Question: IMDb lists Ian Hart as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, when does he appear in the film?
Chosen answer: ACD was a close friend of JMB and they don't make a big deal out of identifying him. One scene he is in is the party after the first play opening. He is also the one who suggests to JMB that his interest in the boys might be a source of gossip.
Question: Was Mrs. Collins' son ever found?
Answer: No. He was murdered at age nine. The movie uses creative license to bring up the suspicion that he could have somehow survived to create a dramatic hope in the end. Moreover, the killer was very unstable and retracted his testimony more than once. There is no solid proof of the boy surviving the killings. The police even found partial evidence of Walter Collins at the burial site. See the Wikipedia article for more information.
Question: What is the significance of the guy moving the button on the control panel at the Live Aid concert? He moved the "no" tape and slides the buttons and then puts the tape back.
Question: Aron tells Kristi and Megan that Blue John Canyon is actually named after Butch Cassidy's cook, Blue John. Is this true?
Chosen answer: The actual name is Bluejohn Canyon. According to online tourist info for Utah, "It appears to have been named after a minor Robbers Roost outlaw by the name of John Griffith. Griffith had one blue eye and one brown eye and thus was saddled with the nickname "Blue John." It is recognized that he kept stolen horses in the area, perhaps watering them at nearby springs. In the fall of 1899 Griffith is reported to have put in at Hite with a small boat with the intention of reaching Lee's Ferry. He was never heard from again."
Question: How did Papillon, Diega and Marturette manage to sail to Colombia after their second escape attempt? Colombia is on the opposite side of South America from French Guiana/Devil's Island. It seems like they would have ended up in Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Curaçao or Aruba long before ending up in Colombia. I'm sure the book sheds light on this, but the movie completely glosses over it.
Answer: I discovered the answer to this by reading the book's plot synopsis on Wikipedia. The inmates actually sailed to Trinidad and then picked up three other inmates. They set sail again and were captured near the Colombian coastline when the wind died down. It would appear that in the interest of saving time, the movie chose to just have them appear in Colombia.
Question: When they were showing Hell's Angels in the premiere, when there was a crash sequence, the explosions were in color, but the planes in the background were still in black and white. How is that possible? Why they didn't make the explosion in black and white too?
Answer: They did this by hand to te explosions to add effect.
Question: I have always wondered how the movie crew and cast worked with Natasha Ryan, the actress who played young Sybil. There were scenes that were very frightening, dealing with terrible tortures. I always wondered if that was traumatic for the young girl? Or, if not, how was trauma avoided. More generally, does anyone know how movie productions deal with children on the set of films with frightening, traumatic and/or controversial themes?
Chosen answer: In these types of movies, where young actors are involved in intense scenes, every precaution is taken to ensure that they are never frightened or emotionally compromised. Child psychologists, acting coaches, and the director are on set and work closely with them. A child's parent or guardian is also always close by. Child Protective Services oversee how child actors are being utilized in films and TV shows and there are strict laws and regulations regarding how child actors are treated, how many hours per day they can work, etc. Scenes are also carefully filmed and edited in such a way that can appear to be very intense, but were not emotionally stressful to the child. Also, stand-ins can be used for certain shots.
Question: After Jerry shuts off No Vaseline, MC Ren asks Eazy E "who work for who?" What did he mean by this?
Answer: The song is mostly about how Jerry and Eazy screwed the band over, with Jerry taking the lead. Ren is asking "Do we work for Jerry or does he work for us?"
Question: Why did Klaus Kinski try to kill one of the crewmen with a sword prop?
Answer: Kinski suffered from mental illness for most of his life. He was given to bouts of unprovoked outbursts and violence. He was eventually diagnosed with psychopathy (antisocial personality disorder). On movie sets, he was notorious for being physically and verbally abusive to the crew, who generally hated him. The sword incident was just one of many. On the production of this film, director Werner Herzog carried a gun on him in the event he had to protect himself or others. It was only because Herzog was a long-time friend that he hired Kinski for acting jobs. Kinski was flat-out crazy. He was eventually unable to get any work as an actor.
Agreed. I forget what film set it was but Kinski also once fired a rifle at a bunch of crew members and blew a guy's finger off. He was unstable.
It was also Aguirre, The Wrath Of God. Kinski was irritated by the noises from a hut where cast and crew were playing cards and, out of anger, repeatedly fired a Winchester rifle into it. One of the bullets took the tip of an unknown extra's finger off.
Question: Why does the play start with The Van Daans already at the Annex when it's clear that they arrive a week later in the diary?
Answer: Movies do not always exactly follow the books they are adapted from. Oftentimes scenes and/or characters are changed, deleted, or streamlined, often because there is a limited amount of time in a movie to tell the story. In this case, it just simplified the plot by having the Van Daans already at the Annex, eliminating the need for two separate arrivals and instead focusing on the Frank family's reactions to their situation.
Question: How did Malcolm, Shorty, Sophia, and Peg get caught for their crimes? Also, was the water turned off because of the police arresting Malcolm and Shorty? And where's Rudy? I didn't see him arrested.
Answer: It was Rudy who called the police. He was double crossing his partners and making off with the loot from their crime spree.
Question: On the corrections page for this movie, someone stated that Henry was the father of both of Mary's children. How? Didn't he stop seeing her while she was still on bed rest during the pregnancy of their first child?
Answer: The information on the corrections page is inaccurate. Mary Boleyn married William Carey in 1520. Because her exact birth date is unknown, no one knows how old she was when she married. It was shortly after her wedding that she began her affair with Henry VIII. It is also unknown if either of the two children she bore during this time were fathered by Henry, though there was certainly a high probability that he sired one or both. However, Henry never publicly acknowledged either child, unlike the illegitimate son he had with another mistress. The events in the film and book are fictional, and they vary from the historical facts. It is never mentioned in the film that Mary had a second child, either by Henry or William Carey.
Question: Nick was supposed to be watching Fanny sing at Keany's, but I just don't see him in the audience shots. Error?
Answer: If you mean their first meeting, most likely it was a deliberate decision by the filmmakers that Nick wasn't seen in the audience. The scene was constructed to introduce Nick and show Fanny's reaction as she opens the dressing room door, seeing him for the first time. Nick being seen earlier would also have lessened the audience's reaction as well.
Question: When Edward Snowden obtains the MicroSD card after downloading all the data, he and Patrick Haynes (who's fully aware what he's up to) start communicating via sign language before he leaves to avoid their conversation being recorded. Does anyone know what they are saying to each other?
Chosen answer: The scene is captioned as follows - Snowden: "I might not see you again." Haynes: "You 'gonna leave me here...with Captain America? Thanks a lot." Snowden: "NSA may come after you." Haynes: "I don't know what you're talking about. [walks away.]" I should note that my profession is that of an American Sign Language interpreter. From my observation, they are signing pretty much correctly, if not artfully. The only difference is that what the movie translates as "I don't know what you're talking about" would probably be more accurately stated as, "I don't understand your comment." And there really isn't a sign used for "gonna'." Hayes just says, "you're leaving me here with him? Captain America!"
Thank you!
Question: When Eduardo discovers the dilution of his percentage, he asks Mark if he did it because of the "article about the chicken", which accused Eduardo of forced animal cannibalism. Sean Parker hears this and says, "What's he talking about?" and then says "Seriously, what's the chicken?" Is this implying he was the one who gave the chicken story to Mark's lawyer so he could use it in the previous scene where he mentions it?
Answer: No, earlier when it came up in the lawyers office, Eduardo thought it came from Mark, but the lawyer stepped in and said they were able to find it themselves. Sean really had no idea what he was talking about, but didn't use it against him.
Question: There's a scene in this movie that I've never understood. When Ron Kovic is in the VA hospital, there's one scene where he wakes up in the middle of the night, and looks up and sees something, and screams. What did he see that made him scream?
Answer: He doesn't see anything. He hears his blood dripping back into the makeshift machine the doctors have set up and realizes it isn't working properly. In the previous scene he was told that if they couldn't get the machine to work, he would never walk again.
No, in the previous scene he was told that if they couldn't get the machine to work, he would lose his leg. He was already told he would never walk again.
Question: Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the credits show that Panchito Gomez played young Abraham. I've seen Panchito Gomez in 80's movies such as Tuff Turf and he doesn't resemble at all the actor playing young Abraham. However, he DOES resemble the gentleman in the cowboy hat who stiffs Abraham money for Selena's performance and says "She's just a woman." I always wondered if the credits made a mistake. Anyone know?
Answer: Looking at the credits on IMDB it does show that Panchito Gomez played young Abraham in Selena as well as the role in Tuff Turf. Given that 12 years had passed between the two movies, it's possible that Panchito had gotten older and didn't look like he was when he was 22 compared to mid 30s.
Answer: It does appear to be unintentional (or at least, unscripted), but they continue because when you're shooting a movie, you don't stop until you hear "cut", and especially at that time animal welfare wasn't necessarily a priority. I'm guessing no-one was concerned about the chicken, and so didn't feel the need to do anything about it. It's possible the film was made without an animal welfare monitor on set. As to why it's in the movie, the whole "marching to the prison" sequence was probably handled by the assistant director (as shots like this, not involving the principals or any substantive dialogue, often are) and they may have only done the one take. Who knows, they may have thought the injured chicken added realism to the scene.