Period Films and Inaccuraces

[Viola]

I wish in period movies they would do the makeup sorta at least close to the right decade.

Rocketeer, they skipped the Betty Paige bangs on Jennifer Connolly on purpose, to move her to wanting to be an actress instead of a cheesecake girl like in the comics, but...why the eighties Brooke Shields eyebrows? Why?

I thought similar things about King Kong.

Was Changeling, with Angelina, good?

 

[Lone_Ranger]

If you look closely, in the Great Escape's motorcycle chase scenes, you'll see that the Germans chasing Steve McQueen, are Steve McQueen.

 

[Atomic Age]

Also in Crystal Skull there's the part where Indy and Mutt arrive in South America in a Soviet/Russian An-2 Colt biplane transport in Pan American Airways livery. While the plane itself is the right vintage for the period it's highly doubtful that a US airline would have been operating them in 1957!



Antonov An-2 "Colt" (1947)

I find this interesting because they had originally chosen a different aircraft, then Harrison Ford chimed in and suggested this one instead. Not sure what his thinking was. I suppose its possible that in South America this plane was widely used.

Doug

 

[xwray]

I think the mother of all inaccuracies must have been a made for TV movie - one of the over the air networks but I can't remember the name since it was eminently forgettable. It had a chase scene supposedly taking place on the Houston freeways and as they rounded a curve you see mountains in the background.

I've been in Houston since 1963 and I never did see any mountains here.

 

[Viola]

It was probably filmed in Vancouver.

Ever watch Smallville? Its amazing what Kansas looks like.

 

[ChadHahn]

I find this interesting because they had originally chosen a different aircraft, then Harrison Ford chimed in and suggested this one instead. Not sure what his thinking was. I suppose its possible that in South America this plane was widely used.

Doug

Ford probably wanted the plane for himself and worked out a deal with the production company.

Chad

 

[Atomic Age]

Ford probably wanted the plane for himself and worked out a deal with the production company.

Chad

Hmmmmmm never thought of that.....[huh]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I find this interesting because they had originally chosen a different aircraft, then Harrison Ford chimed in and suggested this one instead. Not sure what his thinking was. I suppose its possible that in South America this plane was widely used.

Doug

Some better choices for a plane that would have been knocking around South America back then would have been a Ford Trimotor or a Junkers Ju 52. I would love to have seen Indy stepping out of a battered old, held-together-with-chewing-gum-and-baling-wire 52 that had been God knows where.

Also in the montage of Indy traveling to South America, I would have liked to have seen a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser (KC-97 in its military guise) depicting the first leg of the trip. The DC-3/C-47 would have been more likely to be the plane for the final leg of the journey.

 

[Puzzicato]

I remember years ago my uncle was working as a sound mixer for Australian TV miniseries- they had endless trouble getting the details right, because if the train noise didn't exactly match the make and model of the train, there would be letters in to the station complaining.

As for me I am better at suspending disbelief. Inaccuracies only niggle when the movie isn't very good.

 

[David Conwill]

If you look closely, in the Great Escape's motorcycle chase scenes, you'll see that the Germans chasing Steve McQueen, are Steve McQueen.

If the only thing that can cut Chuck Norris is Chuck Norris, it seems to logically follow that the only person who can catch Steve McQueen is Steve McQueen.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Either that or there's some deep psychological meaning in that scene.

 

[Stanley Doble]

I'm pretty forgiving of mistakes as long as they don't affect the story. But some are just so glaring they destroy the illusion they have just spent millions of dollars and untold trouble creating.

There are 2 that spring to mind. One was in Titanic. The young couple was chased through the ship and got away by jumping in an elevator. As the elevator went down she gave the middle finger to their pursuers. That one gesture struck me a blow that threw me 100 years and smashed any interest I had in the characters and what happened to them.

No well brought up young lady in 1912 would have used such a gesture or known it existed. She would have thumbed her nose. If you never heard of thumbing your nose, touch the end of your thumb to your nose and wiggle your fingers. To make it good, stick out your tongue at the same time. Now do it in front of a mirror. Anyone would know what that means even if they never saw it before.

The second was in an English Sherlock Holmes TV series made a few years ago. One of the Baker Street Irregulars says Awesome! Instantly, I was no longer watching Holmes solve a case. I was watching some people in funny clothes doing something neither of us was interested in. Up to then the language was more modern than it should have been but bearable. The correct word would have been Blimey! or What a stunner!

Movies and TV shows are supposed to create an illusion. You are supposed to care what happens to the people on the screen. If all you can see is some actors making faces in front of a lot of cardboard props it doesn't have the same effect.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

There's a part in the movie 633 Squadron where the bunker buster bombs needed for the special mission arrive at the airbase under escort. Way off in the distance a white Mini Cooper can be seen driving by.

 

[rocketeer]

Hi hate it when we hear expressions such as 'Cash flow problems' and Kick some Ass(Arse=UK) in modern films about the pre 1980s era.

In American Graffiti, some cruisers are listening to a 1960 (Cruising series LPs) Radio show by Arnie Ginsberg. Everyone knows the film is set in 1962.

 

[scottyrocks]

I believe the radio music in the soundtrack was identified by Wolfman Jack as a rock and retrospective or some such, so recent older music was to be expected.

I've seen American Graffiti many times and don't recall hearing any DJ but WJ. Ginsburg was a Boston radio jock and Graffiti took place in CA. I may have to watch it again. Could WJ have been featuring an old Ginsburg radio show?

 

[rocketeer]

Long time since I have seen it all the way through. Might be around the bit where the police car gets wrecked but I'm not really sure.
I recognise the Arnie Ginsberg bit because I have a set of those old Cruisin' 195? LPs

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Yes, I know it's a musical but still they could have gotten the timeline right. The lyrics of the theme song of Thoroughly Modern Millie sets the story in 1922 but one of the songs in the film is Baby Face written in 1926.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

2. "Casablanca" (1942): Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) is a Gestapo officer, but is wearing a Luftwaffe uniform.

Yes, he should have been Sturmbannführer Strasser of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst or 'Security Service' which the Gestapo was part of) and would have been wearing either the field gray (not the black) SS uniform or civvies -- refer to wartime pics of Heinrich Himmler for the uniform type.

And that's not all. In the flashback scenes of Rick and Ilse in Paris, as the Germans are approaching, Ilse is frightened by the sound of guns in the distance and Rick explains that they must be the new German 77 guns. The 77mm gun was a German field gun from the First World War that was no longer in use by the Wehrmacht (or at least not in their first line divisions spearheading the drive on Paris) in 1940.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

One that always bugs me is in 'Goodfellas.' They change scenes and say it's 1963, they pan to them leaning on a 1965 Chevy Impala!

 

[Mickey Caesar]

I hadn't heard that! Last of the Mohicans is one of my absolute favorite movies of the past 20 years. The cinematography is stunning, and I understand Daniel Day-Lewis spent months learning to use the weapons of the time. After seeing that movie, I realized for the first time what an incredible weapon a tomahawk was in the hands of someone who knew how to use it.

OTOH, I had to reserve judgement about the weapon Russell Means carried as Chingachcook. I'm not sure that one was period correct. BTW - what an inspired choice, casting Means in that role. Overall, that may have been the best job of casting of any movie in its decade.

If you want to see tomahawk fighting, you should see Mel Gibson in "The Patriot"