Friday, August 19, 2005
Catching the Goofs
One of my favorite things about the Internet Movie DataBase is their listing of movie goofs. Like when levels of drinks go up and down in a movie even though no one is drinking or refilling. Or when the hands of a clock radically change positions over the course of a scene. Ninety-nine times out of ten they go unnoticed, at least by me. But lately I've been finding one or two as I watch movies I've seen two or three times already.
For instance, I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean the other day and noticed a section where the scene starts with the camera focused on the moon, then pulls down and across a ship and then ends with the ship sailing away into a lovely horizon with the moon low in the sky. I rewound the DVD watched it again, pondered it a moment and concluded that it was, in fact, a goof. I paused the disc, fired up imdb.com and there it was in their goof section.
Tonight I was watching The Fugitive. Toward the end, there's a scene where Harrison Ford takes an elevator up to the top of the Chicago Hilton. He pushes the top middle button on the elevator panel. The button to the right of it lights up. Sure enough, imdb.com had it listed in with the movie's goofs.
It's not only movies, though, where goofs slip through. There's a bit in James Scott Bell's Circumstantial Evidence, where a character is sitting in a car, smoking. He finishes his smoke, drops the butt on the gravel road and grinds it out with his shoe. Then a couple paragraphs later he opens the door and gets out of the car. How'd he do the part where he extinguishes his smoke?
Usually a movie (or book) draws me in to the point where I'm unaware of the glitches. Even when one pops up into my consciousness, it doesn't detract too much. In fact it usually drives me to pay better attention.
Any memorable mishaps you'd like to share with the group? Post 'em in the comments section.
For instance, I was watching Pirates of the Caribbean the other day and noticed a section where the scene starts with the camera focused on the moon, then pulls down and across a ship and then ends with the ship sailing away into a lovely horizon with the moon low in the sky. I rewound the DVD watched it again, pondered it a moment and concluded that it was, in fact, a goof. I paused the disc, fired up imdb.com and there it was in their goof section.
Tonight I was watching The Fugitive. Toward the end, there's a scene where Harrison Ford takes an elevator up to the top of the Chicago Hilton. He pushes the top middle button on the elevator panel. The button to the right of it lights up. Sure enough, imdb.com had it listed in with the movie's goofs.
It's not only movies, though, where goofs slip through. There's a bit in James Scott Bell's Circumstantial Evidence, where a character is sitting in a car, smoking. He finishes his smoke, drops the butt on the gravel road and grinds it out with his shoe. Then a couple paragraphs later he opens the door and gets out of the car. How'd he do the part where he extinguishes his smoke?
Usually a movie (or book) draws me in to the point where I'm unaware of the glitches. Even when one pops up into my consciousness, it doesn't detract too much. In fact it usually drives me to pay better attention.
Any memorable mishaps you'd like to share with the group? Post 'em in the comments section.
Mikesell
