I remember watching The Hurt Locker (starring Jeremy Renner), the movie is meant to depict the Iraq War in 2004 but for some reason there’s a scene where an iPod Touch (releases in 2007), XBOX 360 (releases in 2005) and Gears of War (releases in 2006) present in the barracks even though these did not exist yet. Another anachronism from this movie is when a American soldier spots an Iraqi recording him ready on uploading the footage via YouTube (the website didn’t exist yet until 2005 when the story is set in 2004).
Something that constantly grinds my gears is (main) characters being anti-slavery while the slave trade is up and running in the historical context. I assure you: most people were pro-slave or didn’t care. Being anti-slavery was an extreme political opinion and wouldn’t be considered small talk.
That reminds me of a war movie I’ve watched, when Josh Hartnett’s character said “I think WWII has just started” during the attack on Pearl Harbor. (That line is historically inaccurate).
In reality, people would just consider it the “war” (referring to the European theater) or “Jap invasion of America” marking the US entry into the conflict (the term WWII was not coined yet until after).
Reminds me of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s dying words: “I’ve been shot! Time for the First World War.”
I would pay good money to see that line uttered in a movie about the incident. Or just have characters constantly state the obvious like the audience had never heard of WW1 before.
"Gentlemen, Germany has invaded France. By God, this could become a multi year war of attrition and thousands could die!”
Make it a musical and I’m in.
Ah, the current trend of ‘second screen’ film making.
My kid’s second grade class did a short version of All Quiet on the Western Front that bizarrely included the line
World War One has begun!
Do they go to Mitchell Brook Primary School?
I need more Big Fat Quiz in my life
It’s the only thing about Christmas I look forward to these days.
Is that a fictional school where obviously fictional things happen to make us laugh, like a primary school production of a harrowing WW1 book? What’s the show?
Big Fat Quiz
Hilarious talking about WWII before the end of the conflict! At the time, WWI was called “the Great War”, surely not “part I” of anything
There’s another anachronism from that movie around 34 minutes in (during the scene where the nurses are on a transport ship heading for the hospital) as the movie is meant to be portraying 1941: you can literally see the USS Arizona memorial in the background as pictured and circled below:
It’s a nitpicky detail that made it on the final cut, since that wasn’t built until 1962 (way after the war!).
I understand that the movie is quite awful, and I haven’t seen it. Is this shot worse in motion, or did they consistently try to hide it with the handrails? If the latter, it’s not really all that bad for on-location shot.
The way I analogize to abolitionism in the US c. 1800 is to ask how society feels about veganism today. Not as a strict moral equivalence but for the level of ambivalence, mockery, and outright disdain toward freeing a group society broadly considers chattel and with so much overlap in the arguments. “It’s better for them; they’re better-cared-for here.” “Those abusive owners aren’t the majority [somehow].” “My uncle owns an ethical farm.” “The economy depends on it.” “This is the natural order.” “Might makes right.” “Where would they all go if we magically freed them all right now immediately?” Shit, one of the few I see nowadays without a direct analog to back then is “plants feel pain”, which I guess would’ve been about as analogously stupid as “industrial machinery feels pain too!”
This is going to piss some people off; fine, good even, that the point should be reinforced.
That’s my rough equivalence as well!
Highly context dependent, I guess, but the South seceded just because Lincoln was elected, even though he explicitly said he wasn’t going to end slavery, so enough people must have been talking about it to spook the slavers.
?
Yeah, in that context it would make sense, I’m mostly talking about media where it’s just dropped in to show the good morals of the character, while having no consequences of meaning outside of that
Yeah, but that’s kind of just how people are. I bitch about stuff all the time, but I don’t do shit about any of it.
The type of person who would go to Kansas or Spain is exceedingly rare.
Like in The Patriot when the British officer confronting Mel Gibson tells him his slaves will be seized, but then we find out he just has a bunch of free blacks who work for him because he’s such a damn nice guy.
This despite him being a wealthy farmer in South Carolina at a time when it was essentially impossible that he wouldn’t have owned slaves.
The character was most heavily inspired by Francis Marion
Mel Gibson in The Patriot. Guy wasn’t even born until almost 200 years later.
One I’m starting to notice become more popular due to the current culture in Hollywood; actors with obvious plastic surgery in historical settings. It’s like a continuous anachronism throughout the movie constantly breaking the fourth wall.
Teeth.
American period films almost always have the main characters with super-white gnashers.
But that’s correct.
Tooth decay was fairly rare until sugar became widely available in the 19th century with the invention of the steam powered sugar mill.
lol you said teeth and I immediately thought of the movie Teeth
A Knight’s Tale has a lot of very deliberate and very obvious anachronisms in it. But I don’t feel like they detract from the story. It felt a little out of place, but at the same time, it felt more immersive.
That, and Heath Ledger was brilliant and Alan Tudyk was hilarious.
I’m pretty sure the anachronisms in a knights tale are deliberate to give modern audiences more appreciation for the feel of things for the locals of that time period. Great movie. Always forget it’s really long though.
Dropping my favorite history/movie youtuber, History Buffs. He does a great job of dissecting movies for historical accuracy in an entertaining way.
Here he is sad (Braveheart):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojBwASARAzo
and here he is happy (Master and Commander):
Braveheart is offensively bad.
There was a little movie about the 18th century baroque composer Vivaldi. From my memory (like 20 years ago) it showed him using a modern violin bow. And the music played was from recordings using modern instruments. My area of expertise is early music so it pissed me off.
I saw a play about ancient Rome by an up and coming British playwright and one if the scenes had a clock in it.
Most westerns use that same patch of ground in Hollywood that has a vehicular track used by the film truck.
I know this is not an anachronism, but I’m still angry about Nolan’s Odyssey and how Greek soldiers DROWNED inside the horse during the first two TIDES.
TIDES. In the Mediterranean sea.I notice wardrobe and the underwear in Dirty Dancing always bothered me, it looked too modern.
