THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL—WRONG HAIRSTYLE

The beauty of both Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson was overflowing onscreen, but this supposedly period piece made a few costume blunders that, to a huge degree, grated the sensibilities of costume design perfectionists the world over. Among those blunders was one scene showing the hair of Portman, which wasn’t tied back as it should have been for the French hood her character was sporting. People were quick to point out that, during the 1500s when the film was set, women in such French hoods would have worn their hair back.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN—THE BLACK BOOTS

If anything, this film mistake tells us that Steven Spielberg, who is often credited as the greatest director that ever lived, is actually human. I mean, of course, we know that he is, but he’s just so great at his work that we can’t be blamed for sometimes forgetting. The particular mistake in the movie that I’m referring to the boots used by the American soldiers for the film. They were all black, despite that the standard-issue during World War 2 should be brown boots. It’s a small mistake, to be sure, but it’s one that a costume designer with a huge budget to work with should have expressly avoided.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN—AMY ADAM’S’ BRACES

Catch Me If You Can, the film that chronicled the life of Frank Abagnale, Jr. (who was able to con those around him into believing he was a pilot, a lawyer, and a doctor), showed a young Amy Adams in braces for one scene. That would have been fine if it were not for the fact that the design of her braces didn’t come out until the ‘70s, a decade after the scene was set. Interestingly enough, despite that many have accused Steven Spielberg, the film’s director, of taking more than a few liberties in his portrayal of Mr. Abagnale, Jr.’s life, it was the latter himself that said only Spielberg could “do the film justice.”

THE WIZARD OF OZ—TRHE RUBY RED SLIPPERS

This 1939 American musical film is, to a huge degree, often ranked among the greatest films ever made in history. Indeed, nobody can deny the film—and the story’s—cultural significance. Everyone knows about the adventures of Dorothy Gale in the land of Oz. But despite that, this film is also known to have an inordinate amount of continuity errors, from Dorothy’s changing hair length, to her dress abruptly going from dirty to clean—it’s a lot to discuss! But we’ll focus on the most well-known, which involved her ruby red slippers. Because for one scene, Dorothy was caught not wearing them! Those who know the story of the Wizard of Oz know that those red slippers are what Ruby should be wearing all throughout!

GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK—NAME TAGS, NOPE

Good Night and Good Luck, the historical drama directed by the always-dapper George Clooney, was an absolutely excellent film, for critics and audiences alike. Indeed, the film garnered a 93% positive rating in review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. One amusing thing about the film was the degree to which people criticized the actor who played McCarthy for being too unrealistic in his acting, wholly ignorant of the fact that it was the real, actual McCarthy from archival footage they were looking at. In any case, the mistake in the film that made it to this list was its use of name tags—those name tags were introduced in the ‘60s, a full decade after the film was set.

AMERICAN HUSTLE—THE ROLEX WATCH THAT DIDN’T EXIST

American Hustle, the star-studded black comedy directed by David O. Russell, rustled some watch aficionado feathers when it featured C.K. Louis wearing a Rolex GMT Master II with a ceramic bezel. The problem, they say, is that the film was set in the ‘80s, and that particular Rolex watch hadn’t been introduced until 25 years later. That and the fact that the watch costs around $30,000, which would have made it totally out of reach for an FBI supervisor, is what called into question the millions of dollars of investment money spent on the film’s costume design team.

AMADEUS—THE IMPOSSIBLE ZIPPER SITUATION

Amadeus, the biographical drama that chronicled—or, at least, tried to chronicle—the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was a huge hit, winning 40 out of the 50 awards it was nominated for. But since it’s on this list, you know they got something wrong. To be honest, the costumes were amazing, and the designer deserves every bit of credit for this. But they did get more than one thing wrong, and for expedience, we’ll focus on Mozart’s zipper situation. Namely, his clothes had them. Considering that zippers hadn’t been invented for another hundred years after the film was set, this was a pretty egregious costume blunder.

THE COLOR PURPLE—ALBERT’S CLIP-ON TIE

The Color Purple is another of Steven Spielberg’s films— it looks like there are a lot of them on this list—that had a costume mishap. Yes, apparently, the people of 1913 weren’t lazy enough to be wearing clip-on ties, which is one of the blunders of this movie, since it featured Danny Glover’s character Albert Johnson using one, despite that it would be a decade after the film was set when people would start becoming lazy enough to need them. But I suppose it’s fitting that the one character in the film that most reeked of moral bankruptcy was chosen to wear a clip-on.

GANGS OF NEW YORK—FIREMEN’S COSTUMES WERE TOO MODERN

Gangs of New York, the epic drama film that starred such Hollywood heavyweights as Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis, was such a powerhouse of a film. It was even created with the legendary directorial powers of Martin Scorsese of Goodfellas and Casino Fame. Which is why it was so jarring to see this particular costume blunder in an otherwise excellent film. And if you ask us, the costume designer should have taken more online classes on the subject of late 19th-century attire. What was the mistake, you ask? Well, the firefighters in one scene had outfits no different from that of their modern New York counterparts.

BACK TO THE FUTURE—MARTY’S ELECTRIC GUITAR

Back to the Future, the lovable time-traveling classic that won everyone’s hearts in the ‘80s had more than one scene that was, how shall we say, unbelievable. It’s a film about time-traveling, after all. But one particular blunder that’s left guitar connoisseurs the world over scratching their heads in disbelief was Marty’s electric guitar. In the scene where Marty was splaying everyone’s bodies with electricity with his rendition of Johnny B. Goode, he was using a Gibson ES-345 guitar, which wasn’t introduced until 3 years after the film was set.