My First Viewing of Pretty Woman

      Pretty Woman was released in 1990 when I was only four years old.  When I grew up I was always following in my sister's footsteps and I overheard her and some friends talking about watching Pretty Woman and how cool the movie was and how they wanted to be just like Julia Roberts.  The next time we went to rent a movie I picked Pretty Woman off the shelf and showed it to my mom, hinting that I wanted to see it.  She immediately snatched it from my little hands like it was a loaded gun and put it back where I had taken it from.  She told me I wasn't allowed to watch it until I was older.

Like any other child told that they can't do something, the encounter just made me want to see it even more.   After telling a friend of mine about what had happened at Blockbuster, they confessed that their parents wouldn't let them see it either.  My friend Heather said that she had seen it in her parents movie collection, but she didn't know what it was about.  We planned to all get together and have a slumber party at which we would pretend to watch an age appropriate movie, and instead would watch Pretty Woman.

The Slumber Party

Nicole's mom said that we could all stay the over one Friday night and have a little slumber party.  So Heather snuck the movie from her parent's collection and hid it in her sleeping bag.   Gathered in Nicole's bedroom, we told her parents that we were going to watch Home Alone, but instead we locked the door and put in Pretty Woman.

What I Saw

I was only 7 years old when we devised this plan.  I remember being extremely confused throughout the entire movie.  I didn't understand what Julia Roberts job was.  I didn't know what they were talking about most of the movie, and frankly I thought it was one of the most boring movies I had ever seen, and I fell asleep before it had ended.  I couldn't even understand why my mother wouldn't allow me to see it because I knew nothing about sex or prostitution.  It was a stupid movie.  I remember wishing we had just watched Home Alone instead.

I refrained from seeing Pretty Woman for many years after my first viewing.  I couldn't put myself through the misery again because I still had my initial impression of it, which was that it was one of the worst movies I had ever watched.  I had always heard what a good movie all of my friends though it was, and I continuously protested.  I couldn't understand how anyone could like suh a pointless movie.  I couldn't even remember what it was about, and that to me proved that it was not a good movie. 

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