La Bamba (1987) - 10 mistakes

Factual error: Near the end of the movie, a DJ announces over the air that the crash had occurred that killed Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson (commonly known as "The Big Bopper"), and Ritchie Valens. The DJ then plays the Santo & Johnny tune "Sleep Walk" as a tribute to the lost musicians. The crash occurred on Feb 3, 1959 (and one would assume the radio news announcement was within 24 hours of the crash). The song "Sleep Walk" was not released until July 1959.

Continuity: In the scene when Bob takes Ritchie to "get laid", Bob approaches the girl in the pink dress at the end of the row, while Ritchie goes to play La Bamba. You see Ritchie play La Bamba and in the background Bob is all over that girl. The next shot cuts to Bob just arriving at the girl.

Factual error: The scene where Bob finds the discarded animation cels of Woody Woodpecker, Buzz Buzzard etc., is shown to take place at Columbia studios (Where La Bamba was produced.) Actually, these Walter Lantz characters appeared in cartoons that were produced by Universal Studios.

Audio problem: Near the beginning of the movie there is a scene where Bob is talking to Connie and having the discussion about "honest" money. He grabs Connie's arm, hands her the wad of money and says "We're getting out of this s**thole tomorrow." But he is mouthing the words: "We're getting out of this *crap*hole tomorrow."

Audio problem: When Ritchie is playing in the country bar, Bob's drumming is inconsistent with the drum sounds.

Plot hole: In the scene where Ritchie appears at a pizza party sponsored by a local radio station, his manager Bob Keane is handing out copies of Ritchie's first album. In reality, the album had not been released until April 1959, two months after Ritchie's death. As the actual LP includes his biggest hit "Donna", Ritchie had not yet recorded (or even composed) the song in this part of the movie until a few scenes later.

Continuity: In the scene where Ritchie's brother lays down next to him in his bed, the covers are down to Ritchie's stomach whenever they show him in a solo shot, but are pulled up almost to his neck when the shot shows both brothers together. In the next solo shot of Ritchie, the covers are back near his stomach again.

Factual error: The calendar in Richie Valens' mother's kitchen is wrong. The calendar is open on October 1957. That year Oct 1 was a Tuesday and the movie calendar has it as a Wednesday.

Continuity: When Ritchie is driving, it shows the speedometer at 80 mph, but in the wider shot he's obviously going much slower. You can tell by how fast the lines on the street are going past.

Continuity: When Donna and Ritchie are riding in Donna's convertible they're going relatively fast, but Donna's hair is hardly blowing at all.