I sure wish TV producers would do a little better research when putting together their shows. I’m watching a segment of Mysteries at the Museum regarding Illness due to contaminated shaving kits on the front during WW1. A French grunt in a trench grabs his rifle and shoots over the top. Lucky guy that he was, he had an M1 carbine. I almost dropped my coffee cup. A few scenes later another grunt is using a Garand. It took the US over 20 years to catch up. Now I’m wiser. Sort of like referring Wikipedia as an information source.

The reenactments on that show are horrible!!

It's a pity because the topics of that show are interesting a lot of the time.
Sometimes I wonder if they care and just can't afford better props.

I’ve seen a TV movie in which an 1873 Trapdoor rifle was used in a Revolutionary War scene, and a Garand Rifle operated as a bolt-action Springfield in a WW1 movie too. Never rely on Hollywood history for accuracy. And let’s not forgot WW1 Germans using British Mk4 Enfields in the movie “Blue Max”.

Yeah, many of these newer "history" shows really cut corners on researching and procuring the gear used in their live-action recreation scenes.

Back in the day, history shows about WW1/WW2 used actual footage from the war.

But nowadays, they try to include live-action scenes cobbled together with actors outfitted on a shoestring budget with whatever the propmaster has in the trunk of his car or can quickly procure at the local army surplus store.

One of the worst offenders in recent memory was the much-hyped History Channel show "The World Wars" from a few years ago. Its scenes were dreadfully innacurate. German soldiers shooting Enfields and stainless steel lever-actions. WW1 soldiers charging into battle wearing Cold War Soviet gas masks. WW1 soldiers storming trench accompanied by a WW2-era M5 Stuart tank. CGI T-34s with American markings fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.

Just terribly lazy. No attention to detail, and minimal attempt at historical accuracy.

Having worked on TV and movie sets I’m willing to forgive some prop mistakes, especially for TV where the budgets aren’t typically anywhere close to movie budgets.

You have to keep in mind that of everyone there only a few, maybe only one, knows the difference between the guns being used.

Also movies and shows aren’t shot as one continuous piece and in order. For shows like The World Wars as mentioned above, it isn’t like they shot all of WWI and then should have put all the props away but forgot a rifle. They probably shot WWI and WWII footage on the same day and on the same stage. And then after shooting the film goes to the edit room to get chopped and pieced together. Then they may go reshoot scenes. So the guys with the wrong gas masks may have shot that scene 20 times with the correct mask but got called back a week later to reshoot and the gas mask guy was busy on another set so they grabbed the wrong ones.

Like a lot of things in life, it’s hard to fully understand the complexity of a set until you’ve spent time on them. I know I sure as hell didn’t and now that I have stuff that used to bother me doesn’t always as much. I’m more worried about factual information than the props involved. To a point at least.

Don’t get me wrong, some stuff still bothers me. Like a 47 shot Colt SAA

Lol no wonder why it took so long to beat the Hun back in Dubya Dubya One! They had them rifles that you load on Sunday and shoot all week!

I enjoyed the World Wars but yea the gun nerd in me kept having issues...

I saw the same show this morning and thought, "Is that guy shooting a Garand in WW I ?" Then a few minutes later, " Wait a minute ! Where did that guy get an M1 carbine ?"

Yeah but no Starbucks cups or plastic water bottles.

Shoestring budget, remember? They get hose water, and have to bring their own cups of Folgers.

What is wrong with hose water? That is what we drank as a kid. I remember being told to let the hose run if it had been in the sun and suck it up if it tasted funny. Were not allowed in the house. Yeah the parents drank Folgers with city water which we were not allowed to touch.

Despite the fact that all the live re-enactments have some mistake or short cuts, I really don’t care because the show is both interesting and educational.

quote:

Despite the fact that all the live re-enactments have some mistake or short cuts, I really don’t care because the show is both interesting and educational.

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I pretty much agree. When the producers start changing or altering historical facts is when I become concerned. My visual attention to detail is below average. I do recall an acquaintance of mine who is a History Prof tell me that some of the stuff on the History Channel is historically inaccurate.

The Chernobyl series for example has a number of fictional characters such as the female physicist. I guess she was added to make the story more interesting. I do not look at the series as a historical recreation so it does not concern me.

And how about in one scene or take, we have a Sig. Flash to the next scene and its morphed into a Glock.
Example:
The Nepal Bar shootout scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indy opens up with a revolver and while under fire, seamlessly switches to an auto.