Best history movie factual errors of 2017

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Dunkirk picture

Factual error: In the scene towards the start of the film in Weymouth harbour, you can see the huge building which is Weymouth Pavilion, which was built in 1954, after the original 1909 building burnt down.

freedom2006

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The Post picture

Factual error: Robert McNamara is wearing a multi colored Polo shirt talking to Mrs. Graham in 1971. The Ralph Lauren Company did not make the shirts until 1972.

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Darkest Hour picture

Factual error: When flying to France to have talks with the French premier a C47/Dakota is shown in the background intimating that it was the plane he came in. The C47 did not enter service with the RAF until after this period of the film with Lend Lease.

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Suggested correction: The aircraft could just as easily be the civilian version, the DC-3 which first flew in 1935, and was pressed into RAF service and repainted.

The RAF did not requisition civilian DC3s or DC2s. It is well recorded that Churchill flew to France in May 1940 in a de Havilland DH.95 Flamingo. Only 16 were built - de Havilland cancelling DH.95 production to make more Tiger Moths desperately needed for pilot training. The DH.95's were cannibalised for spares, the last scrapped in 1953, so the film production company may be excused for their C-47 use. Though a Lockheed Lodestar may have been a closer simile.

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Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House picture

Factual error: When Mark Felt and the FBI Director are in a car on the way to the Watergate hearings in 1972 or 1973, from the car window, you see the WW2 memorial, which was built in 2004.

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Shock and Awe picture Shock and Awe mistake picture

Factual error: In a picture from the UN headquarters in New York in the year 2003 you see two German flags. The German Democrativ Republic hasn't existed since 1990. (01:16:04)

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Detroit picture

Factual error: Since the movie was set in the 60s, David Senak couldn't have gotten in trouble for shooting the man running away. In the 60s, the police could legally shoot any criminal running away. This didn't change until Tennessee v. Garner in 1985.

MikeH

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Victoria and Abdul picture

Factual error: Performing for Queen Victoria is the famous opera composer Giacomo Puccini. This happens during her sojourn in Florence in 1888. Puccini was born in 1858, so he was barely thirty years of age, but the actor portraying him, Simon Callow, is in his late 60s (and it shows). Moreover, he is presenting his latest creation "Manon Lescaut"; in 1888 he hadn't even started working on it.

Sammo

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Chappaquiddick picture

Factual error: The accident takes place the night of July 18, 1969, and they show there being a full moon. That night the moon was actually waxing crescent with only 14% visible, and set at 10:27pm while the accident happened about 12:45am, so there was no moon in the sky anyway.

jimba

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