Movie Mistakes

05 Feb 2009 13:35 by Mark

People have been making movies longer than you or I were born. You'd think with that amount of experience to draw upon they'd make better films, wouldn't you? Sadly, no. The vast majority of the vast majority of films are utter dross and even those films that rise up and float on the sea of crud are not without their flaws.

Let's take a look at some of the movie mistakes and bloopers in a few of my favourite films.

The Outlaw Josey Wales
Continuity errors are the bane of any film's editor. Sometimes a simple error can go more-or-less unnoticed but at other times the mistake is there for everyone to see and anyone watching the film will wonder out loud: how did they not spot that before they released it? A prime example is shown below from The Outlaw Josey Wales where one of the two bounty hunters waiting in Santa Rio suddenly changes headwear after his pal is shot in the saloon.



The Man Who Would Be King
Sean Connery had developed an allergy to horses during his filming of Zardoz the year before which made 1975's The Man Who Would Be King a real problem for the entire production. Stunt doubles were used extensively as were, unfortunately, pantomime horses, one of which accidentally ended up in the final cut of the film.



12 Angry Men
The 1957 movie is a masterpiece of atmospheric action as twelve jurors decide the fate of a kid accused of murdering his father. For most of the movie John Fielder sports a rather nondescript tie, however, as shown below, this changes in the middle of one scene to a novelty Pacman variation. A few seconds later and it reverts back.



WarGames
The script to WarGames was rewritten numerous times during the actual production of the film to accommodate Dabney Coleman's increasingly problematic addiction to moustaches. One of the effects of these rewrites was the removal of David's (Matthew Broderick) imaginary leprechaun, the catalyst for all of his computer shenanigans. However, during the early scenes in the games arcade you can still see the phantasm present in the machine's reflection.



Krull
It's very difficult to help fund a fantasy movie by including product placement and it became clear that 1983's Krull would have to save costs by using a large number of British actors and actresses instead (by the way, good call with Lysette Anthony, hubba hubba). The set for the Black Fortress, though, was not completely cleared of strategically-located Coca Cola vending machines and one of these can be clearly seen during the heroes' assault towards the end of the film.