The Untouchables

The Untouchables (1987)

2 suggested corrections

(9 votes)

Continuity mistake: Ness has been leaning over Malone who was laying on the floor of his apartment shot up and bleeding profusely. Some blood shows up on Ness' overcoat but when they go to the train depot there is no sign of blood anywhere. Since there was no time to change where did the blood go?

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Suggested correction: He only really gets blood on the trench coat, which is easily changeable if Ness has another coat in the car.

jshy7979

Factual error: The film shows government agent Eliot Ness throwing Al Capone's right-hand man, gangster Frank Nitti, to his death from the roof of the Chicago courthouse in 1929. It never happened. Frank Nitti died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1943.

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Suggested correction: The movie was not meant to be exactly like real events. The movie was loosely based on the events (aka "inspired by actual events"). There are a lot of differences between the movie and the real events, these were done on purpose, to make an exciting movie.

Bruce Minnick

That's a lame excuse. There are lots of opportunities to embellish on the truth when dealing with a historic topic. The station scene with the baby is an excellent example of that. But, you can't go changing the relationships of main characters or the time and methods of their deaths. Especially ones so well documented like Capone and Nitti. Why even bother using real names? The character they called "Nitti" was just a completely made up character. Nothing about him resembled the actual Nitti. Nitti wasn't skinny and he didn't wear white suits. He wasn't a loner, often scene hanging with his crew. Nitti was an exceptionally short man with a Chaplinesque moustache. Always jovial for the cameras.

It's simply your opinion that it's a "lame" excuse. The fact is the film is highly fictionalized. It's not a documentary, it's a drama. They combine and eliminate characters, give them different names and characteristics, and show events that never happened. These are not mistakes, they're known as creative license. They would only be mistakes if they film claimed everything in the film was true and accurate to history.

While calling something a "lame excuse" isn't acceptable, the mistake is still valid. The film isn't set in an alternate timeline, so historical inaccuracies regarding real life people are considered valid mistakes. Artistic license extends to adding things that could have happened that didn't impact historical events for dramatic purposes (love interests, made up characters, etc). Historical inaccuracies regarding real life figures would be the same as pointing out anachronisms in a film set in the past, like have a car from the 40's in a film set in the 30's. And just because a screenwriter or film maker wants to change facts to make the film more exciting doesn't mean the mistake is no longer valid.

Bishop73

Might as well toss the whole movie with your logic. Ness was never an active agent and never had any contact with Al Capone. Like already stated, this isn't a documentary, so expect some creative license.

Factual error: In the warehouse scene with the wooden crates with maple leaves, even though a correction has been submitted saying a maple leaf was valid, the real mistake is the type of maple leaf used. The film shows a modern graphic style of leaf that did not come into use until the 1960s and appeared on the new Canadian flag in 1965. In the time of Capone, the maple leaves used to depict things Canadian looked like actual maple leaves and not like a stylized graphic.

More mistakes in The Untouchables

Elliot Ness: I have one more thing to say. I know that many of you take a drink. What you've done before today is not my concern. But now we must be pure and I want you to stop. It's not a question of whether or not it's a harmless drink, it may very well be, but it's against the law, gentlemen, and as we are going to enforce the law, we must do first by example.

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More trivia for The Untouchables

Question: How accurate is the portrayal of the Untouchables, when it comes to names and numbers? Were there actually only four of them? Do Garcia, Connery and Smith play actual people or fictive ones?

Answer: It's about 50% truth and 50% fiction. Ness, Al Capone, and Frank Nitty are real, of course, but the characters played by Connery, Garcia, and Smith are fictional. Ness started out with 50 candidates for his 'Untouchables' force. This was whittled down to 15 finalists and from that he selected 9 agents (none of which has the same name as the characters played by Connery, Garcia, and Smith). It's true that Capone was convicted for tax evasion. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, but received an early release because he was in the last stages of syphilis. He died shortly after being released from prison.

raywest

Capone lived for 8 years upon his release from prison. The 8 years being slightly longer than the actual prison time he served, which was just over 7 years. He died, having the mental capabilities of a 12-year-old.

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