# What obscure personal knowledge do you have that makes certain movies laughable? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802 "2004-08-27T16:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/141 "2004-08-30T22:10:58Z")
A couple movies filmed primarily in my hometown of Petaluma, CA, are _American Graffiti_ and _Peggy Sue Got Married_. For inexplicable reasons, parts of both movies were filmed elsewhere, and when anytime someone turns a corner and finds themself in another town, it’s very jarring. PSGOM is filmed almost entirely in Petaluma, except the high school they used is Santa Rosa High, about 20 miles away (I took the SATs there), and when they walk out of the school, they’re in Petaluma. I actually yelped when I saw this. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/142 "2004-08-30T22:26:15Z")
**The Italian Job** (2003). The scene where the “good” guys were manipulating traffic with total ease was just plain stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/143 "2004-08-30T22:51:13Z")
In “Election” they made Omaha look like a totally bleak, soulless, endless suburbia. Oh, wait… ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/144 "2004-08-30T23:32:02Z")
> [@Lissla Lissar](#): > > I’m still not sure when [Pirates] was supposed to be set. The men’s clothes vary from mid-17th to late 18th, and if I remember correctly (which I probably don’t) Elizabeth’s were sort of mid 18th. Mid-1700s, according to the research on the fan boards, history of piracy in the Caribbean, and a comment by one of the crew. My nitpick for that movie: Bruckheimer’s explosion fetish notwithstanding, exploding shells (as shown in the attack on the town) weren’t made workable until about 100 years after the movie was set. Cannonballs of the 1740s were (surprisingly small) solid balls of cast iron. In the scenes where they’re handling the shot (during the Interceptor/Pearl battle), the cannonballs are accurate, but the ones drawn in in post-production (go frame-by-frame during the scene looking down between the two ships) are much bigger than the _outside_ diameter of the guns! My general nitpicky pet peeve: The 1911 Government Model automatic pistol is a single-action\*, meaning that the hammer has to be cocked before it will fire. However, the hammers on prop guns are _always_ down. I know it’s near-impossible to make a realistic single-action auto without using a real gun and real bullets, but it still annoys me. \*I know there is now a 1911-style double-action made by Para, but the movies are set before that. Road to Perdition (1930s), for example. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/145 "2004-08-30T23:42:04Z")
> [@Lissla Lissar](#): > > My current biggest stupid gripe (no, I didn’t see **King Arthur**. I decided to keep my sanity) is the bit from _Pirates_ where Elizabeth says, “You like pain? Try wearing a corset.” > > 1. They weren’t called corsets. They were called stays. > > 2. They don’t freaking hurt. 18th century (which is what her clothes were) stays are very comfy. They mostly function as a Wonderbra. Plus, they provide a nice place to keep your knitting. Well, did she say that before or after she was suffocated by the corset from London? The impression I got was that she normally **did** wear stays, and clothes that were made to order. Then her dad brings her a ready-made dress in the latest London style, and a corset to go with it. While having the corset laced up, she gasps, “Women in London must have learned not to breathe!” Clearly, she had never worn a corset before, and I imagine she never would have again. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/146 "2004-08-31T00:19:19Z")
Being a developer forces me to suspend disbelief with extreme regularity. My favorite recent one was **Swordfish**. I’m no expert hacker, but suffice it to say that the odds of successfully hacking into an encrypted DOD network in 30 seconds from someone else’s laptop using a Terminal window with a gun to your head while getting a blowjob and mostly using one hand to type are rather low. And living in San Francisco has its own joy when watching movies. **The Wedding Planner** has a humorous scene where everyone goes to Golden Gate Park at night to watch free screenings of old movies, then they get caught in a downpour. I live on GGP - there ain’t no free movie screenings there. There also ain’t nobody congregating in the park en masse at night except for bums and punks. And I can recall perhaps one (1) downpour occurring at any time in the 12 years I’ve lived here. And of course there’s the famous scene of Dustin Hoffman driving across the Bay Bridge into Berkeley…on the upper span! Traffic on the upper span heads westbound. (I can’t imagine any production convincing Caltrans to shut down the entire westbound lanes to shoot a scene for a movie these days. ::shudder:🙂 I can accept that from clueless Hollywood types that want all the landmarks framed in their shots, but Clint Eastwood? Clint that grew up here? In **Dirty Harry** Scorpio gets stabbed in the leg at Mt. Davidson, then limps all the way down to Kezar Stadium. That’d be one extremely difficult walk with a stab wound in your leg. Later Scorpio kidnaps a bus full of schoolkids outside Grandview Park, drives them across the Golden Gate Bridge, exits near San Quentin, and Clint is waiting for him on an old bridge. Intuitive, that. In **Magnum Force** , the final chase goes around in circles in China Basin, with at least three or four passes by the Lefty O’Doull bridge. In **Play Misty For Me** , there’s a side-splittingly funny scene where Clint and Donna Mills go for a walk while he tells her about the crazy chick. The scene switches frequently, while the conversation never skips a beat. That’s some walk - they start on Carmel Beach, then they’re in Big Sur, then they’re back in Monterey, then they’re on Pfeiffer’s Beach, then Garrapata…it goes on and on. Even with a helicopter they’d be hard pressed to get all those beaches into one hike in one day. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/147 "2004-08-31T00:53:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by Marley23 > That wasn’t supposed to be realistic, though. I think it was an homage to classic Japanese swordfighting movies, where that kind of stuff happens a lot. > > At the time Kill Bill was released in Japan, several of my students warned me away from it, saying it was shockingly and disgustingly violent. All the old Japanese movies I’ve ever seen were surprisingly unbloody, as are swordbattles in TV samurai dramas. Granted, Tarantino is actually a fan of the genre and has undoubtably seen far more examples of it than I have, but I’m personally unaware of any Japanese swordfighting movie that features an unrealistic excess of blood. > > That said, whatever Tarantino’s inspiration was, I’m sure he wasn’t going for gritty realism. The first incredible-spraying-of-arterial-blood scene I know of was in one of Akira Kurasawa’s samurai epics. I don’t recall which one, but it may have been **Yojimbo**. In any case, it was Toshiro Mifune who gave the cut. In the 1950s, which pretty much fits the definition of “old Japanese Movies”. According to Donald Richie’s book on the films of Kurasawa, he deliberately went overboard on the blood precisely because some critics were complaining that there wasn’t _enough_ blood in his movies. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/148 "2004-08-31T01:22:41Z")
In **Breaking Away** , I was astonished at the scene in which everyone is swimming in the rock quarry. I was there (Bloomington IN) when it was filmed, and I can tell you first hand that, in real life, _nobody ever wore clothes at that quarry!_ ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/149 "2004-08-31T02:13:20Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > In **Play Misty For Me** , there’s a side-splittingly funny scene where Clint and Donna Mills go for a walk while he tells her about the crazy chick. The scene switches frequently, while the conversation never skips a beat. That’s some walk - they start on Carmel Beach, then they’re in Big Sur, then they’re back in Monterey, then they’re on Pfeiffer’s Beach, then Garrapata…it goes on and on. Even with a helicopter they’d be hard pressed to get all those beaches into one hike in one day. This reminds me of a scene in Manhunter (Michael Mann’s attempt at introducing the world to Hannibal Lechter…from the book Red Dragon). The protagonist is talking with his son in a grocery store. Typical voice interaction going back and forth, but EVERY view change shows the actor in front of a DIFFERENT type of food. Seemingly in one aisle, you’ve got coffee, cereal, fruitjuice, canned vegtibles(sp?) – I think continuity took a vacation that day. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/150 "2004-08-31T02:46:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The first incredible-spraying-of-arterial-blood scene I know of was in one of Akira Kurasawa’s samurai epics. I don’t recall which one, but it may have been **Yojimbo**. In any case, it was Toshiro Mifune who gave the cut. In the 1950s, which pretty much fits the definition of “old Japanese Movies”. **Yojimbo** was 1961, but I’ve never seen it so I’m not sure if that’s really the one you’re thinking of. > [@](#): > > According to Donald Richie’s book on the films of Kurasawa, he deliberately went overboard on the blood precisely because some critics were complaining that there wasn’t _enough_ blood in his movies. I specifically had **Seven Samurai** and **Rashomon** in mind when I wrote my earlier post – I remember them as being pretty bloodless. If my memory is correct (which it may not be!), I can see why some critics would think there was an unrealistic lack of blood. ---
**Author:** ![raindog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/151 "2004-08-31T02:52:23Z")
Thia is kinda obscure, but that’s what you’re asking for… Movies that show spies/goodguys/bad guys using ductwork/ventilation systems for escape. I think it was **Mission Impossible** where Tom Cruise is hung upside down by another guy with a rope. All the ductwork is shown as aluminum, and pristine clean. (It would be galvanized and rarely, if ever that clean) It’s big enough for men to crawl in. While possible to have duct that size, it would buckle with 2 200 pound men crawling through it. Further if the duct were that size the airflow would be such that they would be under a constant fairly intense “wind.” I believe that the particular room was temperature controlled to within some absurd level----to pick up the heat of a human body. That would have required, if possible, that the fan be on all the time. (And their body heat would be **in** the airstream considering they are in the ventilation system!) Why does all all ductwork have air registers that can be opened from the _inside?_ Inside the ductwork it is always backlit with diffuse lighting. Why is ductwork lit up on the inside? It would be pitch black in there. Mission impossible is the example I remember but I’ve seen other TV shows/movies that show people traversing ventilation systems and it is always impossible as shown. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/152 "2004-08-31T03:54:47Z")
> [@Unintentionally Blank](#): > > This reminds me of a scene in Manhunter […] The protagonist is talking with his son in a grocery store. Typical voice interaction going back and forth, but EVERY view change shows the actor in front of a DIFFERENT type of food. Seemingly in one aisle, you’ve got coffee, cereal, fruitjuice, canned vegtibles(sp?) – I think continuity took a vacation that day. Hell no, continuity just came in a distant second after product placement. That scene was a the most condensed blatant advertising orgasm in a feature film, _ever_. “Typical voice interaction”? Ha! > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Michael Mann in **Manhunter** _ (As near as I can remember.) > > Will Graham: \*(Pushing a grocery cart in a shot where 70% of the screen is taken up by shelves of products going by…) \*I spent all my time trying to think like a serial killer, and it got so I couldn’t remember how _not_ to think like a serial killer. I had dark thoughts. You have no idea how dark. And that’s why I had to stay in the mental hospital for a while, son. > > _Long pause as more products roll by._ > > Graham Jr: Uh… What’s that brand of coffee that you like so much? > > Will Graham: What? > > _(A whole different roll of products rolls by in the background.)_ > > Graham Jr: It’s that _Folgers_ kind, right? _(Grabs a can of Folgers coffee and displays its label prominently)_ > > Will Graham: Yeah, Folgers. > > _(More products roll by, and then Graham Jr. puts the Folgers coffee in the cart.)_ Classy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/153 "2004-08-31T06:25:13Z")
> [@the raindog](#): > > I think it was **Mission Impossible** where Tom Cruise is hung upside down by another guy with a rope. \ Further if the duct were that size the airflow would be such that they would be under a constant fairly intense “wind.” I believe that the particular room was temperature controlled to within some absurd level----to pick up the heat of a human body. That would have required, if possible, that the fan be on all the time. (And their body heat would be **in** the airstream considering they are in the ventilation system!) Not to mention the one security feature that’s missing in that scene: **Cameras**. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/154 "2004-08-31T10:17:58Z")
> [@Number Six](#): > > I taught kindergarten and first grade for ten years. I never encountered anything close to the reaction seen in the movie. Mild surprise occasionally, but even that was rare. I don’t get that reaction anymore-- I’ve stuck around long enough that I get many parents specifically requesting my classroom (Yay, me!) but as a black male teacher in primary education, I’m sort of a rarity anyway. I’m currently one of three males in the entire district, the only African-American. Things ARE changing, but when I was growing up, the only black males you saw in schools were administrators or janitors. Also: you are dead on about teacher cliches. You named just about all the ones I can think of — except maybe the ‘meglomaniacal principal’, ‘sexpot teacher’, ‘young pretty enthusiastic kindergarten teacher with a zest for life and boyfriend who screws up and makes her unhappy but then pops in to propose in front of her approving and loudly applauding students,’ and ‘the old doddering teacher.’ ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/155 "2004-08-31T10:19:26Z")
Uh, that should be, “one of three males in primary education…” I don’t need anyone jumping on my case about that. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/156 "2004-08-31T12:41:23Z")
Oh, while we’re all piling on _Independence Day_, I always get a chuckle out of the scene near the end where Area 51 is under attack and Judd Hirsch (who has recently re-discovered Judaism) is leading a prayer. He must be a Reconstructionist, because I’ve never seen Jews pray like they were in a séance, nor do I have any idea what kind of prayer he’s supposed to be leading. But they included the goyische former Secretary of Defense, so it’s all OK. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pilot141](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e0b2c6/32.png) [@pilot141](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pilot141)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/157 "2004-08-31T14:43:25Z")
Doesn’t Jeff Goldblum do one of the fastest sober-ups ever in that movie as well? I seem to remember him being sloppy drunk with a near-empty bottle of bourbon in his hand but when he REALLY, _REALLY_ needs to get with the program he’s as good as new. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/158 "2004-08-31T15:35:47Z")
> [@](#): > > The impression I got was that she normally did wear stays, and clothes that were made to order. Then her dad brings her a ready-made dress in the latest London style, and a corset to go with it. While having the corset laced up, she gasps, “Women in London must have learned not to breathe!” Clearly, she had never worn a corset before, and I imagine she never would have again. _Stays_ is the pre-Victorian terms for _corset_. Same thing. And 18th or 17th century stays did not compress the waist. They lifted the breasts, smoothed body lines out, and made the waist round instead of oval, thus giving the impression of a smaller waist. I have extreme trouble with the idea of a ready-to-wear gown in the 17th (her dress wasn’t 17th!) century anyway. I don’t think pre-made clothes even existed. He might have bought her some very fashionable fabric, but an already made gown? Unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/159 "2004-08-31T16:44:08Z")
Hello, I am a chess player. In ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ (1968 original, starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway), our protagonists played a game of chess. I usually expect the chessboard to be the wrong way round in films, but in this case I was struck by Ms. Dunaway’s behaviour. She wore glamorous clothes, adopted provocative postures and finally sucked the head of a captured bishop (that’s the chess piece, OK?). 🆒 Can I draw the scriptwriter’s attention to the Laws of Chess. Law 12.5 clearly states that ‘it is forbidden to distract or worry the opponent’. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802/160 "2004-08-31T16:59:16Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Can I draw the scriptwriter’s attention to the Laws of Chess. > Law 12.5 clearly states that ‘it is forbidden to distract or worry the opponent’. Umm… perhaps it’s a matter of the Laws of Testosterone - if the male player is enjoying the female player’s ploys it’s all good. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-obscure-personal-knowledge-do-you-have-that-makes-certain-movies-laughable/261802.md?page=9)