Feature
| FINDING THE FLUBS: A different way to view movies
Written by: JP
MODA MAG.COM -- Movies are stories. The more correct the
presentation the more believable the plot. Some movies have gone
to great
lengths for accuracy. Surprisingly, a night-time scene in
ancient Egypt might actually have the stars in the correct position.
And the script supervisor makes the effort to have the same objects on
the set when a scene is shot as in the scene before it. After
all, slip-ups can be distracting. When a bird walked in the
background of the Enchanted Forest in "The Wizard of Oz"
(1939) it sparked a rumor that it was a worker who later killed
himself.
Flubs are slip-ups that make it into the film. Sometimes they
are noticed, but it is too expensive to redo the scene. In the
movie "North by Northwest" (1959) there is a scene where you
can see a child putting his fingers in his ears before gunshots are
fired. That wasn't part of the script. He knew the scene
would
have a loud noise from the first take.
In "Gone With the Wind" (1939) When trying to get Doc
Meade, Scarlett runs past a lamp post containing an electric bulb.
That shot would have been impossible considering that it takes place
many years before the light bulb is even invented.
The most common flub is when a microphone is seen. But not all
movie theaters show the full image of the projection. So, it is
not seen by everyone. Television also crops the image.
Some flubs happen too briefly to be noticed.
Nowadays, there are videos that people can watch several times. There
are DVD movies that allow people to enlarge the image. It is
easier to become very familiar with the movie. Plus there is the
internet. You can read of flubs in movies and report any you
find (sort of like what we are doing here, eh?).
It can be fun to find a geographical error in a movie.
"Troy" (2004) has a subtitle, "The Port Of Sparta"
yet Sparta is inland. In the movie "Hidalgo" (2004) it says
Damascus is the finish line for the race. In the end you see the
finish line is mere yards from the sea. Damascus is 60 miles
inland.
An anachronism is an error where something is shown or mentioned that
hasn't happened yet. In the movie "Titanic" (1997)
Jack mentions
ice fishing in Wisconsin on Lake Wisota. The Titanic sank in 1912,
and Lake Wisota, a manmade lake, wasn't built until 1917. You can
also see people using filtered cigarettes which were not made until
several decades later.
Differences between what actually happened and what the movie shows
are not flubs. They are sometimes done on purpose to help the plot.
"Troy" (2004) was based upon a poem, the "Iliad."
In the poem,
Achilles is killed by Paris during the war. Paris was killed
during
the war. Helen then married Paris' brother, Deiphobus, who was
also
killed. Menelaus was actually one of the people in the wooden
horse.
After the Greeks captured Troy, Helen and Menelaus were reunited.
Agamemnon lived to return home.
Plot holes are also fun to find. In "Home On The
Range" (2004) the plan
is to put 5,000 cattle on one train. That would require a train
about
two miles long. "Jane Doe" (2001) has the lead
character with a pistol
after she gets her son back. But no indication of where it came
from.
For enquiring minds, on the web there is a wealth of information to
be found on movie flubs:
Movie Mistakes
IMDB
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~frog1/
Nitpickers
(Which includes a list of the "Top Ten Nitpicked Movies")
The more popular the film the more goofs are discovered. It is
becoming a fun pastime and a way to enjoy seeing a film often.
At "Whoops! Movie Goofs" [ http://www.saunalahti.fi/~frog1/
] they actually had to suspend the addition of movie flubs. The
webmaster has over
2,000 emails of movie goofs to sort through.
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