Period Films and Inaccuraces

[Marc Chevalier]

"The Cotton Club" (1984): The shape of Richard Gere's black bowtie goes from butterfly to batwing and back to butterfly in the same scene.

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[Rosie]

"Crash" (2005): In a scene with Jean Cabot (Sandra Bullock) lying in bed, the reflection and shadow of a film crew member can be seen as he tries to run from being included in the scene.

I interned on a few movies when I was in college and we were ALWAYS running, ducking, hiding behind couches, under beds, behind bars in order to get out of scenes. A fellow crew member and I hid behind a couch during a pretty out and heavy love scene, we both nearly burst trying not to laugh. In another film, we had to crouch down in the back seat of a car while they filmed in the front. I've hidden in closets, behind coffee tables, behind cars, under tables, all not to be in scene, great fun though.

 

[Doh!]

Well, he is a supernatural being. Perhaps a supernaturally good ventriloquist?

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He's not very good at math, though: Clarence tells George, "Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine." But if you look at Harry's tombstone it reads "1911-1919" -- so he couldn't possibly be any older than 8!


Great movie, though, so I forgive this.

 

[swinggal]

What always amazes me is that no matter how much money a big budget blockbuster seems to have - they still dont manage to get it right like the smaller budget films.

Pearl Harbour was a travesty when it came to hair, makeup and uniforms. If you are going to try and re-create an event like that, man at LEAST get the uniforms right. Ben Afflicks character is wearing the wrong jacket with his uniform and his medals are not pinned in the correct place. Even the way he wears his hat is questionable according to a friend of mine who is an expert on uniforms of the era. It's almost insulting to the men who were there. And the women...the hair is wrong, too modern as is the makeup and nails. It really stands out!

I mean low budget movies like League of their Own, Swing Kids and English dramas are so well done, right down to every detail. So why can't a movie with a huge budget - like Pearl Harbour or King Kong get it right!

Girls, I love League of their Own and use it as a reference a lot. Has it all, day wear, sports wear, underwear, great hairstyles and make-up. Yeah, its not the greates movie of all time but I think it's one that is true to the era.

I tell you what is REALLY weird, get the 1950s version of the 'Glenn Miller Story' out on DVD sometime (starring Jimmy Stewart). We all know its set from the 20s to when he died in WW2 but almost all the clothes (especially in the 30s and 40s period) are full on 1950s garb!! I've seen this in quite a few movies made in the 50s (The Benny Goodman Story is another) where they are trying to portray the 30s and 40s but still wear 50s clothes! Odd, check it out sometime. Even here in the movie poster shes wearing 50s clothes:

 

[Quigley Brown]

Yup. Picky, picky, picky.

I guess when watching a high budget film I think about how complicated and what a feat it must have been to put it all together.

 

[Twitch]

Wow! I'm impressed you guys. You all have seen lots of flubs most would have missed. I just always feel like the Star Wars nerds that live to go through films frame by frame looking for flaws because they have no lives so I usually never mention errors. At any rate most are not so major as to ruin the whole movie.

 

[Rosie]

I mean low budget movies like League of their Own, Swing Kids and English dramas are so well done, right down to every detail. So why can't a movie with a huge budget - like Pearl Harbour or King Kong get it right!

Most big budget movies have huge departments, including hair/makeup/wardrobe department and they are all trying to outdo one another, trying to get the next big job. Everyone is worried about their department doing well and outdoing everyone else. This leads to a lot of, "this dress really is circa 1955, even though this movie is set in 1939 but it's fabulous, no one will notice", and most people don't. Most people lump all of the fashion into "back in the days" if you know what I mean. Since there are so many people, no one is checking anyone. Everyone just wants to get the film done.

Smaller budget movies are usually a labor of love and so the director gets someone who really knows their stuff. With a small budget on hand, the focus is on quality. Usually only have a few people are in charge and everyone wants to make a good film so, more care is taken.

 

[Michaelson]

Continuity errors abound in just about every film I've ever seen...but I go to be entertained. Period. The only time I grumble is when I'm jolted back to the reality that I AM just watching a movie when a monumental error occurs in plain sight, and you just can't just ignore it or pretend you didn't see it.

Sort of like Christopher Reeves in 'Somewhere in Time' when he sees the modern coin in his turn of the century change. (if you don't know what I'm talking about, see the movie. It's a good one too)

One example I can think of was in the Great Waldo Pepper. One of my favorite films....but if you recall the scene where the girl was on the end of the wing of the plane when they barnstormed down the main street of the small town...they pulled up and out of the town. There was a close up of the pilot, then the girl, and it left there for several seconds to show the development of the realization of where she was, and the onset of sheer terror. In that pause to develop this, you can see WAY down in the background a GP9 diesel locomotive switching a string of Hi Cube box cars in a small railroad yard...NONE of which were even built until the early 60's through the early 70's....and this was supposed to be a few years after WW1!!???

Yep, took a few scenes to get me back on track watching that film after that one.....

Otherwise, the buttoned, unbuttoned, rebuttoned coats don't phase me a bit....

Regards! Michaelson

 

[dr greg]

My favorite:

The Prince Who Was A Theif http://cruel.imdb.com/title/tt0043935/

Tony Curtis as Julna, who uttered the classic Arabian Night type dialog:

"Yonder, lies da castle of my fadder da King."

I thought that line was in "the black shield of falworth"
http://cruel.imdb.com/title/tt0046789/

 

[Absinthe_1900]

He did it first in the earlier "Prince" movie, but "Falworth" has the classic Tony Curtis delivery as well.lol

 

[jake_fink]

One example I can think of was in the Great Waldo Pepper. One of my favorite films....but if you recall the scene where the girl was on the end of the wing of the plane when they barnstormed down the main street of the small town...they pulled up and out of the town. There was a close up of the pilot, then the girl, and it left there for several seconds to show the development of the realization of where she was, and the onset of sheer terror. In that pause to develop this, you can see WAY down in the background a GP9 diesel locomotive switching a string of Hi Cube box cars in a small railroad yard...NONE of which were even built until the early 60's through the early 70's....and this was supposed to be a few years after WW1!!???

lol lol lol

 

[The Captain]

They tried very hard

I spent several weeks working (background/driving vintage autos) on The Majestic. One of the things that impressed me was the care taken to assure that there were no mistakes in wardrobe or set decor. I was amazed at all the Polaroid images taken. People attached to wardrobe scrutinized everyone before each take. Watches, modern eyewear, were of course forbidden, but if there was a spot on a shirt that wasn't there in the previous shot, the shirt was changed. One day I sat in for "the mayor" at the diner (only my arms and hands were visible in the shot) and they put a half-eaten hamburger in front of me! As this was around 6:30 AM, it wasn't very appealing. What I'm saying is that the production, directed by Frank Darabont, was as cautious as they could be, but I'm sure that if you tried very hard there will be a gaffe somewhere.

 

[The Wolf]

thoughts on previous thoughts

Films from the 1940s that took place in an earlier time often had "modern" clothes and hair, especially on the women. "The Hoodlum Saint" is a good example. I wonder if they did for the same reason as 1970s movies: So the actors wouldn't look dopey in the old fashions. Instead they look dopey ten years after the movie is made and are anachronistic.

Tony Curtis' delivery makes me think of John Wayne drawling about his "Mongol blood" in "The Conquerer".

Here's something that always bothered me about "Somewhere in Time": where did the watch come from? She gave it to him. Where did she get it? He gave it to her. See the problem? It doesn't originate anywhere.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[artdecodame]

...but almost all the clothes (especially in the 30s and 40s period) are full on 1950s garb!! I've seen this in quite a few movies...

This also seemed to happen occasionally in early 30's films where part (or all) of the story takes place during WWI or the teens in general. For some reason only a Connie Bennett one comes to mind right now- "Born to Love" (1931).

 

[FountainPenGirl]

Just ask someone who was there

I've noted a number of people talking about the '50's and they mention the movie Grease. I realize that it is supposed to be a spoof but it really is one the most fake '50's movies there is. It is so unlike the real world of the '50's, expect for a few details, it's NOT funny. Just ask anyone who was at least a young adult in the '50's and they'll think it's stupid. This thing is so far off from what was real it's sad. If you want to get a sense of the '50's in movies watch movies that were made in the '50's.

 

[DanielJones]

We had just recently watched Crystal Skull again. The more I view it the more I like certain elements. But, I think the one thing that bugs me the most is not the Nuclear Fridge or the flying monkey Mutt in the jungle, but Mutt's ride. His bike. A classic bike lover like me noticed this error in the earliest trailer showing the bike. They built several bikes for this movie, why couldn't they have at least gotten that detail right? They got the rat rod, the military vehicles, the classic cars in the town but not the bike.

Mutt's Harley was way too glaringly modern with the HD Evo engine showing so prominently. S&S makes modern engines that have the appearance of either a flathead, a knucklehead or a panhead engine but with all of the benefits of the modern Evo V-Twin. So they could have had that classic 1940's knuckle head engine that is so tied to the look of a classic bobber like it's supposed to be and have a power plant that will over power even a crotch-rocket. They could have even hidden the disk brakes with covers to get the details right. If they could have at least done that I think I could forgive them using a swing arm frame instead of a rigid.

Anyway, that's my two cents, for what it's worth. I think the Rum Diary bike looks more the part with the classic flathead engine & would have been the better choise. Sans the side car of course.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Atomic Age]

Didn't I mention that he was wearing tails? Guess not. But thats why I found wearing a brown fedora in white tie attire wasn't correct.

Given the circumstances (giant ape distroying New York) Maybe he just grabbed the first hat that was close by.

Doug

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

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!

And at the beginning of The Right Stuff where Chuck Yeager makes his historic flight breaking the sound barrier. There's a part where the B-29 mother ship carrying Yeager's X-1 rocket plane is taxying out to the runway and there's a shot taken from the cockpit where you can see a Beech T-34 Mentor parked by one of the hangars. The first Mentor wasn't built until a year later in 1948.

Antonov An-2 "Colt" (1947)

 

[HungaryTom]

Not accurate. Right arm. Wristwatch.

Ilya Repin: Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire. This one is accurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cossacks

 

[Guttersnipe]

"Braveheart" (1995): Twice during this epic of the 13th century, a Ford van shows up briefly in the background.

Off all the inaccuracies in Braveheart, a Ford van in the background is surely the smallest...lol