shooter. The only thing I didn't recall was the fact that he had a thick southern accent.
Then there's the scene where Johnny Depp's character talks to himself. I recall him throwing something at the wall, but at first I thought he threw something at a mirror while talking to a reflection of Shooter. Depp does see Shooter in the mirror, but that's not the case with what I told you.
Referring back to the previous bullet, here's my silliest misconception. There's a brief instance where we go into the foundation of Shooter. Johnny Depp's at a yard sale and dons Shooter's cap while talking to a mirror. Sounds simple enough, but I... I thought it was a black guy talking into the mirror. Part of my misconception is that Charles S. Dutton was in the movie, and I thought his character conspired against Depp. Yeah, it's a retarded misconception, save it.
To conclude, I also completely missed the foundation of the plot. I blame this on me reading the plot summary on Wikipedia. I had no idea about the divorce aspect, which was crucial to Depp's actions later on in the movie and again referring to the foundation of Shooter.