Corrected entry: Merry and Pippin drink Ent draughts in TTT and grow taller. At the end of ROTK when all the hobbits are standing together (Aragorn's crowning in Minas Tirith) Merry and Pippin are no taller than they were to start with (compare with the group shot at the Council of Elrond in FOTR as one example). Yes, Merry does say "everything's back to normal", but that's because they've had equal amounts of the draught so he's back to being the tallest. The book states the effect is the draught is permanent, and the film doesn't suggest otherwise.
Bob Blumenfeld
26th Dec 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
24th Dec 2003
Awakenings (1990)
Corrected entry: When Dr. Sayer puts on a record of an operatic aria for one of the patients, it's a 12-inch LP, but the player is turning much faster than 33 1/3 rpm.
Correction: Some 78 RPM records were 12 inches in diameter.
17th Dec 2003
M*A*S*H (1972)
Corrected entry: Throughout the series, several PA announcements are heard around camp, voiced by Sal Viscuso or Todd Susman. However, we never see anyone but Radar or Klinger manning the PA system, and as it is based in the clerk's office, it would seem odd for someone else to come in to make the announcements.
Correction: Too much of an assumption. I think this unknown soldier falls into the category I call "Invisible Characters": those people on some TV shows who are nearby, but are never seen. Among such characters are Pete's wife Gladys on December Bride, Carlton, the doorman on Rhoda, Norm's wife Vera on Cheers and, of course, Niles' wife Maris on Frasier.
2nd Dec 2003
Feeling Minnesota (1996)
Corrected entry: In the scene when Sam needs to use the phone booth and the old man won't let him, the payphone says USWest, which is not a phone company used in Minnesota. (01:01:15)
Correction: Not today, it isn't, but in 1996 it was. US West later became QWest, in 2001 or 2002.
20th Nov 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Corrected entry: The length of Gandalf's hair changes fairly regularly throughout. This is particularly noticeable in the throne room sequence in Rohan. The length ranges from a significant way down his back to close to his shoulders.
Correction: In the throne room, Gandalf's hair is initially inside his grey cloak. It falls out, and looks longer, when he removes the cloak and reveals himself as Gandalf the White.
15th Nov 2003
The Sound of Music (1965)
Corrected entry: Could some person please tell me why the the Reverend Mother is wearing a wedding ring?
Correction: Nuns are considered married to Christ.
27th Aug 2001
Fargo (1996)
Corrected entry: Minnesotans do not call Mpls/St. Paul the "Twin Cities", they just refer to them as "The Cities".
Correction: I live in the Twin Cities, and that's how I hear them referred to most of the time. "The Cities" might be more common in "Greater Minnesota" (outside Minneapolis and St. Paul), but "Twin Cities" is not unreasonable.
Corrected entry: In the part where Boromir gets hit by arrows three times, you see the first arrow hit just below his shoulder. If you look closely, you can see the second arrow hit him in the same exact place as the first, and the first arrow has somehow disappeared. In the next shot you can see one arrow in his shoulder and one lower down, even though the second arrow looked as though it hit him in the shoulder. (01:23:15)
Correction: I checked in slow motion, and the second arrow does NOT hit him in the shoulder. That arrow is already there when the second hits, although the sequence is very fast and it could seem like he jerks from the arrow already in his shoulder.
21st Mar 2002
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Corrected entry: The headline of the newspaper article spells Kidnapping as Kidnaping. (00:58:25)
Correction: My Unabridged Dictionary shows both spellings to be acceptable. See also http://www.dictionary.com/browse/kidnaping.
5th Dec 2001
Ten Commandments (1956)
Corrected entry: When the Hebrews are leaving Egypt, packed on donkeys carrying water jugs, wearing dusty sandals, the camera pans around to a blind man - wearing a watch.
Correction: I can find no evidence of a watch on the blind fellow. He does wear, on his right wrist, a leather strap, but so do the two children with him.
26th Aug 2003
Ten Commandments (1956)
Corrected entry: In the scene after Joshua has an altercation with Dathan about painting his doorpost, Joshua looks up at a crescent moon. However, it is a fact that Passover has been and still is celebrated on a full moon.
Correction: I'd like to agree with this one, but when it is celebrated and when it actually happened could be two different dates. I don't know of anything that states exactly what date in the Hebrew calendar the Tenth Plague was visited on Egypt, and celebrating it on the very-visible full moon makes for great consistency year-to-year.
This also happened when the fingers of the destroying mist on Passover night descended past a thin crescent moon. God told Moses in Exodus 12: 6 to eat and keep this first Passover on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew lunar month, so this would have been a full moon, as it still is for Passover to this very day.
7th Mar 2002
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Corrected entry: As the Rangers move out with the clutzy interpreter Upham, the veterans chastise him for saluting Capt. Miller, lest they draw the attention of German snipers to their leader. At that moment and throughout the film, "Capt. Miller" is wearing a helmet with his twin captain's bars painted in plain sight on the front, where no self-respecting sniper could possibly miss them. (00:44:00)
Correction: Whatever Capt. Miller did or did not do with his uniform, it was still unwise to salute him. A salute is much easier to spot than an inch-high insignia.
6th Sep 2003
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Corrected entry: As Harry purchases the candy on the train, we see a large body of water outside the train window. The next shot shows the train going through a dense forest. When the boys start eating the candy, the view from the train is again the body of water. If Harry and Ron are typical boys, they wouldn't wait very long to start eating their candy; certainly not long enough to pass through a forest and return to the shoreline. (00:35:12)
Correction: It's quite possible there's a lake in the forest. Beyond that, this sounds more like artistic license than a mistake.
26th Aug 2003
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Corrected entry: During the quidditch match, the first goal we see is scored by Slytherin. When they score, ALL the players come together and fly about in some sort of arrow formation. Wouldn't it have been VERY easy for the Gryffindor team to take the quaffle and score as there's no defense whatsoever?
Correction: In virtually every sport I've ever seen, once a goal is scored the game is stopped until the ball/puck/etc. is put back into play.
8th Sep 2003
Forrest Gump (1994)
Corrected entry: When we see the TV with Neil Armstrong on the moon, the video and the audio are out of sync. In the film, we see Neil jumping off the ladder, and then he says 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind'. However, he has only landed on the footplate of the lunar module. There is about another minute or so of audio before he actually steps on the surface of the moon.
Correction: This may be a factual error, but it's on the part of Neil Armstrong, not the movie. As I remember it, he did say it as he jumped off the ladder.
27th Aug 2001
Titanic (1997)
Corrected entry: When the seamen in the "rescue" lifeboat are shouting for survivors, there is a distinct echo of his call. What does the echo come off? There are no reflective surfaces on a flat ocean.
Correction: It's possible the echo came off the iceberg. I doubt any good filmmaker would have unwanted echoes on a soundstage.
27th Aug 2001
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Corrected entry: The Wizard claims to have been in Kansas when his balloon was whisked off to Oz, yet the balloon reads State Fair, Omaha. Omaha is in Nebraska, not Kansas.
Correction: He didn't say the balloon was from Kansas, though. It's likely he got it at the Nebraska State Fair and has been using it since.
27th Aug 2001
Ten Commandments (1956)
Corrected entry: There is a scene with a Pepsi can on a rock. A worker must have forgotten to pick it up before filming.
Correction: According to the Pepsi web site, canned Pepsi went into full scale production in 1965, almost a decade after the movie.
8th Sep 2003
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Corrected entry: The Wargs attack and kill quickly but when Gimli is the target (under the dead Warg), the living Warg just stands there roaring at him until Aragorn rushes to Gimli's aid.
Correction: I think this falls under the rule of "Don't ask 'why'" (Number 2 on the submission page). Yeah, it's a stretch, but I'd have to call it artistic license.
11th Jun 2003
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Corrected entry: How come whenever they are flying no matter where they are you can see stars but they are never near any?
Correction: They always see stars when flying because you actually can see stars from any place in the universe. Any time they're on a planet they're near a star, just as we are near our Sun. Other stars are always so immensely far away that they look like pinpoints of light.
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Correction: I think they are, and are intended to be, taller than before, but not noticeably. The book implies they became considerably taller, but the movie specifically indicates only two inches. In the last scene, when Frodo is saying his final farewells, he is slightly shorter than either Merry or Pippin.
Bob Blumenfeld ★