BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter

Subject: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 06:02 AM

Small errors in films, books, &c ~~ do they matter? Or bother you?

Just one example to go on with ~ perhaps others will be provided. ITV's Poirot series based on Agatha Christie's stories, and starring the admirable David Suchet in that magnificently tongue-in-cheek yet convincing characterisation, took great pains, generally successfuly, to get the right period atmosphere with the clothes, hairstyles, art-deco dwellings of the wealthier characters, &c. But I was, perhaps inordinately, bugged in watching a repeat episode not long ago, to find that it featured LMS trains from the North bound for Kings Cross: when, as even a [old-enuf] fule kno, the LMS [London Midland Scottish] London termini were Euston or St Pancras, while Kings Cross was the terminus of the LNER [London and North-Eastern Railway].

Does it matter? Did it bother you (or would it have done if you had seen it)? While spending that much money, should they research everything really carefully, and avoid misleading, even if minor, historical boo-boos?

Or is it not worth even a second's attention?

What you think?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Leadfingers
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 06:22 AM

Always good for a giggle when something silly crops up - like Vapour trails in Westerns , and Roman Sodiers wearing wristwatches !

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:01 AM

Yes. It should be right.

There was an HTV Robin Hood in which his merrie men wearing loincloths dropped out of trees ambushing the sheriff's men to reveal underpants.

And the famous pylons in whichever the film of whichever Shakespeare it was.

I get very cross at cars that had not been built at the time!

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:06 AM

Was it an Urban Myth, or was there really a red lorry parked at the side during the chariot race in Ben Hur? If so, what a scream! I do hate it when film versions change the details of much-loved classics, eg Pride & Prejudice. Mr Darcy never did go swimming in his shirt sleeves and emerge dripping wet to greet Miss Bennett. (nice fantasy though)You're quite right, MtheGM, and I have to admit to having travelled as a girl up to Durham on the old LNER steam trains from King's Cross many a time with my parents. The noise of the steam escaping from about ten engines on all the platforms terrified me.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: nickp
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:18 AM

And on the same theme, the excellent Murder on the Orient Express at Christmas... I'm sure that was a BR Standard being used. Surely there's enough preserved continental locos in the UK?

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:22 AM

MtheGM has been reading up on Sneaky Questions?

John

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:24 AM

Railway scenes are almost always wrong but the usual punter doesn't seem to mind.
On the other hand how would they react to seeing a Morris Minor amongst the horse drawn cabs in a Sherlock Holmes film? It's the same magnitude of error.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:33 AM

It does matter to me that attention to detail be given as much as is possible for films or programs at the cinema or on tv. Unless it is complete fantasy like the recent new Clash of the Titans with the Ozzie accents which does sound slightly funny and then they put Pete Postewaite who does the best he can, acting really well, as he does. It is entertaining to see errors and outtakes but there are enough special programs that feature the mistakes already.

With books it all depends on if the reader wants something factually informative or just light-hearted reading not to be taken too seriously. Good spelling in reading books should be important to show good example especially to young people who might pick it up to read and think that it is the correct way. If it is copying a dialect I don't have a problem with that.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 08:07 AM

There is a confusing bit in A. S. Byatt's Possession, where she started writing a long excerpt from a diary, then forgot it was a diary entry and started writing about what was going to happen later, after the diary was supposed to have been written.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Green Man
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 08:23 AM

I love them, continuity errors, blatant logic outpoints in adverts and I drive my missus nuts pointing them out. Mind you she ususally figures out who done wht in the thrillers we watch so its fair I guess.

They do matter, they add to the fun. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 08:49 AM

Topsie: Yes, A S Byatt is another in my collection. In her Still Life, a young woman asks her university tutor when it is convenient to call on him, and he says he is available every day between 4·30 & 6 p.m. A few days, and a few chapters, later, she calls on him accordingly, & at the end of her interview he invites her to stay for lunch. I wondered if anyone else in the world had ever noticed this.

And in one of Elaine Feinstein's novels, Mother's Girl, the timeline is such that a girl who is 4 in 1938 is still at school at the time of the Hungarian revolution, when she would have been 22.

There is the famous incident in Lord Of The Flies when Piggy's spectacles are used to focus the sun's rays to light a fire, which, as he was short-sighted, they would not have done.

& so on...

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:00 AM

In Philip Larkin's novel, Jill, the young man meets her when she arrives at Oxford station and the description says she is wearing a hat. A few pages later he is thinking about why he finds her attractive, including the fact that she doesn't wear a hat.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:03 AM

Have you ever noticed in TV programmes like Poirot - where vintage cars/buses/lorries have been procured - they're always spotlessly clean - as if! No matter what the weather, no matter what the road conditions are. And never a dent or a speck of rust.

It's always interesting to recognise a location which is actually miles away from the spot in which the drama is supposed to be set. 'Foyle's War' - which I love to death - actually uses only a very few real locations in its Hastings setting. Foyle's house is one of them, but not much else.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:13 AM

One of the examples which has always annoyed me inordinately occurred right at the beginning of that famous 1981 tv adaptaton of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. It started with Captain Ryder saying "Good morning, Sergeant-Major" to a soldier wearing the insignia of a Colour-Sergeant. One can see how the error happened: three stripes on the upper arm are the insignia of a sergeant; the officer ranked major wears a crown on his shoulder. So the unaware might think that a crown above three stripes signify a sergeant-major; but not so: they are a colour-sergeant or staff-sergeant, depending on the regiment. A Company Sergeant-Major [which this one was supposed to be] wears a crown on his forearm.

Important? Well, they spent literally millions on this series, including the services, acc to the credits, of a military adviser; so what was he doing for his money, eh?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:19 AM

The opening scenes of Shogun made me crazy. You can clearly see a helicopter's shadow on the water as it panned the ship. Every episode opened with a helicopter. ARGHHHH!

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:20 AM

In Foyle's War, the Honeysuckle Weeks character belongs to what appears to be an arm of the service which never existed. My sister actually was an ATS driver during WWii; and I am sure that there was never a single instance of one of them being seconded to drive a member of the civilian police.

Still, she looks lovely in that uniform, doesn't she?

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 10:04 AM

The whole ATS-to-Police thing in Foyle's War is, of course, ludicrous. And I love they way she's just able to hop back and forth between them when told to. And didn't Sgt. Milner recover quickly from having the bottom half on one leg amputated after the Norway disaster? He runs around like a good-un at times!

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 10:35 AM

Does the steam train travellng along the horizon in El Cid count as a small error?
Or the public hanging scene in Burke and Hare (Hammer version), when the cloak of one of the extras flapped open, revealing a folded copy of The Daily Mirror?
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 10:49 AM

I love the bit in 'Charlie & Louise - Da Doppelte Löttchen' (1993 German remake of the original of 'The Parent Trap') where the girls are on the Jacobite Express heading over the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Not much point seeing they were headed to a language school north of Dingwall, so they'd just have to turn round at Mallaig.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 10:51 AM

They matter when they distract you from the story.

It's fun to read what IMDb.com has to say about any movie. I usually check it out after I have seen a film, to avoid reading anything that will spoil it for me. I especially like to read the "goofs" section, which contains comments by viewers who have noticed inconsistencies like the one you described.

It's definitely a mixed blessing to have the kind of knowledge that enables you to spot mistakes in a movie. I remember when I first became aware of this. In 1965, as a college student, I saw "Lord Jim" with a fellow student who had grown up in India, and had traveled extensively in Southeast Asia. A major plot point of the movie involves a ship loaded with Muslim pilgrims en route to Mecca. My friend whispered to me, "Those [extras] are Sikhs." He could tell by the way they dressed. Later in the film, he said "That's a Cambodian village." I think the locale was supposed to be Indonesia or Malaysia. Obviously, most American (and, I suppose, British) viewers wouldn't know the difference.

Here's one that bugged me: In "The Reader" reading and writing are important to the plot. We see several close-ups of printed text and handwriting. It is all in English, although the story takes place in Germany and it logically should be German. Now, this is just artistic convention; it shouldn't matter to us any more than the fact that the actors speak English. But once you accept a convention like this, you expect it to be applied consistently. So it bothered me when I saw a police car marked "POLIZEI."

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 10:58 AM

I always wondered why, in 'Auf Wiedersehn, Pet', all the Dusseldorf taxis and police cars had Hamburg licence plates.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:38 AM

Surely every inveterate reader has noticed that books are no longer edited for grammar, spelling or content. I have given up being bothered by it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Bert
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:52 AM

It's the architecture that gets me. How many times do you see elliptical and cycloidal arches in films that take place long before they were invented. Almost every film about Ancient Greece or Rome will have them.

These goofs bring you right back to reality and spoil the film completely.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 12:29 PM

Something that made me laugh when seeing the heavy movie 'The Towering Inferno': A closeup of Steve McQueen's face clearly showed - amidst all the soot and grime - his ear channel, completely clean.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST,999
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 12:56 PM

It`s used incorrectly really bothers me. That`s about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 03:07 PM

It depends. If the gaffe is really that noticeable that it pulls you out of your reverie, it is annoying. The occasional contrail in the sky probably not; Adidas shoes worn wit a toga, almost certainly. Current idiom used Victorian England, definitely.

Two series of books come to mind as poorly written:

John Jakes' Revolutionary War series of 35 years ago, which gave the reader (me anyway) no sense of time and place. I didn't even get through the first volume; I admit to liking the TV series of THE BASTARD slightly more, probably because of the visual aspect.

Another series under the umbrella title CHILDREN OF THE LION, covers the Book of Genesis, without any hint of religious impetus. Further, the events could have taken place yesterday, for all the description the authors (multiple authors writing as Peter Danielson)provide.

None of those books--and I think they had the same paperbck publisher--had the quality of writing as even TARZAN of the APES; Burroughs used a wonderfully large vocabulary, and wrote in complex sentences which keep the reader interested.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: gnu
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 03:54 PM

Ebbie... 'The Towering Inferno'... I watched the "original movie" in a structural engineering class at uni. The fire was started by loose aluminum wire fasteners on an air conditioning unit in an office tower (19th floor I seem to recall). It was horrific but totally accurate. One of my classmates vomited. Kinda sends the message home about what it means to wear an Iron Ring.

Does that movie start out with a shot of a helicopter flying along a river? and then change to a shot of the river valley from the chopper?

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 07:22 PM

How about when the Truman balcony shows up in pictures of the White House when the time frame is pre Truman?
Or pictures of cap and ball rifles in revolutionary war scenes?
I also notice when a scene is say, 1932 and you see a 1938 car.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: josepp
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 08:02 PM

I remember a US movie called "Gung-Ho" where an American baseball team plays a Japanese team. With the score tied in the 9th, a batter on the American team hits an infield pop-up. As the Japanese shortstop camps it under ready to catch it, an American baserunner deliberately plows him over, circles 3rd base and scores. Hooray! The Americans win!! The problems is, of course, that the baseball rulebook clearly states that a runner cannot touch an infielder in the act of making a play or the runner is out. Even if the fielder backs into him as he's running and he tries his best to avoid him, doesn't matter. The runner is out. Yet nobody on either team seems to know this rule. Without that rule, baseball would look like hockey. Real umpires must have been watching that yelling, "WHAT?????" Not to mention that the Japanese actors in the movie spoke very slow Japanese with an accent!! Imagine watching a foreign movie where the English guy can barely put two English words together and even then you can barely understand his very un-English accent.

In some made-for-TV movie, these people in 1870s America are at a political speech and a band starts playing a strain of Joplin's "The Entertainer" which wasn't published until 1902.

In "The Titanic" you can see the ocean and the ship perfectly well at night. Trust me, out of the ocean, you can hardly see your hand in front of your face even with the moon out. You can't see it at all when the moon isn't out. There's no way you can see that much on the ocean at night as in the movie.

Likewise, why do they always show people crawling through ventilator shafts that:

a) Are shiny aluminum on the inside when within a week they are covered with thick black dust that feels like greasy fur.

b) You can see where you're going when you can't see shit even if you had a flashlight because everything is black.

c) They never encounter a ventilation fan motor in their way nor does a fan ever seem to kick on while they are crawling around in there.

d) What ordinary building has ducts big enough to crawl around in? The ones I crawled around in were for ventilating a big boilerroom on a ship that had to suck out a large volume of hot air on a continuous basis so the space wouldn't get too hot for human habitation. No ordinary building would have anything like that and it wouldn't take the weight of a human being inside it either.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: mousethief
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 08:20 PM

It rather ruins the moment for me if I am caught up in a movie and something jarring occurs that knocks me out of the "willing suspension of disbelief" and makes me think about the movie as an artifact, rather than the story it's telling. It's hard to get back into it after that point.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 10:48 PM

Agreed, mousethief ~~ indeed, it was the disproportionate [?] effect that so often occurs that inspired me to open this thread in the first place.

Another thing that bugged me watching the Poirot repeats ~~ one of them opened with a newsreel with sound, supposedly in 1926.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: frogprince
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:21 PM

One that just made me smile a bit, rather than really bothering me: "Gunsmoke" was set just after the civil war. One of the older actresses, cast as a toothless, feisty old female recluse, came riding across the prarie in her buckboard singing "Strawberry Roan".
On the off chance that anyone here doesn't know, Curley Fletcher wrote "Strawberry Roan", probably just as a poem originally, in or about 1913.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: mousethief
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:40 PM

What about "Sweet Betsy from Pike"?

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:41 PM

The Japanese planes in "Tora Tora Tora" were meant to look like Zeros (fighters), Vals (dive bombers), and Kates (torpedo and level bombers). Since there was not a single genuine Kate or Val left in the world in flying condition, and only maybe one early model Zero around that could still fly...the movie company understandably had to come up with something else, so they modified a large number of common American training planes to look like these 3 WWII Japanese planes...and they did a fairly good job at it. The Vals looked particularly good, the Kates not too bad (though a bit too small and chunky), and the Zeros not too bad...until you noticed their wings which were totally the wrong shape when seen from above or below! Also, their landing gear were much too short and stubby. Other than that, the movie company went to great efforts to make an accurate historical movie.

One can hardly blame them for using the training planes. They had to do scenes involving large formations of Japanese aircraft, both on the carrier decks and in the air, and they didn't have CGI in those days, so they did the very best they could with modified training planes, and most of the public wouldn't know the difference anyway.

But if you knew the original planes well, as I and other hobby and aviation enthusiasts do...then it was kind of frustrating seeing those inaccuracies in the aircraft. As for the American planes, they did a fine job with that. All in all, it was a pretty accurate and authentic depiction of the Pearl Harbour raid.

The more recent film, "Pearl Harbour", was full of CGI planes that flew impossible aerobatics but looked perfect (other than a few cases of incorrect camouflage on the early Zeroes). On the other hand, every single other thing about that movie outside of the special effects SUCKED!!! Terrible script. Dreadful acting. Laughable dialogue. Wretched drama. I'll take "Tora Tora Tora" any time, even with its not-quite-authentic Japanese aircraft.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: josepp
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 11:46 PM

I was watching NCIS at someone's house last Sunday and they're inside a Navy sub looking for an enemy agent. Biggest damn sub I ever saw. A real sub is so cramped and tiny that a 6'4" 220 lb guy is going to have trouble finding anywhere to stand fully erect or lay down and stretch out and if you walk towards one another in a passageway, one of you will have to get out of the passageway because there isn't enough room to sidle past each other. I mean, it's cramped! A regular ship is cramped as hell but that's nothing compared to a sub. But on this NCIS episode, they miraculously had all kinds of room. They tried to make it look cramped but it was actually still far more spacious than a real sub.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: frogprince
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 12:03 AM

Josepp, are you familiar at all with anything like the nuclear Polaris class subs? I didn't see the NCIS episode, but the Polaris subs were markedly more spacious than earlier "conventionals".

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: josepp
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 12:12 AM

No, they're not. When a sub is made bigger, the crew still gets the same amount of room as before and it is always minimal--no more than absolutely necessary. Military ships aren't built for comfort. Comfort costs money. Unless you absolutely need it, you ain't gettin' it.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: mousethief
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 12:18 AM

Although when I was in the NROTC I remember tying up alongside a carrier, and being absolutely floored that the ladders were at a 45º angle! They were staircases!

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 01:13 AM

I guess I'll always remember the German crime novel ('Krimi') that made mention of the salt water of Lake Michigan.

I enjoy the books of Chicago Catholic priest/novelist Andrew Greeley....BUT he has very poor proofreading and a few deus ex machina plot resolutions that really bother me. Also, he has a nasty habit of mentioning electronic equipment by brand name, almost as if he had been paid product placement fees. I really don't care what brand of computer the heroine uses....

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 01:48 AM

Regarding a few comments above about scenes that should be completely black in which the actors (and often the viewers) see "too well," it might be noted that for some time many "dark of night" scenes have been shot in broad daylight, using an infrared or similar "dark" filter on the camera.

One photographer explained the popularity of the method as "most professional actors are so incredibly clumsy they'd kill themselves floundering around in actual darkness."

One might suspect that it's also handy for the crews working the scene to be able to see ... maybe. The real incentive probably is to get the work done without waiting for "the right light" - or the right lack of same.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST,Donal
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 02:03 AM

Joe, you are being unduly generous to Fr. Andrew Greeley, his proofreading is not poor, it's
atrocious, I gave up reading his books some years ago because of all the mistakes, and for someone
who apparently visited Ireland regularly he seemed to see it as it was about two or three generations
ago. An extraordinary proportion of the people seem to speak Gaelic, even in Dublin. His
characters always seemed to fly from the US to Ireland via London instead of going direct to Shannon
or Dublin, and even though they were only in transit they often had some sort of a run-in with
British Customs or Immigration. I could go on, but what's the point.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 02:46 AM

Ah, Donal, but Greeley's stories are fun, and they're quick reads. And every now and then, he offers some good insights. Priestly Sins offered good, honest insights into the child molestation problem. In Greeley's Nuala Anne McGrail books, the characters seem to fly from Chicago direct to Shannon or Dublin. Greeley's main characters, Blackie Ryan and Nuala Anne McGrail, are quite engaging, albeit sometimes a bit too good to be true.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 04:16 AM

"What about "Sweet Betsy from Pike"?" ==

Well, what about it, mousethief?

Josepp on subs reminds me of the old [1941?] film of How Green Was My Valley ~~ the Welsh miner's cottage with a living room as big as the one you'd find in a Park Lane house or a 5th Avenue apartment!

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 04:34 AM

One of the worst films that I ever saw was 'Educating Rita' with Michael Caine and Julie Walters. The Walters character (Rita), in the film, was supposed to be doing an Open University degree. I happened to be in the middle of an OU degree course when I saw the film and the fictional course bore no resemblance, whatsoever, to the reality. Although the standard of teaching that I received was generally excellent the idea that a student would have regular one-to-one tuition from her tutor, in his private office, was utterly ridiculous!

The acting in the film was OK but the script was 'make-it-up-as-you-go-along' rubbish. I lost the will to live when Rita's 'working class' family had a hearty 'singaround' in the pub - a scene that, if it ever existed at all, was straight out of the 1930s.

Finally, the setting - which was supposed to be a northern English industrial city - bugged me. It didn't look like any English city that I knew. Eventually I learned that the film was shot in Dublin - which looks like the capital of Ireland (and a fine capital city it is) - not Liverpool or Manchester!

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: JennieG
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 06:19 AM

The Hercule Poirot series is currently being re-run here and I don't think it is up to the usual standard of such programs - a few too many errors that really annoy me. One is the speech of the characters, in several instances they use idioms which seem out-of-character - an upper-crust person using a slang expression, for example. Now while upper crust folks have no doubt gone slumming from time to time and picked up the lingo, it's when it is used by an unlikely character.....say, an elderly lady......that it doesn't ring true.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 06:34 AM

I quite enjoy looking for anachronisms and other errors in films, particularly architecture that is wrong for the supposed location.

I believe that aircraft in most war films are later models as there are seldom surviving examples of the actual combat aircraft. Not being an aircraft buff I don't notice that.

In first of the revived Doctor Who shows the Doctor and Rose are shown running over Westminster Bridge with night buses running past. Rose phones her mother who is shopping.

Also in Doctor Who the "London" street scenes are often shot around Cardiff and the architecture is just wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 09:55 AM

There was always 'Hamish Macbeth' where they all stood waving goodbye to characters driving away through Plockton, oblivious to the fact that at the top of Harbour Street they'd have to turn round and come all the way back down again.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: jacqui.c
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 10:36 AM

I never seem to pick up on the mistakes - get too caught up in the stories.

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: mousethief
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 11:09 AM

"What about "Sweet Betsy from Pike"?" ==

Well, what about it, mousethief?

Is it old enough that she could have been singing it in that movie?

Subject: RE: BS: Do small errors in books, film &c matter
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 11 Feb 11 - 01:11 PM

"A Hard Day's Night:"

The boys are on a train, and an upper-class, stodgy businessman-type enters their compartment. After some interaction, the boys leave, and then are seen, running along beside the train, tapping on the window and shouting, "May we have our ball back, please?"

And the train is going the other way from when they just left the compartment. Not to mention that the windows would be far higher than the roadbed, making tapping on them rather difficult. And further not to mention that a train running so slowly that boisterous young men could keep up with it and tap on the (too-high) windows would be as slow as the infamous "Dummy Line" of song.

Other'n that, a good film. I'm sure there were other goofs, too -- I just didn't notice them.

But, to answer your question, this did not detract from this particular film.

Bob