Factual error: While on the final hole, last round, the camera pans in on one of the men "inside the ropes" with the three golfers. He is wearing glasses, and they contain a greenish reflection of the late afternoon sun. This colored reflection is due to a modern anti-reflective coating put on lenses today to prevent annoying reflective glare. These coatings weren't available until the 1980's and in wide use until the 90's. (00:00:05)
Continuity mistake: At the very beginning of the movie the old Hardy Greaves is teeing off. When the camera is on him he casts a long shadow, but when the camera looks down the fairway the shadows of the trees look as if it is around noon. (00:01:30)
Revealing mistake: When little Hardy Greaves hits a ball at some golfers the ball actually flies off from somewhere on the right, not from the spot where Hardy is standing. (00:04:20)
Revealing mistake: During the war flashback there is a newspaper photograph with Captain Junuh on the shoulders of Savannah's young men. When the camera zooms into his face you can see it's someone else's, only in close-up it switches to Matt Damon's. This is surprising because in all other newspaper pictures Matt Damon is nicely worked in. (00:06:15)
Continuity mistake: When Hardy comes to talk Junuh into participating in the tournament Junuh is playing poker. While he is talking to Hardy they are not playing, but throughout the scene cards keep appearing and disappearing on the table. (00:24:05)
Continuity mistake: There is a scene when Charlize Theron is talking to Matt Damon while he is sitting in a big stuffed chair. When we see him from the front the top of his head is even with the top of the chair. When we see him from behind, his head is above the chair and his shoulders are even with the top of the chair. The camera angles keep going from front to back and it really looks bad. (00:29:20)
Continuity mistake: When Junuh is selecting a club to try out his swing, just before meeting Bagger for the first time, he selects a wood but when he actually starts hitting the club is an iron. (00:31:05)
Continuity mistake: When Junuh drives down to Krewe Island he is cheered by the people on the road. A number of times the camera is relatively close on the driving Junuh, and the people he is just passing by are missing in the background. (00:42:40)
Factual error: In the scene when it is raining, Will Smith is sitting by a shed and the kid is under a tree. The John Deere tractor in the shed has a seat with a backrest on it. This kind of seat was not used on a tractor until the 1950s. (00:44:10)
Continuity mistake: On the morning of the first day of the tournament people are standing in line for food. A woman is serving meatballs, but the men waiting already have meatballs on their plates. (00:51:00)
Continuity mistake: At the start of the big tournament Matt Damon hits a ball into a sand trap. The first view of the traps you can see the ball fully. As they get closer the ball appears to be buried in the trap. Then just before Damon hits the ball it is no longer buried. (00:55:10)
Continuity mistake: In the scene in the changing rooms, after the first round, Matt Damon walks out of the room. Will Smith points out that he has different shoes on and he comes back in to change one of them. If you look at the shot, you can see that he never takes a shoe off but somehow he has matching shoes on. This is not a couple of minutes later as his conversation with Will Smith continues throughout the scene. Therefore, this must be an editing error. (01:03:31)
Continuity mistake: After the first round Adele and Junuh are sitting on a bench talking. Adele's hairdo keeps changing from shot to shot, with an especially unruly curl sticking out on the right side for a second. (01:05:20)
Continuity mistake: After Junuh makes a hole-in-one the townspeople rush to the course. Before Hardy's father rushes off too he is shown leaning on his broom, with his hand holding the broom in three different ways up and down the handle with changing angles of the camera. (01:24:00)
Continuity mistake: On the 18th hole of the last round Junuh calls for a penalty because he moved the ball when he removed some twigs that were in the way. In close-up and wide shots the arangement of twigs around the ball changes. (01:43:20)
Continuity mistake: On Hagen's chip from just off the green on the 18th hole, the ball lands about 4 feet past the hole. When he takes the final shot, somehow it becomes a tap in. (01:49:45)
Continuity mistake: When they start the 18th hole of the last round, the sun is just starting to set (over the Atlantic Ocean, no less). When they get to their tee shots to hit their second shots, it is already pitch black. This could only be a matter of couple of minutes to walk to their next shot. And, yet, at the very end when Will Smith hears the roar of the final shot, he's walking along the beach into the setting sun? (01:52:10)
Continuity mistake: On the last hole of the match, Hagen's putt goes 5-6 feet by. However, on the next scene is shown making a 1 foot tap-in.
Factual error: When the second round of the tournament is starting and Bagger Vance is telling Rannulph Junuh about 'the field', just after Bobby Jones has taken his tee-shot, Bagger hands Junuh a ball and tee. The tee is a red plastic 'castle' style tee. Apart from being illegal in tournament play, I'm pretty sure they weren't around in the 1920's.
Continuity mistake: When Adele is speaking to the men from the town at the beginning, telling them about the golf tournament, her hair changes three or four times, from over her face, to near her ears.
Answer: There are many reasons that known actors appear in movies and are uncredited. Cameo appearances often go un-credited. Actors sometimes do a cameo if they are friends with the director or the other stars. It can add an unexpected surprise for the audience. There are also contract and payment issues if an actor receives billing in the credit. Jack Lemmon, who was the narrator for the story, may have preferred not being credited. He was certainly a big enough star that if he wanted to be listed in the credits, he would have received proper billing.
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