The Flicks

One of my pet peeves is historical accuracy in movies. Let me give a few small examples.

Last night I finally saw "Leatherheads", a film set in 1925. The troubles start right away with John Krasinski's character who is a college football star and Great War hero. So, what is the problem? Well, it's 1925 and he's still got a year left in college. He also dropped out of college, enlisted in the army in WWI and fought at the battle of Argonne Forest (fall of 1918). Okay, so he was already in college before WWI? That means he had at least one year in college before going to war, he still has one year left in 1925 and he has at least 5-6 years in between since most Great War vets were discharged in 1919. A 7-8 year college football career? C'mon.

Then we have Renee Zelweger's character who sports this doo. But in 1925, stylish women sported this doo. What Renee has going on there is a Lana Turner special from 1940's (20 years after the fact). In addition, half the men in the film are wearing snap-brim fedoras. Nice touch but again, the broad snap-brims didn't come into their own until 1940's.

Finally, the team has a black player. There aint no way in the 1920's. So, the country is biggoted (according to Hollywood blowhards) and doesn't want to deal with reality but when they make a film based in a particular time and place (1925 in the Midwest) they totally skip over real racism as though its not there.

So why do I think this is important?  Well, the screenplay was supposedly written by George Clooney but it demonstrates a lack of historical knowledge and basic mathematics. Also, these folks spent buku bucks on this film but seem to be totally uniterested in the details. Sound familiar?

These are the types of geniuses that lecture us on politics and public policy.

Comments

[Mike E]

If you're interested in that sort of thing check out moviemistakes.com

[Garrett]

Thanks Mike I'll check it out.

[John]

beaucoup?

[Garrett]

John,

"Wi!" in France or "buku" as they say in the 'Nam.