The Mauritanian

Continuity mistake: After Slahi smelled and set the McDonald's bag on the table, its position changed a few times. At first, the bag was at arm's length away from him with the corner almost touching Teri's legal pad. Next, a rear view of Slahi's head showed the bag at an angle to the legal pad and closer to the pad's upper right-hand corner. Seconds later, the bag was away from the legal pad, in the corner of the table near Slahi's right elbow. In the next view, the bag was near its original location. (00:18:20 - 00:20:22)

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Continuity mistake: Man #1 slid the box of pastries across the table to Slahi, running the box almost along and parallel to the seam in the table. When the camera shifted to Slahi, the box of pastries was further away from the table seam and at an angle. The box of pastries was along the table seam when the camera shifted back to the men across the table, but back to an angle when viewing Slahi. (01:21:42)

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Continuity mistake: When the man slides the box of pastries toward Slahi, the lock on the table is within about 3" to the middle of the box. When the camera shifts toward Slahi, the lock is at least twice as far away from the box and at a different angle. When the camera shifted to the opposite side, the lock should have been visible to the left of the box (and screen) but was not. (01:21:42)

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Continuity mistake: Nancy placed her sunglasses on the table when she was talking to Slahi and had her glasses hanging from the V-neck of her blouse. She picked up her sunglasses and put them on when she got outside but her glasses were not hanging from her V-neck. (Later, they could be seen in her right hand but it wouldn't make sense that she would start holding her glasses when she was already handling her legal pad and the contract). (00:22:10 - 00:23:23)

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Continuity mistake: The strand of Nancy's hair shaped like a semi-circle on the left side running the length of her forehead that shows almost the entire time she is talking to Slahi is not there when the camera shifts to a rear view, but is there when the camera returns to a front view. The rear view is possibly that of a stand-in. (00:18:35 - 00:19:58)

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Continuity mistake: After Slahi signs the contract, the McDonald's bag logo is facing toward the right of the screen but was facing the opposite direction up to that point. (00:22:17)

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Continuity mistake: The sunglasses Nancy placed near the center right side of her yellow legal pad changed positions a couple times with camera shifts. Initially, the left lens was almost touching the legal pad and the right lens was at about a 45° angle. Seconds later, the sunglasses were further away from the legal pad. Next, the sunglasses were close and parallel to the legal pad, not angled. (IF Nancy had accidentally bumped her sunglasses with her elbow, they would have been pushed away from the legal pad). (00:18:02 - 00:18:30)

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Continuity mistake: After Slahi signs the contract, the McDonald's bag logo is facing toward the right of the screen but was facing the opposite direction up to that point. (00:22:17)

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More mistakes in The Mauritanian

Nancy Hollander: I wanna know who's name I should cite when I contact the National Security desk at the New York Times. You tell your C.O, I don't wanna see my client in shackles ever again.

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Trivia: The "writ of habeas corpus" used to be referred to as the "Great Writ." Despite its potential value of protecting against unlawful detention and indefinite confinement without due process of law, it has actually been suspended four times since ratified and detainees at Guantanamo Bay were not originally eligible to file a writ of habeas corpus because of where they were confined (i.e, in Cuba, not the United States).

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