Corrected entry: Before one joust, the characters discover that William is about to fight "the Black Prince of Wales, the future King of England." While he was an actual historical figure, the Black Prince wasn't given his nickname until 200 years after his death.
Corrected entry: In both instances where William crossed the English Channel, it was on a chain ferry. It is highly unlikely that any individual, or even a group of individuals could afford the 20-odd miles of chain it would require. To top it off, when they return to England, their landfall is made at London, which would require yet another 20-odd miles of chain to take them up the Thames.
Corrected entry: The redheaded peasant Wat constantly carps on about not having enough money to eat yet he wears a rather modern very thin silver chain throughout the entire film. Perhaps he could have pawned that to buy some Tansy cakes with peppermint cream?
Correction: It prehaps was an old family heirloom, that carried great sentimental value for him. However hungry he was, he still wouldn't have given it away.
Corrected entry: In the first jousting scene, when William is masquerading as Sir Ector, the armor he's wearing has a metal hook device attached which serves as a cradle to hold the lance steady. Roland and Wat even exort William to 'get it in the cradle', as he rides toward his opponent. William finally cradles the lance at the last second and all goes well. Then, in every subsequent jousting scene, no knight has a cradle device on their armor. Not even William, whose cradle has disappeared, never to be seen again.
Correction: Ector is old and past his prime. He is using outdated armor and equipment. William simply removed the cradle afterwards.
Corrected entry: While William unhorsed Adhemar, sans armor...it should be noted that Adhemar also broke his lance. The question is, against what? Unless he aimed for William's legs, or his horse's plating, the lance tip would have skewered William like a shish kabob.
Correction: During the unhorsing of Adhemar, Adhemar's lance is never shown striking William and only breaks upon hitting the ground.
Correction: Adhemar's lance is sheared and broken by William's own lance as he delivers the final thrust. Maybe unrealistic, but you can see it.
Corrected entry: Before the companions reach Paris, there is a camera shot which includes the Eiffel Tower. It would be factually inaccurate to place both Chaucer and the Eiffel Tower in the same place at the same time seeing as though Chaucer was around centuries before the Eiffel Tower was constructed to mark the centenial year of French Independence, in 1889.
Correction: The shot of the Eiffel Tower is a visual joke. In another scene you can see a wooden version of the London Eye, which was opened in the year 2000. (Mentioned in the commentary).
Corrected entry: William uses Sir Ector's armor, which still has his device (the emblem on the shield) painted on it. Since Sir Ector was a regular on the jousting circuit, other knights and nobles would have been able to identify the device and expose 'Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein' as an imposter.
Correction: William only used Sir Ector's armor in the very first match he competed in since he was pretending to be Sir Ector at the time anyway. He kept his face covered so he couldn't be identified. In every competition after that, William competed under his own made up symbol: the Tri-Phoenix.
Correction: It is true that Will does use Sir Ector's armour for some time, however, if you look closely in the opening joust, you can see that the emblem painted on the shield is a deer, not the phoenixes we see in the scene where Adhemar ridicules him. Furthermore, there is a deleted scene during the training sequence in which the characters sit around a campfire and come up with the idea for the new emblem.
Correction: Actually, he did compete for quite some time in Ector's armor and you can see the shield and Ector's sign. Adamar makes it a point to insult said armor in front of Jocelyn. Kate also mentions his armor when offering to make him new armor.
Corrected entry: The Royal Guards who arrested William wore a Spanish helmet. This helmet actually didn't became in fashion until the time of Elizabeth the First, 200 years later.
Correction: The helmet worn by the Royal Guard is not a Spanish helmet, it is actually a Comb Morion, which was designed and exported by the Italians and looks extremely similar to the Spanish helmet worn by Elizabeth the First's courtiers. The Comb Morion very well may have been worn by the Royal Guard in the time period of the film.
The Morion is a Spanish helmet, and wasn't in use until the 1500s. The helmet the Italians designed based on it was the Cabasset. This movie has to take place in the 1300s for Chaucer to be a character. The royal guard would be much more likely to be wearing Bascinets.
Corrected entry: At the end of the film, everyone stands up and starts to cheer for William, including Jocelyn and John. The camera focuses on them, and then goes back to William, and then zooms in on to them again. They are still standing. Then the camera zooms out, and it has gone back enough so we can see the stand, all the way to the Prince's seat. Jocelyn is running down the steps. But John is seated again.
Correction: It is safe to assume that since Jocelyn was leaving John's side to go congratulate William, that John would sit down so as not to get confused in the crowd (since he is blind). This was not a mistake.
Corrected entry: During the sword fight in the first tournament you can clearly see that William's armour has a repaired breast plate. This damage does not happen till later and is then taken to various armourers to be repaired.
Correction: It is entirely possible, in that the armor is quite old and belonged to another knight before William, that the armor had been repaired previous to the time when William breaks it and has to get it repaired.
Corrected entry: In the final joust when Sir William knocks Count Adhemar off his horse you see Adhemar land on his face wearing his helmet but then you see him laying on his back without his helmet on plus he also appears to be stunned from getting knocked off the horse.
Correction: The directors DVD commentary explains that the "lying on his back" scene is happening in Adhemar's mind. That's why we see him get knocked off the horse twice. Once when the dream sequence starts and once when it ends.
Corrected entry: When they finally arrive in London for the world championship jousting match, there's a scene showing London Bridge and the city as they would have existed back then. But if you look toward the horizon, you can see the outline of the "London Eye", the giant ferris wheel built in 1998. It's to the upper right of the screen.
Correction: The London Eye is actually made out of wood and is not the one in London today, it's just meant to be a humorous fictional older version. This is stated in the Writer/director commentary on the DVD.
Corrected entry: When there was a flashback to when William was a child, the child actor used looked exactly like the adult actor...with one major flaw: The boy had sparkling blue eyes, the man, dark brown.
Correction: This mistake has been cited in many, many other movies, and always seems to have to be addressed. A person's eyes can change color from childhood to adulthood, and the most common change is from blue to brown.
Corrected entry: During the pub scene when the French drunkards are challenging Chaucer and the others to bet that Ulrich will not win the tournament, Wat throws a fit and calls one of them Quasimodo. Quasimodo is a character from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by Victor Hugo, published in 1831 - about 500 years later. Even if Quasimodo had been based on a real person, the story took place in the 15th, not 14th, century. (01:15:55)
Correction: Quasimodo's name comes from the fact that he was found on the church steps on Quasimodo Sunday. Quasimodo Sunday (first Sunday after Easter) gets its name from the first words of the introit for that day "Quasi modo geniti infantes" - in the way of newborn infants. There are other possible reasons for them to use this name than having impossibly read Victor Hugo.
Corrected entry: When William defeats Adhemar at the end, and Adhemar is lying on the ground, the floor underneath him is blatantly not real - it appears to be some kind of mat.
Correction: It has been already stated in a previous correction that this scene is taking place in Adhemar's mind. Therefore, it is not supposed to look real and the floor under him probably looks like this on purpose. A similar-looking ground can be seen in "The Gladiator" when Maximus is waking up from his unconsciousness after being taken as a slave.
Corrected entry: When Kate the blacksmith offers to make William a brand new suit of armor, he asks what that will cost him. Kate says: "Just take me as far as Paris." When they eventually arrive in Paris later in the movie, no explanation is ever given why Kate wanted to go there. Then, when the group leaves Paris to head for the World Championships in London, Kate is still with them.
Correction: William is doing very well in all the championships. Kate obviously realises that it might be a good idea to stay with them, she may get more money and be recognised as a good blacksmith.
Corrected entry: When William is training there is a scene when he falls into the water in his full suit of armor. Each time the camera angle changes the bubbles from the water can be seen on different sides on the lance. Happens about 4 times during the scene. (00:13:40)
Correction: Actually, you only see the bubbles in the river three times. Two of these shots are from Wat's side of the river, and one is from Roland's, making it appear as if the bubbling changes sides (in relation to the rope and lance), but it is really just an effect of the angle change.
Corrected entry: In the first jousting scene after William is given his new armor from Kate, Roland and Wat lie to him about his next opponent having raised his country's taxes to pay for the tournament and then cut to a shot of his opponent trying to mount his horse. The problem is he mounts the horse from the wrong side. The knight should have mounted from the left side but can plainly be seen mounting from the right. Mounting from the left is an equine tradition dating back to the times of knights and is done because the sheath of a sword is worn on the left and gets in the way if they try to mount from the right. Surely a knight would have known this.
Correction: If you watch this particular knight try to mount his horse, you can obviously see that he has no idea what on earth he is doing, which probably means he has no idea you are supposed to mount from the left side and not the right.
Corrected entry: When William is facing Adhemar in the final match, Adhemar almost destroys Williams' frontal armor's right side (you can even see it is folded in two). When they are preparing for the second round his armor is intact again. When the second round begins, back to the destroyed armor. (01:58:20)
Correction: This is incorrect - there is no scene between the end of the first joust and the start of the second where the front right portion of the armor does not look badly dented.
Corrected entry: In the scene at the first banquet when William and Jocelyn are dancing to David Bowie. The entire dance scene was improvised by the cast at the time of filming.
Correction: During the first banquet scene, Heath Ledger choreographed the dance sequence.
Correction: The song "We Will Rock You" by Queen hadn't been written yet either, yet the peasants are shown to be dancing and singing along with the song. This is a highly fictionalized version of history. So there is no reason why the Black Prince couldn't have had his nickname a little earlier in this fantasy world.
Phixius ★