Question: At the end of the film, King Louis refers to the palace as Marie's "lime avenue." What does that mean?
Question: What are the rifles that Jude Law and Ed Harris use in this film?
Question: Why did Stauffenberg have to put in his prosthetic eye whenever he had to be in Hitler's presence?
Answer: In real life, Stauffenberg regularly switched from wearing his glass eye and an eye patch. He wore the glass eye when meeting with senior officers, not only Hitler. At other times, he used the eye patch. This was attributed to the glass eye probably being uncomfortable. Presumably, he did not want to appear handicapped or weak to his superiors. He may also have felt the eye patch was a distraction or looked less dignified.
Question: What was that phone number that they listed of that guy that lied about having an 800 number?
Chosen answer: (202) 225-2536. It's not that major a revelation in the film, as his number's publicly available on a variety of sites.
Question: When the other tribe comes in to get their tribute, the camera is on the horses' riders and pans to the right and around and the top of a vehicle of some sort is visible driving behind the standing soldiers. I have rerun this scene several time and looks like the top of a gas or electric vehicle, not a wagon. Does anyone else see this?
Answer: I saw it too! It's at 38:40. Definitely an overlooked editing error.
Answer: It took me all this time (January 22, 2024) to catch it, but that's what brought me here! Great catch! I told my grandson watching with me that it looked like a motorized wheelchair!
Question: I was wondering whether the evidence that Adrian Brody gathered was true, or if it's artistic license. It seems that if it were true, there should have been a further inquiry into George Reeve's death.
Answer: Here is a good link that will help separate fact from fiction. http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/celebrity/george_reeves/1_index.html.
Question: Why does Gary Oldman speak with a Russian accent when Lee Harvey Oswald was from New Orleans?
Answer: Lee Harvey Oswald was very sympathetic to the communist ideal, and lived in Russia for a while. He probably adopted the accent as an affectation towards that end.
Question: When the Duke says that he "cannot" ask Lady Bess to leave his home (after the Duchess discovers their affair), does he simply not want to or is there some reason that he feels he cannot?
Question: What reason did the British general give for having opened fire on the unarmed crowd?
Answer: Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer has said his intent "was not to disperse the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience." Earlier that day, Dyer has banned all meetings to avoid any insurrection, but many still gathered to celebrate and protest. Dyer saw it as defiance of his order and thought it could be another mob insurgent he had seen earlier. Some reports also state while the crowd was "unarmed", that only referred to being unarmed with firearms and many in the crowd did have other types of weapons. It also seems at the time it was standard practice for the British Army to use necessary lethal force for civilian crowd control, although many saw Dyer's action to be in excess.
Question: A lot of fuss was made over the omission of the lunar flag planting in this movie. However, when I saw the movie in the theater, I distinctly remember seeing the flag on the moon, just not the actual planting. However, that particular shot seems to be missing in the home video release. Does anyone know the reason for this?
Answer: The home release includes a clear shot of the lunar lander with the American flag next to it.
Question: When the jug was hit, how did the bullet not hit the horse behind it?
Answer: In reality, the bullet probably would have hit the horse, injuring it. Movies tend to gloss over details like that to serve and simplify the plot. Older movies particularly fudged reality, assuming audiences would not notice or care. It is also possible that the bullet was somehow deflected or broke up upon impact.
Question: Why was Beethoven depicted as an obnoxious, rude and unlikable man in this movie? I read that in the real life he wasn't such a bad person.
Answer: It's a fictional version of Beethoven. Artistic license is used to enhance the drama by embellishing Beethoven's personality, likely to show his anger, frustration, and despondency over becoming deaf. Like many similar biographical movies, it is not meant to be an accurate portrait.
Question: In one of the very first scenes set in one of the plantation slave huts, Solomon is struggling to sleep. He is sleeping on the floor squashed amongst many other slaves. During this scene, what looks like a white youngish woman encourages him to touch her. A little earlier we see her sitting on the porch of the slave hut eating alone whilst the slaves are eating. As far as I could tell, she doesn't appear again in the film. Who is she? Does she play a greater role in the book? Was there more of a story here that ended up on the cutting room floor?
Question: There are scenes in the movie where Dick Best's gunner, Murray, is facing forward in their aircraft, particularly when the aircraft is on the Enterprise. The only time he appears to be facing the rear of the aircraft is when they are under attack. How is that possible?
Answer: Good eye! The gunner's seat in the Douglas SBD was on a swivel. The military rating was actually radioman/gunner, and when facing forward, he had access to a suite of radio equipment and a set of basic flight controls! He could actually fly the SBD from the rear seat, although this is never reported to have been necessary in combat.
Answer: There were rows of lime trees planted on the ground. Rows of trees in landscaping is called an "avenue."
Bishop73