Best history movie mistakes of 1955

Please vote as you browse around to help the best rise to the top.

The Far Horizons picture

Continuity mistake: Sacajawea (Donna Reed) dives into the water to retrieve some important maps, which have fallen in and been taken to the back of the boat. When she dives in, the maps are back to the original area they fell into, when they should have been quite a distance from where they landed in the water.

keiko

More The Far Horizons mistakes
The Dam Busters picture

Factual error: The system devised to get the height right was, in the film, said to have been thought of by the 617 Sqn crews following a visit to the theater. In reality it was devised by the 'boffins' at Farnborough.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: See many previously posted 'mistakes' of this type and the standard correction: this is not a documentary and never pretended to be. It is a war drama and many facts were changed to fit the action.

Those correction are often made in fallacy. Dramas based on historical accounts have liberty to change small or inconsequential things, like adding a person that may have never existed, or change a relationship for dramatic purposes. Despite not being a documentary, unless it's a fantasy film, changes in historical facts are mistakes (for example, a drama can't have the Eiffel Tower in London just because it's not a documentary).

Bishop73

Suggested correction: This was the version given in Brickhill's book. The real story wasn't published till many years after the film was made.

More The Dam Busters mistakes

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.