Character mistake: Mainly in Old West films, actors who are portraying barbers very frequently sharpen their straight-razors the wrong way, flipping the blade with its sharp edge against the strop. This would instantly dull and damage the razor's edge. No real barber would make such a clumsy mistake, but it's a common movie error.
Charles Austin Miller
17th Dec 2018
Common mistakes
12th Aug 2017
Auto Focus (2002)
Character mistake: Although great care was taken to duplicate Bob Crane's distinctive hairstyle for Greg Kinnear, Bob Crane's hair was actually parted on the left. The makeup department for this film parted Greg Kinnear's hair on the right, producing a mirror-image of Bob Crane's hairstyle.
6th Apr 2017
Steel (1997)
Character mistake: When John Henry Irons is arrested, two police officers lay him face-down in order to zip-tie his wrists behind his back. A close-up of Irons' hands, however, reveals that the zip-tie only wraps around his right wrist while crossing about mid-way on his left thumb, meaning that he could easily remove his left hand from the restraint with very little effort. Arresting police officers would never make this mistake in real life.
3rd Feb 2016
Jaws (1975)
Character mistake: Chief Brody and Hooper go to the wharf to dissect a large tiger shark and examine the contents of its stomach. Finding nothing unusual, Hooper recommends they go offshore that night to search for the real killer shark because "he's a night feeder." Coming from a marine biologist, that remark really makes no sense. Hooper knew that, in addition to eating Chrissie the midnight swimmer, the shark also ate Pippin (the black Labrador retriever) and the Kintner boy in the middle of the day at a public beach. Based on all available evidence, the shark was no more likely to feed at night than in broad daylight.
Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.
Suggested correction: The statement is correct, the shark was a night feeder, as opposed to just being a day feeder, meaning the shark will likely be hunting at night.
Again, given all the evidence (including the daytime attacks), Hooper had no more reason to suspect the shark was a night feeder than a day feeder.
Except that's not what the conversation was about, he wasn't speculating on whether the shark was more likely to attack during the day or the night. He simply states they should go out at night to find the real shark responsible for the attacks because that shark will be feeding at night as well (and by going out at night they wouldn't have to face the daytime crowd). If he made an statement such as "the shark isn't a day feeder" or "the shark is strictly a night feeder", those statements could be considered mistakes.
Even when Chrissie was killed at night and two men later on in the movie tried to catch the shark for the reward...at night?
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