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Continuity mistake: When Elliot Gould finds a crate in which he thinks there is treasure Sonny Bono tries to pull him out of the building, knocking the lid off the crate. But in the next scene Gould pushes off Bono, and goes back to the crate where the lid is mysteriously nailed down hard again. (01:47:00 - 01:48:00)

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Factual error: Of the four significant Irish characters at this battle Coghill who dies defending the flag. Other characters have reference to their Irishness or their accent, but Coghill is played as if he was English by Christopher Cazenove.

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Continuity mistake: When Harry goes to Ellie's reading carrel at Princeton Library, he leaves Sam downstairs as a watch for Professor Peabody, because he is snooping. When the Professor shows up Sam makes for the lift to go up and warn Harry. There are several cut-aways, and in the next scenes Sam is getting in the lift a second time and stands in different places. The Indian student swaps standing positions with Sam each time. (01:20:00 - 01:21:00)

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Continuity mistake: In Princeton Library Harry leaves his side-kick Sam on lookout downstairs while going up to Ellie's reading carrel, to snoop on her papers. Professor Peabody arrives downstairs and Sam heads to the elevator to go up and warn Harry. There are several cut-aways showing the Professor, and Harry. Sam is entering the lift another time, also waiting in the lift just before that. (01:20:00)

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Factual error: Harry goes to the synagogue, to go through a register his grandfather's records. But he is holding the Talmud and not a register, which is entirely and Hebrew, and he's looking at it upside down. (01:05:00 - 01:06:00)

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Factual error: Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony William Durnford is played by Burt Lancaster with a thick Irish brogue. In fact, it is unlikely that Durnford spoke this way as he was educated in England, lived part of his life in Germany, and served as Royal Engineer in several British colonies.

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Factual error: The film seems - through dialogue from the soldiers and the preacher - to suggest that the Zulus were the aggressors ("savages") in this in the actual Anglo Zulu war. In fact the British had crossed illegally into Zululand to provoke a war. The crossing point of the Buffalo river into the Zulu kingdom was Rorke's Drift - and so the Zulu attack on it was not from savage whimsy, but came from a Zulu contingent eager to see action as they were reserves at Isandlwana.

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