Whats your favourite anachronism?

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 3:17 pm

All, heres one to test your memories - whats your favourite cinema anachronism? Something totally out of place in a war movie time- or location-wise?

No, I DON'T mean the wrong jacket or helmet or medals, RIGHT??? Those are just mistakes....

I mean something glaringly wrong that the continuity guys should have picked up on????

I'l start the ball rolling.....

Rober Shaw and Ian McShane walk out of Shaw's lovely English cottage in The Battle Of Britain.....supposedly September 1940....and theres a big obvious 1970's DOORBELL staring you in the face!

Over to you......

phylo

Tom Houlihan · Post by **Tom Houlihan** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:29 pm

I remember watching a cowboy movie one time, obviously set in the 1860-1870 time frame. During one scene when the hero was riding across the desert, you could see a contrail high in the sky overhead!

Spinechicken · Post by **Spinechicken** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:37 pm

I'll plump for another slightly obvious one, assuming it'll count, and go for the use of M48 and M60 tanks as Panzer IV's and Tigers in the Battle of the Bulge.

-SC

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:44 pm

Bridge on the River Kwai. William Holden uses a thermos flask with "Around the World in 80 Days" scenes on it. That flask came out in the same year as the movie.

- Hans

Commissar D, the Evil · Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:45 pm

Pacific War movies are notorious for showing the wrong airplane in the wrong time-frame. The continual re-use of WWII gun-camera and documentary films makes for some incredibly un-historic footage.

Best,
David

Rosselsprung · Post by **Rosselsprung** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:17 pm

The ending scene of "The Green Berets" when John Wayne walks with the Vietnamese boy into a sunset over the ocean, when in Vietnam, the sun sets on land.

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:18 pm

Richard Gere as Lancelot charging after Guinevere's out-of-control horse in First Knight.....and gallops past a telephone pole!!!

phylo

pzrmeyer2 · Post by **pzrmeyer2** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:19 pm

How about "The Big Red One"? There is a scene where the Germans are eating lunch, and there are Landsers with permed hair, feathered, long hair, and sideburns, much like the "style" current when the film was made, as opposed to when it was supposed to depict.

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:21 pm

In The Way Ahead, David Niven's rifle company is in trenches on a hill near the end - supposed to be North Africa - and the Germans attack supported by two tanks....Valentines.....

....but one blows up, and it miraculously is a PzIII wreck burning!!! Meanwhile the other Valentine - still a Valentine LMAO - backs away!

phylo

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:29 pm

Tom, that one's a bit like the legendary helicopter shadow that passes over the galleon in the title sequence of "Shogun" LOL

phylo

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:30 pm

(SC unfortunately that was an intentional one rather than a mistake, you can't use what you havent got

....or id' include the number of times griffon-engined Spitfires are used in BoB films LMAO)

Hans Knospler · Post by **Hans Knospler** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:32 pm

I've always loved the automobile in the distance of the background in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

They didn't even take it out in the special edition, quite odd...

And in Saving Private Ryan, most of the German soldiers buzz cuts. In reality, the German soldier would usually keep his hair. And if you look close, the wheels on the Tiger in the ending scenes are incorrect. They are layed out and not overlapped like the Tiger's. So I researched it and it turned out they took a T34 and tweaked it up quite a bit to look like a Tiger.

Isn't there only one original operational Tiger in the world?

Thanks
Hans Knospler

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:33 pm

There's a shot in Alexander (the new one) where the Macedonian Army is marching though the deserted wastes of the Near East.....and theres a HUGE modern town in the background!

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:36 pm

Hans thats an old trick cos 1/ the number of ex-Cuban T34s floating around the world in the '70s, and 2/ the sloping armour means you can build other stuff on top and it doesnt look too out of place. Its how they built the one for Kelly's Heroes too.

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:39 pm

Old John Wayne westerns used to be famous for these, because the studio armourers threw Colt Peacemakers at everyone....especially in Civil War period films!