When Lahood's men decide to confront the preacher in the general store, 5 or 6 of them break in and proceed to empty their Colts. In an age where black powder was the norm, some 30-36 weapon discharges would have created so much smoke that no one would have been able to see anything. [While true, this is a film convention, not a mistake. Reputedly Clint Eastwood tried black powder guns on Unforgiven but changed his mind, given that the audience wouldn't be able to see anything happening on the screen. Same with Pale Rider - better to have a small historical inaccuracy than a film nobody can see.]Pale Rider (1985) - 5 corrections
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When Lahood's men decide to confront the preacher in the general store, 5 or 6 of them break in and proceed to empty their Colts. In an age where black powder was the norm, some 30-36 weapon discharges would have created so much smoke that no one would have been able to see anything. [While true, this is a film convention, not a mistake. Reputedly Clint Eastwood tried black powder guns on Unforgiven but changed his mind, given that the audience wouldn't be able to see anything happening on the screen. Same with Pale Rider - better to have a small historical inaccuracy than a film nobody can see.] At the final showdown with Stockburn, the Preacher wields a cap-and-ball New Model Army Remington that requires a cylinder change to reload. Why does he have a gunbelt full of cartridges? They are not for the sheriff's model colt in his waistband..that was a .32 caliber, and was seldom converted due to a lack of available cartridges. [Seldom does not mean never. The scenario is unlikely but not impossible, and therefore not a film mistake.] On several occasions during the film, one hears the sound effects of cartridges being ejected from revolvers, then reloaded. However, the revolvers carried by every character in the film appear to be of the "cap and ball" variety, which do not take cartridges and take MUCH longer to reload. [The sounds we hear are of the whole cylinder being changed (as Clint visibly does at the very end), and a pre-filled cylinder would take far less time to pop in than six individual "charges".] In the scene where Eastwood beats up the baddies with a 'good piece of hickory,' he tells the guy with the lighted match that he shouldn't play with matches. Then he throws a bucket of water over the baddie, soaking him, but the match remains lit. [Since they actually did that on the set, and that is what happened, there is no film mistake. The water missed the match. Unusual, noteworthy, but obviously possible.] Towards the end of the film, Preacher is confronted with the task of having to outwit and kill each of Stockburn's deputies in the town. During the scene when Stockburn tells his deputies to spread out and find the Preacher, keep a close eye on the deputy positioned immediately to Stockburn's right. His foot slips on a patch of ice as he steps forward and, for a split second, the actor loses his balance slightly. [People do slip on ice. ]You may also like: The Outlaw Josey Wales | Unforgiven | Titanic | Happy Gilmore | The Good, the Bad and the Ugly