You Lie! (About Movie Classics)
Survey finds that many lie about having seen classic movies. Tell us what flicks you’ve faked watching
By JERE HESTER
Updated 4:03 AM EDT, Tue, Oct 13, 2009
In the “The Godfather,” Don Corleone advises, “Never let anyone outside the family know what you're thinking.” Apparently, many who never saw the movie have been keeping a big secret – even from loved ones.
A recent survey found that about of half of British adults have lied about seeing a classic film to avoid embarrassment. No 1 on the list: “The Godfather” trilogy, The Telegraph reports.
No. 2 is “Dirty Dancing” – a guilty pleasure you’d think just as many would lie and say they haven't seen.
While we also learned in “The Godfather,” that it’s not personal, it’s business, Robert DeNiro’s feelings might be somewhat hurt by the survey: three of his movies – “The Godfather, Part II,” “Taxi Driver” and “Goodfellas,” made the liars’ Top 10 list.
The survey, by Orange, a UK broadband company that offers movie ticket promotions, found that men were the bigger fibbers, with 58 percent admitting to lying about having seen classics such as “Gone With the Wind,” “Citizen Kane” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” compared to 38 percent of women.
The British media, not surprisingly, is having some fun with the results. The BBC posted an online CliffNotes-type guide to some of the most lied-about flicks, offering plot points, buzzwords and famous quotes like, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
Which might be how some feel about the survey.
Still, we’d like to make an offer you can’t refuse: use the comments below to confess what movies you’ve lied about seeing. After making your anonymous admission, atone by ordering up the movies on Netflix, so you never again have to fake your way through a conversation about the meaning of “Rosebud.”
It might be appropriate to start with “The Shawshank Redemption” (No. 3 on the list).
Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Oct 11, 2009 2:20 PM EDT
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