Period Films That Give Away When They Were Actually Made

Forums: Movies, Film, Anachronisms, Period Movies, Period Goofs
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Example:

Movie: "A Christmas Story"
Year made: 1983
Period represented: 1940's
Giveaway: Ralphie's glasses. So 80's.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BYX14125JUQ/SVM8X5k6X_I/AAAAAAAAI5o/Xsyjc67MnXY/s400/A_Christmas_Story.jpg

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Type: Discussion • Score: 22 • Views: 27,773 • Replies: 38

[+3] - chai2 - 11/30/2009This is so blatant. Women didn't wear eyeliner back then. [img]http://shoetube.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/1million.jpg[/img]

@sozobe,

By the way I see that this is tagged as "anachronisms," and "period goofs," that's not quite what I mean. Not the obvious goofs like a car in the background that wasn't actually made yet at the time the movie was supposed to be set.

These glasses weren't a mistake per se, they are supposed to look like they're from the 40's -- and they kind of do -- but they have enough of an 80's feel to them that you can ID that photo as being from the 80's, not the 40's. It's the kind of thing that slid at the time -- they looked "normal" in 1983 -- but now you go "whoa, what's with the glasses?!"

Anyway, that's my idea, but if this becomes more standard anachronisms that's fine too. Smile

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@sozobe,

Flesh and Blood with Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Medieval epic circa 1985 with hair by Vidal Sassoon inspired by Duran, Duran. This is the only still I could find, but you can see the full parade of hairdos on YouTube, if you can stomach the clips.

http://content6.flixster.com/photo/12/27/11/12271184_gal.jpg

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I don't think anyone is going to mistake 1917 Theda Bara for the real Cleopatra. Actually, it's probably true of all the Hollywood Cleo's:

http://www.twolia.com/blogs/heres-looking-like-you-kid/files/2009/05/theda-bara-cleopatra.jpg

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@Green Witch,

From what I've learned from my Ancient History classes way back when was that Cleopatra was one ugly lady. This was from a full blown academic not a side comment from a student.

Evidenced by the wall paintings and the sculptures that still exist on and for Cleopatra's honor.

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

We had a big thread on Cleopatra not too long ago. It was fun, you might want to do a search for it.

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Some well-known film critic (I've totally forgotten who) once said something very, very true -- when watching a movie set in historic times, you invariably learn a lot more about the time the movie was made than about the time it is supposed to portray. Costuming and hairdos is only one aspect of this. There is the matter of mannerisms and attitudes. A nearly perfect example is the multitude of films that have been made about the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral (Tombstone, AZ Territory, Oct. 1881). Compare "My Darling Clementine" with Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp (1830s) to Burt Lancaster in "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1950s) to more recent epics starring Stacey Keach as Doc Holliday etc. etc. They reek of the thinking of the decades during which they were made.

An even better idea: compare cavalry and Indians movies. A film like "Dances with Wolves" simply could not have been made in the 1940s or 1950s. The white man was always the good guy; an Indian could be portrayed as good only if he made friends with the white invaders. All the "good" Native Americans of those early wetsrens were Amerind Uncle Toms.

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@sozobe,

A myriad of films are given away by the cell phones they use.

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They chose David Carradine for the star in "Kung Fu" because Bruce Lee looked too Asian. Would they do that now ?

In the movie South Pacific, it has to be a french man who marries a native girl.

Even today, if a black man has a "white" girl friend she has to be asian or french or some foriegner that americans dont care about.

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@Green Witch,

For their whole history Egyptian men and women shaved all hair. I am still waiting for a movie to be done for the Egyptian period prior to the 18th dynasty when the women went naked whilst the men wore a loin cloth. After that period, it was Rameses II who introduced a thin veil type of garment for women that was totally see through but believed to look sexier than nakedness. Also many Egyptian families (the royals at least) had sex with their children.

I dont think we are going to eliminate our period biases for quite some time, if at all.

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Technology is a fascinating feature of old movies to me. Like when you see someone typing away on their typewriter, producing their epic novel (while screwing up & throwing away sheet after typed sheet, because they can't get the words quite right.)
..... Or telephones. The heroine will survive, but if only she can get to the nearest phone & make that call & alert the police! But will she have the right coins to make the call, once she's located a phone box? Or perhaps the phone cord will be cut just at the critical moment & communication won't be possible? It would be so easy if she just had a cell phone! Wink

This little clip is from an old Alfred Hitchcock film, Dial M for Murder, in which the phone features very prominently. In fact, it's almost "the star" of the movie! :

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@sozobe,

Those glasses are SO JOE KENNEDY. which, I may have you know, I still wear a pair of. I hate those little sdouche bag skinny glasses.

ANYWAY, back on topic

I love to go back to any "Dirty Harry" movie and make a mental list of all the period artifacts. "Taxi Driver" besides showing the Dorian Gray aspect of Dinero is another one.

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Any period film that is supposed to predate the invention of telephone should not use the word "Hello."

I'm always watching for this.

T
K
O

1 Reply

@Ionus,

Ionus wrote:

They chose David Carradine for the star in "Kung Fu" because Bruce Lee looked too Asian. Would they do that now ?

In the movie South Pacific, it has to be a french man who marries a native girl.

Even today, if a black man has a "white" girl friend she has to be asian or french or some foriegner that americans dont care about.

This has always puzzled me.
K
O

1 Reply

@Diest TKO,

It is my guess they are trying to bury the past one bone at a time. In South Pacific, a racially mixed marriage would have spelt doom for the movie unless it could be attributed to non-americans who were all strange anyway. In movies like US Marshall the black man has a french girlfriend (quite often the black man has a french girl) but we must remember it wasnt that long ago when even this would have caused a huge outrage. Recent events like the Rodney King riots, the OJ trial, and others.....show nothing has been finalised about how americans should live together.....One step at a time......

1 Reply

@Ionus,

I'm of mixed race, so I guess it's extra hard for me to understand what is so objectionable. I will never have a choice on being in a mixed race relationship. It is a reality of mine.

I think this is phasing out pretty quick though (in recent history). there have been more movies portraying interracial couples in quite normal circumstances.

T
K
O

1 Reply

@Diest TKO,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello

Quote:

First use
Hello, with that spelling, was used in publications as early as 1833. These include an 1833 American book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee,[1] which was reprinted that same year in The London Literary Gazette.[2]

The word was extensively used in literature by the 1860s.[citation needed]

Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo,[3] which came from Old High German "halâ, holâ, emphatic imper[ative] of halôn, holôn to fetch, used esp[ecially] in hailing a ferryman."[4] It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà (roughly, 'whoa there!', from French là 'there').[5]

The telephone was invented in March 10, 1876.

Sorry DTKO, I had to check...as someone who has an interest in the origins of language...I hope you take it in the good spirit it is given.

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@Diest TKO,

Yes, and as someone with mixed race kids, the sooner the better...

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@Green Witch,

Quote:

Flesh and Blood with Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Medieval epic circa 1985 with hair by Vidal Sassoon inspired by Duran, Duran. This is the only still I could find, but you can see the full parade of hairdos on YouTube, if you can stomach the clips.

Yeah, that reminds me that the whole time I was watching Dances with Wolves, I kept thinking, 'Cowboys and Indians - that was BEFORE mousse and blowdryers - right?

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@Green Witch,

Now, there's a real woman, curves and all.

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Period Films That Give Away When They Were Actually Made

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