The film,OTOH,is one of my top ten favorites which I watch,on average,once a year along with a number of other favorites.
I certainly could be wrong regarding my "college age and up" remark.But my viewpoint is partially based on the fact (or the assumption on my part) that the book might not have the same impact it might have had 50 (or more) years ago because of how different things are today.
Case in point...me,1969,reporting to Fort Knox,KY for Basic Training.A boy from the suburbs of Boston finds himself in a Company made up mostly of guys from Tennessee,Mississippi and Texas...most of them white but a few black.When I realized that I said to myself "My God...this could get ugly".Turns out there wasn't a *lick* of trouble from anyone...black *or* white.
You remind me of my father - he was a Bk’lyn boy during the 2nd World War and was sent to join the Dixie Division. They kidded him mercilessly and told him tall tales of being married to their sisters. But when he was stuck in the jungles of the Japan theater of war, it was those boys who taught him to survive in the open!
Also, maybe kids today don’t have the reading skills we did.