Fun Finding Flaws in Films

Some people go to the movies to be completely swept away, to totally suspend disbelief for a couple of hours.

Bill Givens goes to the movies to be able to say, “Gotcha!”

Givens is the author of “Roman Soldiers Don’t Wear Watches: 333 Film Flubs--Memorable Movie Mistakes” (Citadel Press, 1996), which points out various mistakes that include lapses of logic, inadvertent crew shots, odd sound effects and off-track chronological sequences.

(The title is taken from one of the more well-known movie flubs: In some historical films that used extras by the hundreds in battle scenes, a few can be seen with their wristwatches still on.)

Some of the goofs may even propel you to rent the films to catch the gaffes yourself. The point of all this? Movie-makers and movie stars are human too--what a comforting thought.

A sampling of some of the better flubs:

* In “Forrest Gump” (1994), “Robin Wright shows Tom Hanks a clipping in a scrapbook, under which is written ‘USA Today, 1978.’ USA Today began publication in 1982.”

* “In ‘Spartacus’ (1960) it seems that some soldiers . . . wanted to make sure that they’d be sure-footed in the heat of battle. You can see more than one soldier charging up a hill wearing tennis shoes.”

* “When one of the hit men in the zany comedy ‘A Weekend at Bernie’s’ (1989) was knocked cold and dragged into a closet, he conveniently lifts his feet so the closet door can shut.”

* “Michael Douglas makes an emphatic point with Danny DeVito in ‘War of the Roses’ (1989). As they look at house plans spread out on a desk, Douglas looks up and says, ‘No, no, DeVito!’ ”

* “John Wayne was a busy man being both star and director of ‘The Alamo’ (1960). So can we blame him if he didn’t notice that mobile trailers appear in the background of several battle scenes . . . or that we can see a falling stuntman land on a mattress?”

* A reporter thrusts a tape recorder in Harrison Ford’s face as he leaves the courthouse in “Presumed Innocent” (1990). “You can see that there’s no cassette in it; the recorder is empty.”

* “When Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (1940) was restored and re-released in 1990, some of the early prints had to be recalled to correct a spelling error on Leopold Stokowski’s name in the opening credits.”