one of my favorites, being a drummer, is in either Gettysburg or Gods and Generals. The army comes out of the forest and forms their battle lines preparing for an assault. The camera runs down the line and passes by two drummer boys, one of which has a big Remo logo on his drumhead.

Now here’s an anachronism for you; look closely to what’s in Lee’s left hand.

I’m not sure if you’re serious, but that book is about time travelers who equip the South with modern weapons.

quote:

Originally posted by Windhover:
I’m not sure if you’re serious, but that book is about time travelers who equip the South with modern weapons.

That is true; but Turtledove stated he wrote that book after he saw that anachronistic photo that someone had created as a fun project, as a “what if...”.

I'm pistol whipping the next author that writes about the smell of Cordite in a work set in modern times.

How about the entire series of Bonanza takes place before 1870 and they all have SAA colts or clones. But they get an honorable mention because they used cap and ball the first few episodes perhaps the first season but was just too much effort to reload for the prop guys compared to 5:1 blanks. Fun find a few years ago, we were in a state park in St George UT that had been used for several westerns of Hollywood filming and I found a very corroded old REM UMC 5:1 fired blank off the main trail.

I was playing high school football in the late 80s and early 90s and lots of guys on my team had clear and tinted visors on their helmets. Most linemen cut them off after 1 game cause they got too dirty/muddy and we didn’t have an equipment guy to change them out and the tear off style were not available or way too expensive. Receivers or players who weren’t on the ground in almost every play didn’t have that problem

quote:

Originally posted by CD228:
I'm pistol whipping the next author that writes about the smell of Cordite in a work set in modern times.

I have read references to the smell of cordite in modern nonfiction by British authors. Perhaps it’s become acceptable usage for the smell of anything having to do with guns or explosives.

I thought that The Guns of the South was one of Harry Turtledove’s best alternative histories, but the social aspects of the ending struck me as unrealistic. But there’s all that “willing suspension of disbelief” thing again.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

quote:

Originally posted by CD228:
I'm pistol whipping the next author that writes about the smell of Cordite in a work set in modern times.

I have read references to the smell of cordite in modern nonfiction by British authors. Perhaps it’s become acceptable usage for the smell of anything having to do with guns or explosives.

In Britain, yes. The Brits used cordite for military small arms ammo propellant from the end of the 1800s up until the 1970s. So the phrase has become synonymous with the smell of any discharged firearm in British vernacular.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
So the phrase has become synonymous with the smell of any discharged firearm in British vernacular.

Then I wasn’t just imagining things. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
one I THINK I noticed was in No Country For Old Men

the main protagonist Lewellyn (sp) finds that nifty mini MP5 on the drug dealers out in the desert.

It was an SP-89.. which wasn't out in 1980 (or it would have been the SP-80)

Nor was the Remington 11-87 shotgun. (an 1100 would have been okay, but as gun people we look too close.)

The line about going to an ATM always struck me as out of place, yes there were ATMs in 1980, but not a lot. I don't think most people would have known what an ATM was.


As for US tanks used as German tanks in older movies, I can excuse that. It's not like the movie studios had a fleet of panzers somewhere and were just too lazy to use them.


The one thing that drives me crazy in both modern and old movies, and TV especially, was the writers lack of looking into what money was worth at the time. I cringed the other day watching something where someone paid $2k perform some trivial job. (equal to 3-4 months wages at the time)

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Other anachronisms are in expressions and dialogue. The guy who’s taken up writing the W.E.B. Griffin series of books is particularly careless in that regard, I believe, with his World War II characters using expressions from decades later.

Are you referring to W.E. Butterworth IV? Or has someone else taken up the mantle?

I try not to let that type of error bother me too much, but I do notice them. The last one that grated on my nerves was the WWII OSS agent using C4 explosive. No real excuse for that...

The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has a “gaffes” section for each movie where sharp-eyed people can send in the anachronisms they find in movies, it’s fun to see how many people actually find.

I see little goofs all the time in The Goldbergs like when they show a person holding a beer or soda can, the cans from the 1980’s were a different shape than the ones we have now but they always show them with a modern can in their hand.

History Channel goofs are legendary.

The props in that series were terrible. Germans with Enfields and stainless lever rifles. Patton riding a WW2 era Stuart tank through the trenches of the WW1 Western Front. WW1 soldiers with late Cold War Soviet gas masks. The list goes on.

Just awful.

And another favorite from the History Channel.

As has been said about Pravda and truth, and Izvestia and news, the same can be said about History Channel and history.

quote:

Originally posted by motor59:
Are you referring to W.E. Butterworth IV?

Yes, primarily him, but his father, the original W.E.B., was guilty of a few mistakes, if not anachronisms per se that I could recognize. After seeing him mischaracterize how/why Army warrant officers were appointed in a couple of books I even wrote to him about it. I don’t know if my letter had any influence on him, but I never saw the mistake again.

Of course Griffin’s style of writing was highly formulaic and odd in other ways. One of his later books was even an obvious parody of himself. Nevertheless, I kept going back to them and read all that Griffin wrote himself. I’ve about given up on Butterworth, though.

Just watched The Horse Soldiers on TCM.
Lots of 1873 Trapdoors in use during the Civil War!

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Just watched The Horse Soldiers on TCM.
Lots of 1873 Trapdoors in use during the Civil War!

They also had Colt Single Action Armys with loading levers welded to them to sort of look like cap and ball revolvers. They tried a little.

I knew I had a photo somewhere...

I just watched Greyhound with Tom Hanks. Now, don't get me wrong, it was well-paced and the CGI wasn't bad...but as an amateur historian with a rather good understanding of the Battle of the Atlantic and various things nautical, some things ground my gears - scuttles and watertight doors left open in the middle of the Atlantic (at "general quarters" to boot), U-boats on the surface without any lookouts on the bridge, ship stopping in the "gap" to bury crewmen at sea complete with firing party and all essential personnel gathered on deck instead of at their stations....Detracted from an otherwise decent piece of work.