Opening of Band of Brothers, one of the pilots of a C-47 is wearing a modern Dave Clark headset (distinctive green). Bugs me but I still watch every moment of that great series
In Argo, the film, the 6 Americans get out of Tehran on a Swissair 747. Swissair only flew DC-10s to and from Iran in the late 70s. Otherwise a great movie but that drove me crazy.
I go cuckoo about physics problems, like there’s no way that bad guy couldn’t catch up to the hero, he’s going twice as fast and the hero has a broken ankle. Also airplane cockpits the size of living rooms.
I drive everyone around me nuts with stuff like that. Especially 80s music and anything in Chicago. I'll stop movies and go on a rant about whatever made up address being in the middle of Lake Michigan...
Yep. Also discussed in my house back in the day. And IIRC there was some movie, I think a crime film with Brian Denehy, where they took a ferry from Detroit to Chicago.
I love movies which show no understanding of (or don’t care about) the geography/culture of the place where it’s set. Fave example: Match Point, where an impoverished young man has a London apartment with a glorious view the Thames. Entire audience laughed, which I suspect wasn’t Woody Allen’s aim.
For me, it’s always the cars. I grew up in the 70s and 80s obsessed with them. Seeing a downsized Chevy in the background of a film set in 1974 takes me right out of it.
I'm sure my fellow viewers enjoy my critique of the opening of "When Harry Met Sally" as they drive through a gate on the U of C campus that's never open, pass through Hyde Park without encountering a stop sign, and proceed to head the opposite direction from where they'd need to to get to New York.
YES! In fact it was my dad complaining about that exact scene, which I should have figured on my own at the time, that planted the seed of my movie rants.
My recollection is that they're shown heading *toward* U of C, rather than away from it?
A friend and I, who grew up in Chicagoland, saw the movie together in New York City. Upon seeing that image, we simultaneously exclaimed, "They're going the wrong way!"
Yes. They started out at U of C, which is well south of downtown. They were next seen approaching downtown from the North Side. Made zero sense geographically.
I hate it when that happens. I have watched the Godfather movies way too many times. I was watching Godfather II the other day and saw ADT on the Tahoe Estat gaits. I had to see if they were a company in the '1950s...they were. Historical accuracy is important when doing historical pieces.
Die Hard II has a pay phone that said Pacific Bell on it. If you want to know where the airport scenes were filmed, here is a link. Wikipedia and its off shoots have amazing trivia.
I don't remember which film it was, but I once saw a scene in "Downtown Chicago" with street signage obviously in some Eastern European location, given the use of characters like "ž."
My wife’s an engineer deeply into retro tech who’s also pretty savvy about music so I get informed about all sorts of anachronisms when we’re watching films together 😂
I want to start spreading misinformation. There was an after credits scene that explains it’s all at a Renaissance fair. Paul Bettany walks out of a tent and congratulates Heath Ledger on a fantastic performance.
Agreed. I like the creative choice they made for A Knight's Tale that even the diegetic modern music was really just a representation of the songs the characters would actually be hearing. Worked pretty well.
I hate that. I love the tv show Young Sheldon but there is an episode where 2 of the characters are in a mall and there is Bath and Body Shop with their semi-annual sale that didn't start until the mid/late 90z and this was about '91 on the show.
The first episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was set in 1958. Her husband supposedly ripped off a Bob Newhart routine. As every Bob Newhart fan knows, his work first became known in 1960. The series was dead to me.
In Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), we see William Bligh, sailing the ship's launch to Timor, writing his latitude and longitude in his log. Fletcher Christian let him take a sextant but kept the sea watch that Bligh would have needed to determine his longitude. I love the movie anyway.
It always bugged the crap out of me that in the otherwise wonderful Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Steve Martin and John Candy enter Chicago after arriving from St Louis on the Kennedy Expressway (from the Northwest) instead of the Stevenson (from the Southwest, on I-55 which connects the cities).
As I've stated previously. Prof. Nichols' takes on the trivial, is the canary in the coal mine for me. When his #AT40 stops...things are likely becoming dire.
I was serious about the fact that it's great to get pissed over little stupid things. It takes your mind of the things happening and that's a relieve.
Help me out here: #AT40???
Every Saturday at noon EST is a Casey Kasem American Top 40 for that week from some year in the 70s, on SiriusXM 70s on 7 channel. Many of Tom's music takes & tastes are pitiful.
In ‘High Fidelity’ our hero drops the needle on first track of Springsteen’s The River to play the title track. Song is actually the final song on the side. The BBC does or did employ people to prevent anachronisms.
There must be a term for this, when a novel or screenplay set in the past includes something that didn't exist until later, including slang and other expressions.
I’m rewatching “mind hunter.” A show whose end I still mourn. They have great 1970s music and cars. The music is mostly the correct time. I had forgotten “psycho killers” came out in 1977.
I not only do that with music, but with military uniforms and hardware in movies. The M48s in "Patton" drive me insane, and even the T-34/85s in "Stalingrad" are off by a year or so.
If I remember correctly, there’s a scene in the movie Manchester by the Sea where they’re driving the wrong direction on 128 to get to their destination.
I just watched a movie set in SF and they ping ponged around the city. Turn a corner and be 3 miles away, turn another corner and be back. Cops crossing GG bridge but it was the Bay Bridge view. And they were SF cops. No bridge needed.
That’s when it was released. Tommy, but bootlegs had been around for years. The protagonist is just cooler than you can possibly imagine. He was a friend of my older brother, see…
Yes. Billboard Hot 100 music from 80-82 sounds similar except for the rare synth pop song in 1982. 83-85 sounds similar to each other. Then there's a slow change as you get more rap and heavy metal and some really, really pop songs.
The result is that 88 and 83 are easily distinguishable.
There's always going to be some blending / crossover examples from each, but the 80s being high school and college era for me means that's peak music interest period. I would lump 79 and 80 together, with 81 really split between that prior period and the more synth heavy 82-84.
Most Billboard 100 songs are terrible. They are written to appeal to the lowest common denominator so they can reach the biggest audience & make the largest amount of money possible.
As a major Queen fan, I couldn't watch Bohemian Rhapsody for the same reason. They kept playing songs at concerts that weren't on albums until years later. And the remaining members of Queen made the movie! How could they do this to me? lol
I know the feeling.
"WTF, 'Summer Of Sam'? Sure, the Talking Heads' first album with 'Psycho Killer' came out in '77, but not until December, dammit! That song can't be in the goddamn jukebox!"
I’m there anyway for the cars.
When did we stop making cars that were different from each other, had so much design, and expressed American originality?
All of our cars now look like molded plastic toys.;( no matter the manufacturer.
OMG. I just did a rant about this when I was in a Walmart Superstore parking lot. So many red cars, mid-size SUV boxes, little thingy on the roof, no grill, weird wrap-around type lights. Ours is new so I don’t know the license plate ##. I walked by until one of the look-a-likes beeped at me.
Hear me out on this. Sometimes songs are written about a time before their release. Sometimes songs released soon after their recording are about something that took place years in the past.
Wall Street made in 1987 but the film was set in 1985 (Big letters to make sure you read it). A broker played by Hal Holbrook loses his wealth from the 1986 Challenger accident. Salvador with Reagan being elected in 11/80 with Archbishop Romero murdered afterward. Romero died on 3/24/80.
I was opposed to US policy in El Salvador but I pointed this mistake out in my review of the movie. I got stupid excuses how Oliver Stone was just taking poetic license with actual events in history. I responded if you want to argue policy, how about using the truth.
YES. Especially the latter - and the younger the characters are, the more unrealistic it is. Also hate it when people are playing with a Rubik’s Cube long past its expiration date.
I was watching something set in the late 80s the other day and only of the characters said "that's swell" swell? In 1989? No way. It would've been "Totally Awesome".
100%. I'm not all that bothered by minor anachronisms in general, but I'm completely OK with non-diegetic anachronistic music that successfully matches the tone of the era.
I really feel uncomfortable when the whole movie is time-specific, but the credits roll to the latest pop-hit. That almost wrinkles me more than when it is in the movie!
I judge a little more harshly if the movie appears to be aiming for historical accuracy. If it's something like The Joker, which is set in 1981 for aesthetic rather than narrative reasons, I don't really care if they drop a 1985 song just because they liked it.
In "Little Big Man", they had Wild Bill Hickock getting killed before the Battle of the Little Big Horn. He was actually killed six weeks after LBH. I still like the movie.
Comments
Across all media types, whenever there is door in a building which leads outside the building YOU CAN SEE A GAP AT THE BOTTOM.
On the East Side of Chicago,
Back in the USA,
Back in the bad old days!
A friend and I, who grew up in Chicagoland, saw the movie together in New York City. Upon seeing that image, we simultaneously exclaimed, "They're going the wrong way!"
("Which would make more sense for her," she says with U of C alumna shade.)
As done by someone from LA.
So the whole thing is a pack of lies and you’re upset about receiving dates.
https://filminglocations.fandom.com/wiki/Die_Hard_2
Help me out here: #AT40???
https://www.theatlantic.com/author/tom-nichols/
I have the same reaction, which I think has to do with the precision required of making a confession.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCQGnVrTsAM
In "September 5", the movie about ABC Sports covering the Munich Olympics terror attack?
I noticed that the beer cans in one scene had 1980s pop tops instead of pull-tabs like they should've.
It's a sickness.
I didn't start working in television until 1988 but it appeared to me that they generally got the early 1970s technology right in that film.
Guess who's a demented MAGA now?
Authenticity matters.
80, 81-84, 85-87, 88-90 are quite distinguishable.
The result is that 88 and 83 are easily distinguishable.
"WTF, 'Summer Of Sam'? Sure, the Talking Heads' first album with 'Psycho Killer' came out in '77, but not until December, dammit! That song can't be in the goddamn jukebox!"
When did we stop making cars that were different from each other, had so much design, and expressed American originality?
All of our cars now look like molded plastic toys.;( no matter the manufacturer.
Signed,
A gal born in 1963
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_set_in_1974
If not, why should it matter when the song was released...?
I really feel uncomfortable when the whole movie is time-specific, but the credits roll to the latest pop-hit. That almost wrinkles me more than when it is in the movie!