Factual error: When Patton orders his driver to drive to the Carthaginian battlefield he addresses him as "sergeant". He is, however, wearing corporal's chevrons. A famous stickler for discipline and ceremonial, Patton is not likely to have made a mistake like this.
Factual error: A toy modern four-door automobile and a clear plastic ball can be seen as the children play when the Burgermeister comes in on his wheelchair. Both unlikely for a story set (presumably) in the 1800's, at the latest.
Factual error: So the Civil War ends, and the colonel heads for Texas. It must have taken close to a decade to arrive there, for when he rides into Blackthorne, Texas, he's packing a Model 1873 Colt, and a Model 1873 Winchester.
Factual error: When Joe Patroni is attempting to move the stuck 707, Bakersfeld is standing beside his car watching, very close to the plane. Without some form of hearing protection, he would have been very quickly deafened by the noise - a 707 at takeoff thrust is incredibly loud. I once watched a 707 take off from about a half mile away and forgot to cover my ears - it was so loud it actually hurt.
Factual error: In the scene where the king attempts to seize the five members from Parliament, Cromwell makes a dramatic refusal to leave and proposes various "Laws" to prevent his arrest. Cromwell was not one of the five members whom the King tried to arrest and no law can come into force until it had been signed by the reigning Monarch anyway.
Suggested correction: It's more of a threat than a declaration.
Factual error: In the movie you see Scottish Pipe Band playing. Pipe Bands where not established in Scottish Regiments before the Crimean War (1854-1856), there were only solo pipers. (00:35:00)
Factual error: When the Japanese planes attack the airfield, none of the American planes have numbers or letters, just a star.
Factual error: Oddball tells Kelly their commander had been trying to get them killed ever since they landed at Omaha (beach). Oddball's tanks are part of the U.S. sixth Armored division (the Super Sixth, as the unit shoulder patch on his jacket indicates) which actually landed at Utah beach on July 18, 1944. (00:30:50)
Factual error: James Franciscus arrives at a New York City subway station called Queensborough Plaza. Queensborough Plaza is an above ground station. Queens Plaza is the name of an underground station in New York City. (They are located within walking distance of each other, but are definitely distinct stations). (00:40:30)
Factual error: The worst historical distortions in this film must concern legendary "Wild Bill" Hickock. First of all he wasn't killed by a teenage boy, but one John McCall, a man in his 30's. McCall sneaked behind Hickock who was in the middle of a poker game and shot him through the head killing him instantly. Secondly this took place on August 2 1876, about five weeks AFTER the Custer's Last Stand. (01:46:30)
Factual error: When Edgar the Butler directs the Old Solicitor upstairs they have a bit of a struggle with the steps. Before this you saw the Solicitor arriving in his car and this gave you an impression how high the first floor of the building of the Old Spinster was. Judging by the amount of steps on the stairs the pair would have ended up on the roof.
Factual error: When Hawkeye and Trapper arrive in Japan, as they approach the hospital in a Jeep, you can see a football field in the background. Look closely at the goalpost on the field. Instead of looking like an "H" (then in use), it is in the style used since the late 1960s: a bent single goalpost, a crossbar, and the uprights.
Factual error: Throughout the movie, characters strike matches to light lamps. While "strike anywhere" matches had been invented by this time and were quite the rage in Europe (despite an alarming tendency to explode due to the volatile chemicals used), they were an unknown commodity on the American frontier until well after the turn of the century. (00:49:00)
Factual error: The lock on Secker's front door, seen in the shot when he returns home from Highgate Cemetery, is a modern (stainless steel) Yale lock and barrel, not a High Victorian dead lock; his front gate is made of paper-thin iron from the 1960's; the lamp post Screen Left is supposedly gas-powered but has an electric feed running over the pavement.
Factual error: Due to paranoid fear of sabotage, all Japanese Americans were interred in camps along the west coast during WW2. So it would have been MOST unlikely for Yamashita (especially considering his military background) to simply walk about freely and to have work as a gardener.
Factual error: When Clint Eastwood catches an Indian arrow in his left shoulder, he instructs Shirley MacLaine to prime the arrow shaft with gunpowder, which he then ignites as she forces the shaft all the way through his shoulder. Presumably, the burning gunpowder would cauterize the wound all the way through his body, or that's what the filmmakers asked the audience to believe. In reality, gunpowder is historically well-known for causing gangrene in open wounds. With a shoulder full of gunpowder cinders, Clint Eastwood should have died of gangrene and sepsis by the end of the movie.
Factual error: When Scrooge is in the carriage with his girlfriend in the back, on the hill you can see a white van go past.
Suggested correction: I have replayed that scene over and over and I couldn't see a white van pass by.
Factual error: The film is set in 16th century England. In the first scene, when the accused girl is branded, she screams, and reveals a full set of teeth with nice silver amalgam fillings. (00:03:35)
Factual error: It's common in movies of certain eras to have cars catch fire when in real life they would not, and the car flip that concludes the chase at the beginning of the movie offers an example of that...but goes even further, much further, when you see the armored van impacting against the roof of the flipped car causing it to explode with such violence and inferno of flames coming from within the passenger seats you'd swear it had to be driven by giant dynamite sticks with arms and legs. (00:15:25)