Cold Mountain (2003) - 25 mistakes

Revealing: Near the end of the movie, after Jude Law has been shot, he is lying on his back with Nicole Kidman leaning over his face. In the shot looking up at Kidman past Law's left ear, you can see the webbing for Law's wig on his left temple.

Factual error: In the scene where Inman is helping build the church he is handed modern pre-cut lumber. This product was not introduced until the middle of the 20th century.

Factual error: Women of rural areas in 1864 did not shave their legs to the extent shown throughout the movie. For example, when Inman is seduced by the man's wife and when he's having sex with Ada, you'll notice both women are very clean shaven. Even if they had shaved, they didn't have such precise shaving tools back then.

Factual error: In the scene where Inman encounters some runaway slaves on a road passing through a cornfield (the scene where he offers to buy an egg from them for a dollar), the road itself is a modern farm track rather than a road or track from the civil war period.

Factual error: In the third chapter of the movie, as the Union soldiers run into the Crater, they are flying the fifty-star American flag which is not the correct flag for the time period. The flag, if it is counting all states, even Confederate states at that time, should have 35 stars. A star for West Virginia, which seceded from Virginia during the American Civil War, was added to the flag in 1863.

Visible crew/equipment: During the scene when Inman is ploughing his lone furrow he is not quite alone. In the final shot, when he is in the foreground and Ada is playing the piano on the horse-drawn wagon in the background, a pair of hands and arms can be seen at the left hand edge of the screen guiding the horse which is pulling the plough.

Audio problem: During the scene where Ada and her father are talking about the farm, and how they will manage come winter, Ada says : ...."But with no-one left to work this place, nothing to buy, nothing to buy it with".... her mouth only starts moving to what she is saying half way through the sentence. (Seen on video).

Continuity: Inman is watching Ada through her window while there is a party going on. When there is a shot of Inman's face, you can see a reflection in the window of Ada putting her hand on her father's shoulder. Then it cuts to Ada's father who is standing alone.

Continuity: When Inman says I'll marry you 3 times, Ada's hair around his ear keeps switching between shots from messy to neat behind his ear.

Other: When the home guard are trying to force the Swanger boys out of hiding by crushing Sally Swanger's fingers in the fence, it appears to be only her fingertips that they've trapped. Yet when Ruby and Ada come to help her (a couple of scenes later), as they pull the fence up, the majority of her fingers come out from the fence.

Factual error: At the Battle of the Crater, the Union troops charge into the crater as soon as the explosion ends. However, according to historians' accounts, upon reaching the crater, the troops suddenly halted, and only charged into the crater almost a half hour after the explosion.

Factual error: A black Union soldier is shown fighting in the crater near the start of the film. In reality there were thousands of black Union troops who fought that day but none was in the crater. The Union army was racially segregated, so he would not have been there as part of a white unit.

Continuity: In the scene after the battle at Petersburg, Inman is guiding his wounded young friend out of the crater back to their camp. Next to the road to the camp you see several big piles of dead Union soldiers, probably to show how bad the battle turned out for them. But wouldn't it be logical if the Confederate soldiers first saved their own wounded soldiers, and only then arranged the bodies of their dead enemies? Inman was very concerned about his young friend and was still in good state after the battle, surely he would have gotten him out a lot earlier after the battle.

Factual error: The Confederate works at Petersburg include watchtowers (not used on front lines in the Civil War) and columbiads (seacoast artillery).

Revealing: Ada's nails look perfectly manicured, even when she is in the snow and Inman is dying.

Continuity: We see Oakley on a stretcher after the battle in the crater and he is talking to Inman, and then we see him in a tent (before he dies) asking Mr. Thewes to play him "something sweet". In these two scenes, the blood and mud on Oakley changes entirely. There is no reason it should change in such a short interval.

Continuity: When Ada and her father first are seen in Cold Mountain, Ada is talking to Sally and Ada's bow that ties her bonnet differs in various shots.

Revealing: When the musicians are hiding out on the mountain, "Georgia" finds a frozen deer which he proudly displays to the rest of the gang. The beast is frozen stiff which is why it doesn't flop around but it also seems suspiciously light too. I reckon an animal of the size depicted would weigh around 30 kg - no way he could've held it out in his arms like he does.

Continuity: When Inman first lays down next to Sara, his (right shoulder to us) is on top of Sara's (left shoulder to us), then it shows Sara take Inman's hand, and in the next shot, their shoulders are side by side.

Continuity: When Sara rests her head on Inman's chest, Inman's right hand is down by his side. The angle changes and his hand is on her shoulder.