Revealing mistake: During the long tracking shot at Dunkirk, steadicam operator Peter Robertson had a little assistance in getting around. This took the form of a kind of golf cart (from the beginning to just after shooting the horses), and later a rickshaw (from little after the choir to just before the steps ascending the billets). If you look at the ground to the left just as the camera begins backing away from the carousel, you can see tracks in the sand made by the rickshaw. Keep watching the sand near the actors' feet to see more.
Atonement (2007)
1 revealing mistake - chronological order
Directed by: Joe Wright
Starring: James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, Brenda Blethyn, Ailidh Mackay, Julia West
Factual error: Near the beginning of the film before James McAvoy heads up to the house for the evening meal, he is seen looking up through a skylight when a Lancaster bomber slowly flies overhead. At the time it was was supposed to be 1935. The Lancaster bomber did not fly until the beginning of 1941. Can't be an Avro Manchester either, they only had two engines and first flew in 1939.
Briony Tallis, aged 13: Cee?
Cecilia Tallis: Yes?
Briony Tallis, aged 13: Why don't you talk to Robbie anymore?
Cecilia Tallis: I do. We just move in different circles, that's all.
Trivia: In the DVD commentary, Director Joe Wright reveals a lucky fluke that got caught on camera during the scene just before Robbie (James McAvoy) discovers the school girls massacre. At the point where he removes his helmet, the weather was cloudy. As he looks up the sky, the sun started shining, and then got cloudy again the moment he put his head down.
Question: The scene with Briony and the French soldier made absolutely no sense to me. They seem to go back and forth from knowing each other well, to having just met. What exactly am I missing?
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Answer: Briony was just told by her superior to hold the French soldier's hand because he was dying. The French soldier was delirious and most likely confused her with another English girl whom he knew in the past. Since he was dying, Briony decided to play along and pretended that she was that girl. While this exchange is happening, though, Briony experiences something else as well. She sees the soldier as being like Robbie which is why I think she has such a strong reaction to him. When she tells the soldier "I love you" it is like her speaking to Robbie.