Is it just us car guys?

I was reading through the American Graffiti thread, and got to thinking. Is it just us car guys that pick apart the movies when it comes to cars. I always find that I spot cars that are too new for the era the movie, or hubcaps that come off during a scene but there in the next scene, or damaged fenders, or stunts that would destroy cars,etc, etc.

Is there any other hobby where people pick stuff apart? By the way I love doing it, and it sometimes drives me nuts what they try to get away with, but it's still fun.

 

Sounds like you been watching reruns of "the dukes of hazzard".....LOL

 

The new CBS show "Vegas " is a prime example. I is supposed to be set in 1960 ... but a lot of later model vehicles are in it. I have noticed 63 Fords and others in the show.

But I do like the show.

There is a old John Wayne movie and it has the attack of Pearl Harbor ... in the film. John is seen in a 46 to 48 Ford convertible on Dec. 7, 1941. I did know which year model the Ford actually was ... but it escapes me at the moment.

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I can't watch any movie with a gun scene in it without finding something wrong. I sometimes think the inaccuracies are done on purpose because it's what most people think happens and adds some level of effect to the movie/show. I think it bothers the people around me more then me because of my constant complaining.

 

I think every Military or Ex-Military person does the same. Drives me crazy in movies when, say an AR-15 finishes a Mag and keeps 'Clicking' cycling through trying to fire.
Or when fireing Mortars the round is dropped into the tube with no charge bags! And still fires!!
I will shut up now or I will be here all day!!

Doc.

 

Yeah, gun stuff is my pet hate after car stuff.
Grates me to see guys constantly having to re-cock a AK47 or similar after only m 5 or 6 shots...or silencers the size of a Berocca tube that totally silence the weapon....or guys who have been carrying a pistol for ages that suddenly have to drop the mag, look at it and ram it back in before racking the weapon and heading off to do battle..WTF, didn't they know its status up until just then???

 

movies that have bands or "live" portions, the equipment is wrong almost all the time. not all of it, but something is from to new an era. buddy holly story, drum set is to new. or they choose a microphone because it looks old. a lot of times they put up a recording mic that is supposed to be in a live setting, or they use the typical shure "elvis" mic, but their talking or singing in to the back of it. i should'nt bother me but it does. or if a guys in a love scene with a girl, but the girl turns out to be a guy also, takes me right out of the movie

 

It goes the same with all hobbies. I'm a pinball guy and it drives me nuts to see a newer electronic game with the old school pinball noises dubbed in. I think it's just our attention to detail. No matter WHAT hobby we're interested in, we want them portrayed as accurate as possible. Hollywood however, has another idea. The drama and theatrics sell better than accuracy. Oh well...

 

Dumbing-down; cultivating an appetite for bullshit. There's a cui bono? in there ...

 

drives me nuts. a short trip.

 

Ask any sci-fi nut if Han Solo shot first. Then get back to us.

 

How about when they shoot a "drivng" scene through the windshield on a sound stage and the whole time the actor is drivng the car the shift lever is in park. Funny too how some movies seem pretty good from years ago, then you watch them years later and realise how bad they are. Saw part of "White Lightning" a while back, and the actual stunt drivng was great, however, again the through the winshield shots are soooo stupid. Burt is leading the cops in a high speed chase and as he is drivng, he keeps turning around and looking out the back window to see if they are still after him. For like 5 seconds at a time. There is no way a person could have kept that car under control at those speeds looking out the back window half the time. I still like the movie though. But yes hollywood is annoying in that they get it almost right but always manage to screw it up somehow. Though some argue points about American Grafitti I still say its the best car movie, and probably the best movie period. I must stop now or I will be here all day.

 

Just imagine if you were into Civil War history, every movie wrong flags, wrong uniforms, wrong swords,wrong saddles, wrong cannon ,etc..

 

".or guys who have been carrying a pistol for ages that suddenly have to drop the mag, look at it and ram it back in before racking the weapon and heading off to do battle..WTF, didn't they know its status up until just then???[/QUOTE]

>>>>Actually, any time you go into a situation which can screw you over, you should double check. That includes the garage it doesn't take long to double check that the fire extinquisher is ready to work, that you've gone thru the checklist of tools needed for the job, etc...not nearly as long as the hospital stay, or the walk into town for the oil filter that fits the junkyard engine you put in that isn't the year of the car, after you've drained all the oil out, etc.

as for Hollywood getting details wrong, remember, they're like Detriot--they're out to make a buck. If they use a bolt on a musclecar that's different than the bolts they've used on the prior 50 musclecars, they won't worry that a restorer in the future is going to lose points at a show for having the right bolt that's wrong.

 

Also have to remember...the prop people can't be experts in every field....and it may come down to not be able to find the exactly perfect item for the scene when they need it. So they just have to get the next closest thing.

 

screeching tires during a 'burnout' on a dirt road, that one always gets me to chuckle!

every car, no matter what movie or kind of car ALWAYS sounds like it has a huge cam and dual exhaust.

and is it just me, or do you guys all cringe just a little when an old car gets wrecked in a film?

 

I like the advertisement in which the ford car flys off the edge of a cliff and keeps going. If you look at the small writing on the screen it says " car cannot actually fly".. Because you know some fuck wit will try to fly it off a cliff

 

You laugh but I've squawked tires of an old 390 powered Ford truck on hard sand.

and yes I get pissed the minute I see an old car in a film because I know it's going to get wrecked! grrr

As for AG. If there are any errors they are mainly do to the low budget of the film. You do see a lot of the same cars over and over on the street, again low budget limited amount of cars.

Bigger budget films have much worse continuity errors. Lucas is a consummate car guy and it showed but even in Tucker the "tin goose" was not accurate as they used a production car ( Coppolas' own car I think) which had turn signals and a different bumper insert up front.

 

I do it on every movie or tv showI watch.

 

I remember one Dukes of Hazzard episode with a stunt where Roscoe P. Coltrane's patrol car goes flying through the air. Roscoe goes up in a Plymouth and comes down in a Dodge.

 

I try not to look for fault in the movies,,the directors have always been known to take liberty's with their movies,,add this remove that,which doesn't always match up to the era much like a lot of you guys have pointed out.

This also holds true with a lot of us hot rodders that push the envelope mixing in different eras with our builds,,not always correct for the time period but we enjoy it anyway! HRP

 

All of these same things haunt avation movies. Aircraft and airplane nuts are very critical
when it comes to fakery.

.....................Jack

 

Instead getting all wound up in it, do what my 12 year old son and I do: we love to watch "Twilight Zone" reruns and also love to pick apart the goofs. Like where Peter Falk was a Cuban dictator, and when they showed a scene where his back was to the window, you could clearly see a crease in the sky, because it was a painting, not actual sky! Then there was an episode that was a cowboy-era western, yet on the mountain in the background you could see telephone lines and a delivery van driving. To us it makes the movie more enjoyable, plus it keeps me from being "that guy" that forgets that it's a movie meant for entertainment, not for precise details in every aspect. Does anyone here remember a 1968 movie with a green Mustang and a black Charger? How many hubcaps fell off? How many thousands of times do they shift gears? How many times did they pass a green VW? It's all good, just don't get too wound up in the details that you forget it's fun.

 

Well with the buddy holly story, 90% of the time the instruments are just wrong. The scene at the bowling ally he's playing a bronco. He also plays a CBS strat and some other fun stuff like that. Also, they use brownface/blackface amps, another thing that Buddy Holly never saw. It sucks being a guitar geek. It makes me hate that movie.

La bamba is pretty much spot on though.

 

How about the Navy diver film where he dives into the pond as a young lad. My wife was watching this when I happened to walk in. As soon as I saw there was a truck in the pond I had to watch. How does a 38 Chevy pickup have a 50 Chevy steering wheel, when it supposed to have happened before WWII? She asked me to go back to the garage, and quit ruining the movie.

 

For the other extreme.....watch the animated movie "Cars" over and over again (if you have kids, you know what I mean). The attention to detail in that movie is incredible. Every time I watch it I see something I missed before. The big Hollywood productions could learn something from Pixar.

 

Yep, The Dukes of Hazzard. One scene they jump as always, the front of the charger gets all mashed and curled upward. Amazingly as soon as they get throught the jump, not even a scratch.

 

Burt Reynolds as Gator Mcklusky shifting a 4 spd, then putting it in park later in the same movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i098eHCkzxA

 

sports

 

I know I just posted on this a few minutes ago, but ironically, I just went to watch a History Channel program, "Crime Wave:18 months of mayhem" and in it, they show lots of 1930's era stuff. In one scene, they show some gang holed up in what appears to be a remote lodge. Outside are parked their cars: a stock 1934 sedan and three other cars. The other cars are a dropped '34 Tudor on what appears to be chrome 15" Tru-spokes, a brownish '34 Fordor sedan on 15" slot mags and a dropped Model A sedan. All have obvious hot rod rakes and they even show the '34 Fordor later being stopped by the cops and it clearly has bigs and little and slot mags! The only thing I can figure is that because the scene was shot at night, the film guys thought nobody would notice! But they didn't count on some random hot-rodder with too much time on his hands on a Saturday morning, now did they?