Best biography movie factual errors of all time

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The Diary of Anne Frank picture

Factual error: Anne Frank received her diary on her birthday, and started writing on it 1 month before she went into hiding. In the movie however, she is presented with the diary on the first she arrives at the hiding place.

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Suggested correction: Since this movie is based on actual events and not considered a documentary, then the film-makers are allowed to change things to their liking.

lartaker1975

While I feel like this sort-of correction could apply to certain elements of movies based on true stories like dramatized scenes (since there has to be some condensation of time and some elements boosted for drama, which can be chalked up to filmmakers changing things), I think a film based on a true story contradicting a known hard fact like this should 100% count as a mistake. Otherwise, you could just as easily argue that any factual error in any film is invalid because the filmmakers are "allowed to change it."

TedStixon

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Wild picture

Factual error: In the close-up shots as she reaches her destination at the end of the trek you can see streaked highlights in her hair right back to the roots. If she had been trekking for three months they would have grown out quite a long way, given the lack of regular salons in the wilderness.

thatchway

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The Theory of Everything picture

Factual error: The view from the aircraft Jane is flown home from France in shows the modified double engine pod of the 747 famously at Dunsfold Airfield, Surrey. Also a late livery grey RAF VC-10 parked in the distance. Also the engines of the plane she is in are upgrades and not right for the year it is supposed to be happening. (01:23:20)

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Shock and Awe picture Shock and Awe mistake picture

Factual error: In a picture from the UN headquarters in New York in the year 2003 you see two German flags. The German Democrativ Republic hasn't existed since 1990. (01:16:04)

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Fighting with My Family picture

Factual error: The scenes set at Wrestlemania XXX (2014) were filmed at a RAW show in 2018 - fans are visible in the background wearing wrestling merchandise more recent than 2014.

Jon Sandys

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Flash of Genius picture

Factual error: The scene that takes place at the Ford release of their 1971 models has two Mustangs driving to the event. The one in front is obviously a 1973.

afcop_3ggt

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The Notorious Bettie Page picture

Factual error: Bunny Yeager photographed Bettie for the January 1955 issue of Playboy, yet, when Bettie first meets Bunny, there is a 1959 Ford convertible in her driveway.

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Basquiat picture

Factual error: Although many thing have been changed to reflect the early-mid 80's when the film is set, it is often possible to see 90's cars in several scenes.

David Mercier

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Valkyrie picture

Factual error: Approximately three quarters of the way in to the film, there is a close up of a German soldier handing an officer a file of documents. The helmet that the soldier is wearing is a post war 1960s version. This can be determined by the lack of an air vent and rivet on the side of the helmet.

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Jarhead picture

Factual error: In the scene where Swofford is playing the bugle a water tower in the background has an Air Combat Command emblem which is used by the Air Force and would not be seen on a marine base.

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Suggested correction: That part of the movie was filmed at a Naval Air Facility in my hometown. That movie theater where they were watching Apocalypse Now was also in the same said NAF.

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Silkwood picture

Factual error: Karen points out to Thelma that she should have given a nasal swab (to detect internal contamination) after being 'cooked', yet on both occasions when Karen is being scrubbed after being contaminated she has blisters all over her face - something which should be avoided when performing decontamination as this can allow contamination to enter the body.

Andy Benham

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Ma vie en cinémascope picture

Factual error: Before 1949, when the part of the film set in Hollywood takes place, the famous sign on the mountain read "Hollywoodland", not "Hollywood". The sign had been allowed to deteriorate and during that year, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce offered to remove the last four letters and repair the rest.

Dr Wilson

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Memoirs of a Geisha picture

Factual error: When Hatsumomo wakes up late to torture little Chiyo again, her kimono is closed the wrong way.

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Right On Track picture

Factual error: When both Erica and Courtney are racing, you can see mountains in the background, although there are no mountains in Houston, their hometown.

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Marco Polo picture

Factual error: Many palace scenes in the mini-series are set in the Forbidden City. This is incorrect, as the Forbidden City was built under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and not completed until about 1420, almost 100 years after Marco Polo's death.

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Chaplin picture

Factual error: In the scene where Chaplin and his wife are traveling to Europe by ship (when they find out Hoover has expelled him from the U.S.), the film shows the French Liner "Normandie" as it is leaving New York. The date shown on the film says September 1952. The "Normandie" however, was destroyed by fire in New York Harbor on February 9, 1942 as it was being converted into a U.S. troop ship for World War II. Incidentally, they filmed the scene on the R.M.S. Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, which in reality is probably the ship that the Chaplins actually took to Europe.

James Woods

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Marie Antoinette picture

Factual error: Marie Antoinette has moved into her new vacation home following the birth of her daughter. Her friends are visiting, she is walking through the field of wildflowers, and she blows a ladybug off her finger. The camera pans upward to show her gazing at the sky. There is a very obvious vapor-trail from a large airliner cutting through the center of the camera shot, from one side of the screen to the opposite, predating jet-liners by over 150 years. (01:25:25)

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Malcolm X picture

Factual error: When Malcolm is talking on the telephone in an extreme close up, you can see the connector on the phone is one of the modern snap-in modular jacks. Telephones in the 1960's did not have those.

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The Queen picture

Factual error: The Blairs are in a car travelling down the motorway when Tony receives a phone call from a lord. In the background the passing scenery is leafless trees and a bare winter landscape, but the events of the film take place during the English summer.

STP

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Topsy-Turvy picture

Factual error: One of the operetta excerpts shown in the movie is the humorous song "This Helmet I Suppose," during which Princess Ida's three brothers are supposed to remove their armor piece by piece, finding it heavy, hot and awkward. Partly as a result of this, the three are soon afterwards quickly and easily defeated in combat. In the film, however, only Arac, the brother singing the verses (played by Richard Temple (played by Timothy Spall)), removes his armor. The others simply stand still. (This might have made the battle scene end differently if it was shown on screen!)

CC

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