“Find out the movies a man saw between the age of ten and fifteen…which ones he liked, disliked… and you would have a pretty good idea of what sort of mind and temperament he has [as an adult].” — Gore Vidal, Paris Review interview, 1974, as excerpted in David Thomson’s “The Whole Equation.”
It goes without saying that Vidal’s remark applies to women also.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to list a dozen or so films you saw and loved between 10 and 15, and then answer whether Vidal was on to something or not. No biggie. Take your time.
For what it’s worth, some of the films I loved during my late-tweener-to-mid-teen period were seen on TV — The Public Enemy, Gunga Din, The Best Years of Our Lives, King Kong, etc. I could go on and on about theatrical favorites of my miserable youth but I have a screening to catch.