the intentmeaning of the book and film  The supplmental material on the Bluray Disk includes reminiscences from Melvyn Douglass granddaughter about the making of the film Its obvious she has no idea whatever what the film is about The films meaning is futher confused by Ashbys introduction of the walking on water scene which is not in the book and which he makes sure we get by having Chance thrust his umbrella into the lake  Its unfortunate that the film like Chance has become a kind of inkblot onto which people project their own interpretations when it should be obvious to any reasonably intelligent person what Kosinsky is getting at The book doesnt explain the story either  Kosinski had too much respect for the reader to do that  but it goes something like this  Chance is a voyeur who has never actually experienced anything directly Everything he knows is a vicarious experience from watching TV And because his mind is filled with nothing other than what he sees on TV he has never developed an inner dialog that might provide some framework into which he could place his experiences