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Jun 15, 2024

A Car In The Middle Ages? 10 Worst Mistakes In Historical Movies

Making a movie is hard enough without the need for total historical accuracy. In the case of period dramas, there are even more ways to make mistakes. Historical accuracy can be difficult to get right

Making a movie is hard enough without the need for total historical accuracy. In the case of period dramas, there are even more ways to make mistakes.

Historical accuracy can be difficult to get right in the movies, and many of the biggest period films of all time are guilty of some noticeable mistakes. Historical epics and dramas have been a mainstay of Hollywood since the earliest days of filmmaking. If done well, these movies can be a big box office draw, crossing the legitimacy of true stories or classic works of literature with the pleasures of genre cinema. For this reason, such films are often furnished with weighty budgets meant to ensure that the production feels authentic to its time period. However, the bigger the production, the more likely something will slip through the cracks.

Contemporary films are generally safer from mistakes than historical movies since they only need to obscure the artifice of the filmmaking in order to achieve a sense of authenticity. In period dramas, there are numerous ways in which an error can sneak into the final film. On top of obvious goofs such as poor continuity and accidentally including unwanted objects in the frame, the historical movie must ensure that every aspect is authentic to the constantly expanding field of knowledge that covers the lived experience of the past. If a movie overlooks a detail in research or simply fails to fact-check an assumed claim, its legitimacy takes a blow.

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln received considerable critical praise upon its release in 2012. Daniel Day Lewis’s turn as Abraham Lincoln in the biopic was considered one of the best performances of the 2010s, while the film’s detailed production design ultimately earned Lincoln one of its two Oscars. However, one mistake that could easily be overlooked seems glaringly obvious once pointed out. In the scene where Congress votes on the 13th Amendment, every seat in the chamber is filled. However, 18 of those seats should have been empty, since Lincoln takes place during the American Civil War, during which multiple states had seceded from the union.

The 2003 historical action epic The Last Samurai tells a thrilling story, but the film faced criticism for the inaccuracies of some of its portrayals. While a wider debate concerns the film’s romanticization of Japanese history and specifically the nature of samurai, the film also contains some pretty concrete mistakes. The most overt error comes in a scene that shows an American flag with 43 stars; The Last Samurai is set in 1876, a time when there were only 39 states in the Union and thus 39 stars on the flag. In another example, the film depicts Japanese soldiers firing off single-round muskets several times in a row without reloading.

Greta Gerwig’s intimate period drama Little Women follows the lives of a group of sisters as they come of age in the late 19th century. The film, which won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design indulges in some fairly modern hair and costume choices. Certain historical circles criticized a lack of bonnets, incorrectly parted hair, and dress colors that wouldn’t have been available at the time (via Cherwell). However, the most erroneous modern inclusion can be seen in an interaction at the March household where, in the spirit of the infamous Game of Thrones Starbucks cup, a hydro flask is clearly visible in the background.

Back to The Future’s time-traveling caper culminates in an iconic scene in which Marty McFly plays an electrifying cover of Chucky Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," which proceeds to inspire 1955 Chuck Berry in a confusing paradox. It’s one of the most famous scenes in one of the most famous movies of all time. However, guitar aficionados have pointed out that the guitar on which Marty plays the famous number is a Gibson ES-345, which didn’t hit shelves until 1959. Apparently, Marty’s guitar is another time-traveling artifact.

Gone with the Wind is one of the most famous productions of all time. The nearly four-hour romantic epic tells a sweeping story across several years and cities, racking up the second-highest budget ever recorded at the time of its production. However, one glaring error manifests in the 1861 segment, which takes place in Atlanta. The streetlamps in the city employ light bulbs, which wouldn’t be invented until 1879, instead of gas fixtures. It’s unclear if this is an oversight of research, or if the filmmakers simply failed to properly obscure the light sources.

Titanic sees an epic romance play out between two lovers who meet on the doomed voyage of the titular ship in 1912. Jack and Rose’s dramatic first meeting sees Jack persuade Rose not to jump off the ship by telling a powerful story about his falling through the ice into the freezing water of Lake Wissota. There’s just one problem with Jack’s tale: Lake Wissota didn’t exist in 1912. The manmade lake wouldn’t come into being until the Wissota hydroelectric dam was completed in 1917, five years after his death.

The period detective thriller Enola Holmes features a tense scene in which the title character is stalked by the murderous, shotgun-wielding Linthorn. However, the young detective should have noticed something amiss about Linthorn’s shotgun shells. They’re not the standard metal casing that saw wide use during the 19th century. Instead, Linthorn’s shells are the modern, plastic variety. The film shouldn’t even feature plastic, which was invented in 1907, let alone the plastic shotgun shells which weren’t rolled out until the 1960s.

The historical magical-realist drama The Green Mile is considered one of the best Stephen King adaptations for its tearjerking plot of a Louisiana death row prison guard who develops a close bond with an inmate awaiting the electric chair in 1935. The chair features heavily in the film, with numerous memorable sequences focusing on the idle horror of the instrument and the complex mechanisms required for it to operate smoothly. However, the film’s central concept is corrupted by historical inaccuracy; the electric chair wouldn’t be implemented in Louisiana until 1941, six years after the events of the film.

Ridley Scott’s Roman epic Gladiator has garnered a well-deserved reputation as one of the best action movies of all time. The film is fondly remembered for its gripping colosseum fight sequences, which see the titular gladiator face off against chariots, wild animals, and fellow gladiators in historically accurate fight scenes. However, one major detail jars with this accuracy in a moment wherein a massive gas canister can be seen in one of the chariots. The canister was presumably there for stunt purposes, but it’s hard to ignore once it’s pointed out.

The height of Mel Gibson’s fame saw him direct and star in the medieval epic Braveheart, which follows the first war of Scottish independence, led by Sir William Wallace in the 12th and 13th centuries. While the film was a massive commercial hit, Braveheart has been criticized for its numerous historical inaccuracies including the use of kilts, blue face paint, and even the name Braveheart, which was actually given to Robert the Bruce, not Wallace. The most overt anachronism occurs in a battle scene, where a car can be seen in the corner of the frame during a moment taking place in Scotland in the Middle Ages.