Best music movie factual errors of all time

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The Buddy Holly Story picture

Factual error: When Buddy and the musicians tour bus is towed to the Clear Lake Auditorium for the final concert before the fatal air crash, the canopy states that the concert is on the 3rd of February. The fatal accident that took Buddy, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens occurred at 1am on 3rd February 1959 so the canopy should have read 2nd February.

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Save the Last Dance picture

Factual error: It's established that the kids live in and go to school on the South Side (south of the Loop), and much is made of the fact that Malakai has nothing but his "respect" within his neighbourhood. At the movie's end, where Malakai wants Derek to accompany him on the robbery/murder, he tells Derek, "Meet me at 47th street, under the El." Yet when Derek runs off and jumps on the train to go meet Sara, we see him getting on a Brown Line train - those trains can only be found on the North side, miles and miles away from 47th street. In addition, his train is shown heading SOUTH toward the Loop, which means in order to be going that direction on that train he'd have rode on the train for about an hour, past the Loop entirely, then gotten off and turned back around toward the Loop again.

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Walk the Line picture

Factual error: Towards the beginning of the film, the Cashes receive a notice about their rent. It's the 1950's and the address has a ZIP code. ZIP codes were not introduced until 1963.

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Hustle & Flow picture

Factual error: Clyde is in the shop buying batteries for his microphones. The microphones we see later, are Shure studio microphones that do not use batteries. Batteries are very rarely used in studio microphones.

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The Bodyguard picture

Factual error: When Whitney Houston turns up at the Oscars, it's night time. In reality, guests to the Academy Awards always arrive in the afternoon. (01:40:35)

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Topsy-Turvy picture

Factual error: One of the operetta excerpts shown in the movie is the humorous song "This Helmet I Suppose," during which Princess Ida's three brothers are supposed to remove their armor piece by piece, finding it heavy, hot and awkward. Partly as a result of this, the three are soon afterwards quickly and easily defeated in combat. In the film, however, only Arac, the brother singing the verses (played by Richard Temple (played by Timothy Spall)), removes his armor. The others simply stand still. (This might have made the battle scene end differently if it was shown on screen!)

CC

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Little Voice picture

Factual error: When testing the new phone installation, the engineer only dialled the number, and not the area code, as you have to do on a mobile phone.

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Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen picture

Factual error: When the family is driving from New York to New Jersey, you see a highway sign for the exit for New Jersey. In the background is a Dofasco building which is in Hamilton, Ontario, very far from New York or New Jersey.

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Alvin and the Chipmunks picture

Factual error: When the Chipmunks are going on tour and all of the cities are listed, it says that they're going to "Phoenix - NV" however it's clear they are in Arizona not Nevada, so it should have said "Phoenix - AZ." (01:02:40)

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American Dreamz picture

Factual error: The 4th Infantry Division drives Bradley fighting vehicles, not LMTV's (trucks) as seen in the Iraq scene.

Kevin Flatley

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The Boat That Rocked picture

Factual error: Many of the songs featured in the film, almost all of which are portrayed as being singles actually being played by the disc jockeys, came out after the 1966 setting of the film, including Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (June 1967), Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover" (November 1968), The Who's "I Can See For Miles" (October 1967), Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cried Mary" (May 1967), the Turtles' "Elenore" (November 1968) and Herb Alpert's "This Guy's in Love with You" (April 1968) among several others.

Tailkinker

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Shall We Dance picture

Factual error: There is a mistake regarding the El (elevated train) stop sequence portrayed. When Richard Gere jumps off the train to check out Miss Mitzie's Dance Studio, the announcer says "next stop Sedgwick". However, we see that the train is at a stop that has three lines including the orange (as noted by the colors on the column on the left of the screen). The two stops that are before and after Sedgwick don't have the orange line so it's not possible for the next stop to be Sedgwick. (00:07:25)

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8 Mile picture

Factual error: DJ Iz mentions how Detroit never tears down any of its abandoned buildings and just builds casinos. No casinos were built in Detroit until 1997-98, and the film is supposed to be set in 1995.

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Fantasia picture

Factual error: The famous battle between Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex (which is incorrectly depicted as having three claws) never took place: Stegosaurus was extinct before Tyrannosaurus evolved. (Stegosaurus lived in the Jurassic, Tyrannosaurus in the Cretaceous.)

CC

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Hard Day's Night picture

Factual error: They're meant to be taping a TV show, but some of the cameras were motion picture cameras used for shooting the movie, rather than TV cameras. (01:16:45)

????

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Cadillac Records picture

Factual error: In a scene that is twenty-eight minutes into the movie, one of the characters is seen running up to check out a new Cadillac that had been given to him by the owner of Chess Records. A 'super' appears at the bottom of the screen which reads "1952" in order to set the chronological time. Only problem is, the Cadillac is a 1956 model. Any old car buff, particularly one like myself who writes a weekly column for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, would know in a heartbeat that this car was four years ahead of the year indicated on the screen. Bruce Kunz, a.k.a. "The FIN MAN"tm www.thefinman.com. (00:28:20 - 00:29:15)

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24 Hour Party People picture

Factual error: Whenever Steve Coogan is driving his old brown car during the 70s and 80s, you can look out of his windows and see cars that weren't made then, even some with current registration plates on, either driving past, or parked up in driveways, or on the side of the road.

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Inside Llewyn Davis picture

Factual error: When Llewyn is driving back to NYC from Chicago, he passes a couple signs stating that Akron, OH, is at the next exit off the highway, on US Route 80. US 80 passes exclusively through the South, from Dallas to the Atlantic Ocean in Georgia, and doesn't even come remotely close to Ohio. (01:13:58)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: It's Interstate 80, which does pass through Ohio, not Route 80.

The mistake is correct. It's the US Route 80 sign which has black letters on the white shield. An I-80 sign would have white letters on a red and blue shield.

Bishop73

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What's Love Got To Do With It? picture

Factual error: When they tour the UK with The Rolling Stones the film states 1968, when in reality it was 1966. They then perform "Proud Mary", which Creedence Clearwater Revival did not release originally until 1969, and wasn't covered and didn't become a hit for Ike and Tina Turner until 1971.

DARRIN

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The Rocker picture

Factual error: In the scene when ADD is first leaving to go on tour, they drive past the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the bus driver announces, "On your left..." The shot of the museum as they drive by is the front. The road going by this way dead ends; there would be no way for them to get on the highway or a surface road. (Look on Google Maps. They are on East 9th Street going northwest.)

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