Continuity mistake: The bear strikes his left paw at Young Tristan, and he stabs his knife in the paw, but when the bear leaves, he limps on the right front leg. (This is also mentioned on the production designers' commentary track.). (00:05:20)
Continuity mistake: When the young Tristan is wounded by the bear, his arm gets hurt and the sleeve of his shirt torn. When his father treats a few seconds later the sleeve is intact again and the wound seems to be on his chest. (00:05:50)
Continuity mistake: When young Tristan gets attacked by the bear he looks for cover behind a huge tree. In the fight he cuts off one of the bear's claws which falls to the ground. When his father, brother, and One Stab come to help him Old Stab finds the claw on the opposite side of the tree. (00:05:55)
Continuity mistake: After Susannah's arrival at the ranch she takes a walk around. When she passes by the Deckers the sun has already set. In the next shot, when she talks to Isabell Two, the sun is shining again. (00:12:40)
Continuity mistake: When Suzanna comes in for dinner the first night there, all the guys raise something to give her, but Tristan goes to raise his plate. But cutting back from her reaction, he has only lifted his glass to drink. (00:15:20)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan and Samuel talk about premarital sex, some strands on Tristan's right temple hang down or are tucked behind his ear alternatingly. (00:20:30)
Continuity mistake: Just after Samuel and Alfred say that they are going to enlist, Samuel has a weird looking face and notice Alfreds shoulder right behind him, then Susanna takes a few steps up the stairs very sad and Samuel walks a couple of meters towards her and then she leaves and then it switches to Samuel with the same funny looking face and Alfred is again right behind him. (00:24:20)
Continuity mistake: In the farewell scene when the boys are leaving to enlist in Canada, we first get to see Samuel hugging Decker and Alfred hugging. Behind Alfred's neck we get a glimpse of Isabel Two's head as she is jumping up. This can only be Isabel Two approaching Tristan. In the next shot we get to see this again as the camera focus on Isabel Two running towards Tristan and jumping up into his arms. (00:27:25)
Continuity mistake: When Colonel Ludlow and Susannah are eating dinner alone and hear the Decker's laughter from the room next door, they decide to join them. Susannah grabs her plate and her glass, and the Colonel his plate and the wine decanter. When entering the Decker's kitchen, there is nothing but their own utensils, plates and glasses on the table. If Pet brought more mugs and maybe also glasses to the table, she must have been very quick since it takes seven seconds from the last shot of her sitting at the table to Susannah starts pouring wine into a black mug, and gives it to Pet. Even if we only see Susannah pouring wine into one glass in addition to the mug, there are two kitchen glasses on the table filled with wine. When they raise their glasses there is no longer any glass at Pet's place, neither at Decker's. Pet must have given her glass away to the Colonel which doesn't make sense since he left his own almost full wine glass at the dining room. The amount of wine in the Colonel's new glass also varies from shot to shot measured by the decoration. (00:31:20)
Continuity mistake: During the war scene, when Samuel gets grazed by a bullet and Tristan covers him for protection, Samuel's hat falls off. The hat reappears, then disappears again. (00:35:57)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan and Samuel hug in the trenches in the war, at first Tristan's chin is on top of Samuel's hat, but when it cuts to the other angle, their heads are level, side by side. (00:36:00)
Continuity mistake: When the second German cavalryman attacks Tristan he is aiming his rifle at him. When he gets shot down he is holding on to the reins, and the rifle is gone. (00:39:40)
Continuity mistake: When Samuel dies in the movie, if you watch closely there is blood running down his face in only every other shot. (00:43:37)
Continuity mistake: During Samuel's death where Tristan is cradling him in his arms, there is a stream of blood at the corner of Samuel's mouth. The camera cuts to Tristan's reaction, but when it cuts back to Samuel, the blood is gone. In later shots of Tristan preparing to remove his heart, the blood stream reappears. (00:44:00 - 00:44:55)
Continuity mistake: When Susannah and Alfred talk at Samuel's grave the way Susannah's hair is blown back, forward, or not moving at all changes from shot to shot. (00:48:30)
Continuity mistake: The headstone on Samuel's "heart grave" had writing in the cross bar ("We will not see him, but we shall join him"), as well as his name below followed by "born" and "died" dates. The next three times the grave marker was shown (from a distance), only "Samuel Ludlow" could be seen etched on it. (00:49:47 - 00:54:54)
Continuity mistake: When Susannah finds Tristan crying at Samuel's grave she takes him into her arms and consoles him. This is seen from different angles, with Tristan's hair behind his ear or not, and in one strange brief shot with a straight, expressionless face, very different from all others where he is sobbing hard and his face is twisted with grief. (00:53:25)
Continuity mistake: Tristan finds a calf with its legs caught in barbed wire. In the next shot, when Tristan gets down on his knees to free it, its head is also totally entangled. (01:00:15)
Continuity mistake: When the barkeeper refuses to serve One Stab beer he flaunts his club and puts it on the counter, with the handle towards him. When Tristan picks it up to hit him the club is turned by 180 degrees. (01:04:05)
Continuity mistake: When Tristin, his father, the Indian, and another man are in a bar trying to get four drinks after they were going to hunt the big grizzly bear, the bartender will not give them four drinks because of the Indian. Watch as Anthony Hopkins tries to stop Brad Pitt and as they keep looking back at the bartender and the other people. If you watch the beer with no foam, it is a little less than full and then it becomes full again. The foam also changes a little. (01:06:08)
Answer: There's nothing to tell us who the listener is. Your theory that it's probably a family member seems entirely reasonable, but there's nothing in the film that would allow the identity of the listener to be narrowed down any further than that.
Tailkinker ★