Considering most watch movies of the sort as adults, could is be that we are just maybe missing an element of physical play, which was found in childhood, during the time when one may not have enjoyed these sorts of movies as much?


This is an interesting point. I think it is possible that as we get older, we tend to react more strongly to concepts in films as a sort of "mental game" to put ourselves in fictional situations, which we then become emotionally involved with because of their symbolism to the actual world. I feel that children do not need a temporary "suspension of reality" to engage in play or imaginative games because they haven't yet gained enough real-life experience to have reason to believe that these situations might not actually exist somewhere. For example, a group of children playing pirates on the playground may very well believe that somewhere, real Peter Pan-style pirates could exist. As an adult watching Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, we do not have to believe that these events are actually going on in the world to enjoy them. A child viewing Walton's slime on the movie screen may actually be afraid of the slime, and could even be moved to action (for a child that would be crying, seeking help from the adults), where as adults have lost that naivity of the actual world and therefore enguage in these mind games which requires suspending your awareness of the real world.

Watching a commercial on television a while back, I was confused when I saw an ad campaign for some prescription drug which opened with an actor from the show "E.R." in his surgeons outfit saying, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV..." As adults, why is it that this actor who plays a doctor on television, has an opinion on a drug that would be just as justified as an actual doctor? I found an article later that made me rethink my question. The actor, James Franco was speaking of his experiences with films and specifically Pineapple Express. Franco talks about the work he did to prepare for these films including spending months living on the street to prepare for role of a junkie, and gymnastics for Spiderman. Hillary Swank lived as a man (binding, packing, and cutting her hair) for a full month to prepare for the role of Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry. A part of me feels that the line between our fictional situations and our perception of the actual world continues to merge as we go. My question is where is the fiction in the story if the actors in it had to live those events in actual life just to prepare for the role, generally speaking of course?