Almost Famous

Continuity mistake: Toward the end, Russell goes to talk to William at his house. He turns the chair around to sit on it backwards, and throws the shirt down onto the ground. When he sits down the shirt is back on the chair.

Factual error: This is a wardrobe error... in the next morning scene after William has been deflowered, he is still in his Fruit of the Looms, which have the name printed on the elastic waistband. Fruit of the Loom did not print their name on waistbands like this until the 90s, in the 70s they just had single blue and yellow stripes. (01:08:27)

Factual error: The airplane that Penny Lane is on has small vertical stabilizers on the wingtips, which were not designed into commercial jets until the early 90's.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where William is sitting in the tub working on his notes, after Penny comes in and sits on the toilet, he scrambles out of the tub and most of the notes which were on the side of the tub fall on the floor. In the next cut when the camera is positioned near the bathroom door, looking in, all of the notes are back on the side of the tub and none are on the floor.

Continuity mistake: When Russell and William are walking together to "find something real" the VW bus containing the "real Topeka people" drives by behind them 2 times over their left shoulder before pulling up to them a third time on the right side.

Factual error: It's 1969 at the very start of the movie, and William Miller is looking through a bunch of awesome vinyl records that his sister has given him, including stuff from Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan. In the stash is Joni Mitchell's Blue. Blue did not come out until 1971.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where William first meets the Bandaids, Black Sabbath comes around in a limo and a couple of the Bandaids touch the windows while they drive around to go down the ramp. Then another shot shows the Bandaids look at the car go around them again.

Factual error: In the radio station scene, the closeup of the turntable tonearm shows a P mount head-shell and Stanton 500 cartridge. Neither was available until the mid 1980s.

Continuity mistake: Backstage at the first concert, William is sitting alone writing when Penny comes to talk to him. She has her glasses in her hand as she frames his face to guess his age. As the scene is shown from different angles, she is shown both with the glasses in her hand and without them in her hand depending on the shot.

Factual error: When William runs into the street to look for Penny Lane, he runs between a row of taxi cabs. Across the street is a blue mid 90's model GMC Suburban. Since the scene takes place in 1973, this is obviously a mistake. It may be necessary to use zoom, depending on the size of your screen. (01:28:10)

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Russell jumps off the roof into the pool, you can see that two people from the top left corner jump into the water to save him; then in the next shot you can see that no one has jumped in because the surface of the water is undisturbed and then the same people jump in again.

Continuity mistake: Right after the scene in which the band has a fight over the T shirts, which Dick says is the band's first T shirt, you see Russell and William go to a house party in Topeka. One of the attendants of the party has a Stillwater shirt that is of a different design than the shirt first revealed at the show only minutes prior, which again was supposedly their first shirt. The shirt seen on the partygoer can also be seen later in the movie.

Audio problem: When the band is in the limo coming into NYC, Jimmy Fallon gives the band a quick pep talk (e.g., "all you can do is be yourself and leave a pint of blood on the stage"). When the shot changes from inside the limo to outside the limo, the audio does not match the movements of Jimmy Fallon's mouth.

JW Pepper

Continuity mistake: After Russell gets William into his first concert, his rectangular backstage pass is pasted to his left shoulder. Penny Lane shows up with a round backstage pass, and by the time the camera's back on William, the shoulder pass has disappeared.

Continuity mistake: In the closing scenes, there is a shot of William waving goodbye to Russel outside his house. This must have been shot at a different time to the rest of the film, since William is much chubbier.

pinkwafer

Continuity mistake: During the scene when the entire group are singing 'Tiny Dancer' on the bus, William cuts Penny off just as she opens her mouth to sing the next line, however the audio of everybody else singing doesn't start that line for another 3-4 beats after Penny opened her mouth.

Continuity mistake: In the poker scene where Russell loses and has to trade Penny for a case of Heineken, Russell gets up to talk to William. Russell brushes his hair behind his ears, and in the next shot, his hair is down again. His hair goes back and forth the entire scene.

Factual error: When the band is heading to New York City, there is a scene of them driving over a bridge heading into New York. In the background, you can very clearly see the Citicorp Centre Building. While the movie takes place in 1973, Citicorp Centre was not built until 1978.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Russell and Jeff are arguing about the band's T-shirt their manager is standing behind Jeff, but when Jeff says that Russell " allowed Dick to manage us" Dick is sitting on the couch. At the end of the fight, the manager is standing behind Jeff again.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Penny overdoses, she's wearing calf-high tan boots. She falls over on the couch and dances with William while wearing them. When the doctor rushes in and forces her to vomit in the tub, however, her boots are suddenly gone.

Elaine Miller: Keep the small bills on the outside and call me if anyone gets drunk.
William Miller: I will call you if anyone anywhere gets drunk.

More quotes from Almost Famous

Trivia: This is the first Cameron Crowe movie not to feature a cameo by Eric Stoltz. Stoltz was supposed to appear on a theater marquee that said "The Crazy World of Eric Stoltz" but that didn't work out due to budgeting. Although, while the theatrical version doesn't feature Stoltz, Crowe stated in the "Untitled" DVD commentary that the Untitled version does include a reference of some sort to Stoltz, thus keeping the streak alive. Crowe encourages fans to try and find the reference in the film.

More trivia for Almost Famous

Question: What was the real rock band Cameron Crowe based the fictional group Stillwater on?

raywest

Chosen answer: The film was loosely based on Cameron Crowe's experiences with The Allman Brothers Band.

Damian Torres

Answer: The film is based on Crowe's experiences touring with rock bands Poco, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

lizzylou

More questions & answers from Almost Famous

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