Factual error: The boys go deer hunting somewhere in the Appalachians, but the geology is all wrong. That scene is in North Cascades National Park in Washington State. In addition, the "deer" they are hunting is a Red Stag. Not typically found in the Appalachians.
Suggested correction: Part of the scenery is the North Cascades, including the first mountain shot, Mount Baker, south of the Canadian border.
Someone notes that "Red Stags are not typically found in the Appalachians." In reality, there are no wild red stags in the Eastern US, or anywhere in the US, or in North America, or even in the Western Hemisphere. Red stags are native to most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of Western Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains of Northern Africa.
Thank you! Growing up in Pennsylvania and hunting deer since the age of ten - The use of the Red Stag in the last scene always bothered me. No trained White Tails, I guess. Great movie other than that.
Factual error: When Michael Vronsky gets back from his tour he has a full grown beard. The only branch of the service that allows a beard is the Navy, and he was an Army Green Beret. The beard would only have been tolerated if Mike was either not in his Class A uniform or actively performing on a mission, neither of which are the case here. In addition, he's wearing a Black Beret, but his left shoulder patch is the 101st airborne, not Special Forces.
Factual error: Back from Viet Nam, De Niro is wearing a green beret and he has a 101st Airborne Division patch on the left shoulder of his dress greens. It should be a Special Forces patch, also missing is the special forces tab on the left sleeve.
Suggested correction: The SF tab wasn't authorized until 1983, a date after this movie takes place, so he wouldn't be wearing that tab.
Factual error: When Mike is hunting after his return he switches from left hand shooting to right hand and his rifle also switches the bolt on the right to the bolt on the left.
Factual error: The film is supposedly set in 1968. However, after Nick was released from the hospital in Saigon and entered the Mississippi bar, the music being played on the jukebox is Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Night, released in 1973.
Factual error: When Christopher Walken is in Saigon after leaving the hospital, he is not wearing a name plate on his uniform. Name plates are required, and every other uniformed soldier is wearing one.
