In 1923 Charlie Chaplin made the movie, The Pilgrim.  In it, Chaplin plays an escaped con who poses as a Pastor.  Chaplin’s character, The Pilgrim, preaches a sermon on David and Goliath.  Since it’s a silent film, the only aids to the audience’s understanding is one card (which reads, “The Sermon will be on David and Goliath”) and Chaplin’s body language.  As I watched it I was able to understand the story, including David taking stones from the stream.  Then two things dawned on me:

1)  In 1923 Chaplin thought it was believable that an escaped convict would be familiar with the story of David and Goliath.

2)  In 1923 Chaplin thought an average movie audience would be able to follow the story of David and Goliath with only his body language.

That led to a further thought:

Would both of those assumptions hold today?