THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON—BRAD’S SUNGLASSES

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a fantasy drama about an individual, played by Brad Pitt, who aged in reverse—that is to say, he was born an old man and was getting younger and younger with time. It was kind of interesting to see the plight of a man who was in this weird, convoluted predicament, and Pitt, to his credit, did an excellent job. But just because his aging was reversed, doesn’t mean that time, too, was reversed. Because for one scene, we see Pitt’s character wearing a pair of Ray-Bans that hadn’t been introduced until another 8 years after the film was set.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN—REDSHIRTS FROM THE FUTURE

In the film Pirates of the Caribbean, the English army was all dressed in red, which would have been impossible if we were to take the timeline seriously, since the events of the film supposedly happened in the 1720s, a full two decades before red-shirted English infantrymen became a thing. In any case, the franchise did include preternatural characters and walking dead pirates, so this particular costume blunder would have been excusable were it not for the $100-million worth of investment money that was set aside for the film’s production.

SEABISCUIT—NO HELMET OF THAT SORT EXISTED YET

One might mistakenly assume from the title of the film that it’s about flour-based food products taken from the sea, but it’s actually about a racehorse named Seabiscuit, and it’s actually a great movie if the critical consensus is anything to go by. But like a lot of movies, mistakes were made, people were fired, lawyers were hired, and the whole shebang. We don’t actually know if any of that happened, but what we do know is that those helmets the horse racers wore onscreen were only made available long after the Great Depression, which was when the film was set.

STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK—JACKET PUTS ITSELF ON

This film, which is also known as Episode V, was part of the space opera that George Lucas concocted. We, of course, don’t need to remind anyone of just how massively successful it was—and how massively expensive it was to produce. Indeed, the studio reportedly intended to spend only $18 million for the film’s production but had to divert another $15-million worth of investment money just to finish the film. So, it’s a wonder that Han Solo’s disappearing jacket wasn’t caught in the editing room. I mean, he had his jacket off for one scene, only for it to be back on a moment later, and to be back off a moment after that.

THE NOTEBOOK—CHANGING HAIR COLOR

This 2004 romantic drama film that had us tearing our hair out inside the theater after the film’s final scene was, to a huge degree, one of the saddest things we’ve seen in our lives. Ryan Gossling and Rachel McAdams played two people who fell in love but were forced to separate due to their different social circumstances. But the film wasn’t without its faults, however; for one scene, Lon, who played McAdam’s fiancé, had his hair change from black to brown from one scene to the next, seemingly like magic. It was an egregious continuity error that wasn’t caught in the editing room.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD—BOOTS OF THE FUTURE

If you haven’t seen this movie, well, you have to see it. It stars the consummate method actor Daniel Day-Lewis, who’s an absolute beast in this film, in terms of his preternatural ability to channel a ruthless miner-turned oil magnate, who’s teetering on the brink of absolute moral bankruptcy. To be sure, it won’t be easy to find any fault in this film, given how good it is, but there was one particular scene that had nitpicky viewers left ajar. It was when Day-Lewis wore boots with waffle soles, an advancement in boot technology that hadn’t been introduced until 70 years after the film was set.

POMPEII—THE UNPUNISHED PURPLE WEARERS

Purple dye existed during the time of emperor Nero, so, to some degree, that’s one thing the movie got right. But it would have been impossible for Roman General Corvus, played by Kiefer Sutherland, to have been able to wear purple. The same for any of his subordinates or the other affluent characters in the film that wore purple. And the simple reason for this is that emperor Nero was crazy, and made the act of wearing purple punishable by death. Of course, rather conveniently, Nero made himself the exception in this ridiculous anti-purple law.

BEN-HUR—THE STAR OF DAVID

Ben-Hur was reportedly the biggest-budgeted film of its time. Indeed, the scale of the production seemed crazy, and one immediately gets the feeling that the producers spent a ton of money for the film, especially by the standards of the ‘60s, when this film was made. So, with all the investment money that’s been exhausted for the film’s creation, one reasonably assumes that mistakes were avoided. But, no! Prior to the epic chariot race, someone pins the Star of David to Ben-Hur’s belt, and this would have been fine were it not for the fact that the Star of David didn’t become a Jewish symbol until the middle ages, 400 years after the film was set.

UNFORGIVEN—THOSE BELT LOOPS

This epic revisionist Western flick starring Clint Eastwood was also one of the many films that he directed. It was about a legendary outlaw who was hired to make quick work of a bunch of prostitute-disfiguring lawmen. Of course, we’re talking about Clint here, who’s, to a huge degree, an icon of cinema, so of course, he manages to kill the lawmen and everyone else who got in his way. But one scene showed Gene Hackman’s pants having belt loops in them, which would have been impossible in 1880 since belt loops hadn’t been invented yet. Indeed, belt loops didn’t exist until the 1920s.

QUADROPHENIA—THE BAND THAT WASN’T

Franc Roddam’s Quadrophenia was about a man named Jimmy who found solace in his friends, drugs, and music, up to the point when these all turned on him. It was the film that marked Roddam’s directorial debut, so maybe we should cut him some slack and instead, give him credit for creating a film that critics praised as authentic. Or, actually, maybe not. Maybe we should, like the nitpicking dunderheads that we are, call the film out on its mistake. Yeah, we’re going for the latter: there was a scene where a rocker wore a Motorhead shirt (Motorhead is a rock band, by the way) a decade before the band was formed.