# Wow they got that little detail right? Impressive. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2012, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100 "2012-10-18T05:13:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/1 "2012-10-18T05:13:37Z")
Warlords Of Atlantis- Fun and goofy B movie with horrible creature effects, I was however impressed when a guy is shot in the gut and collapses…but he isn’t dead! Many hours later he is still writhing in pain and giving exposition. Impressive. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/2 "2012-10-18T17:55:56Z")
Did you want to talk about other “wow, they bothered with that?” things in films? There was a labor of love silent Lovecraft movie done by fans, _The Call of Chthulu_, that’s the only movie I’ve ever seen do “old newspapers” that really look like old newspapers. That always drives me crazy in movies because old newspapers are my work-life. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/3 "2012-10-18T18:23:56Z")
What’s the difference between a modern newspaper, an old newspaper, and a poor imitation of an old newspaper? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/4 "2012-10-18T19:32:22Z")
Let’s see if I’m even close… Old papers wouldn’t have color photos, if they had photos at all. The typography is different. Being either hand-set type or even Linotype, they wouldn’t have seventeen type styles and sizes on the page, And it was probably all 10 on 12, ragged right. Full-justified simply takes too long to do manually in hot type to be practical for newspaper publishing. And they were bigger. Newspapers today are much smaller. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/5 "2012-10-18T20:40:15Z")
As a musician, it bothers me when actors playing musicians get it incredibly wrong. Like when a “guitarist” is playing a hot lead solo but is shown strumming. _The Red Violin_ was an excellent exception to this. So many violinists, and they all looked pretty authentic. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/6 "2012-10-18T21:24:04Z")
I just posted this in the Great Ongoing Guitar Thread (and quoted it in the thread on this show - wow, this text is getting a bit of use…) > [@](#): > > Guitar Geek Cred alert: I love it when actual music folks are involved in a show about music, and with T-Bone Burnett involved with Nashville, good guitar things happen. Without engaging in plot details, The Little Blonde Tart gave the Band Leader She’s Trying to Seduce Over to Her Band a 1938 Martin 00-42 as an…offering. The fact that it was presented that way and they picked a guitar like that…swoon. They totally nailed it from a geek-cred standpoint… ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/7 "2012-10-18T22:11:48Z")
> [@Ephemera](#): > > What’s the difference between a modern newspaper, an old newspaper, and a poor imitation of an old newspaper? This sounds like the setup to one of the worst jokes I’ll ever hear. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/8 "2012-10-18T23:10:53Z")
Boardwalk Empire got it half right. There’s a scene in season 2 where Nucky has a shipment of Thompson submachine guns. They are explained as coming from the military. The crates had “Auto Ordinance Co.” stenciled on them which would be correct. A sloppier show would have labeled them “Thompson Co.” However, I’m pretty sure the guns shown were actually the civilian model with the vertical front grip and top ejection. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/9 "2012-10-18T23:23:35Z")
I like how South Park managed to get it right that San Diego invites you to come jack-it out in the streets 😃 ---
**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:** [October 18, 2012, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/10 "2012-10-18T23:39:31Z")
In the Swedish **Girl With The Dragon Tattoo** movies, the computer usage on display was refreshingly accurate. (As it was in the books, but I was still pleasantly surprised). Watching **Six Days Seven Nights** with one of my brothers, (who happens to be an amateur pilot), I mentioned that the flying scenes looked pretty realistic. His response: “That’s because Harrison Ford is a pilot, and owns and flies a DeHaviland Beaver just like that one.” ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/11 "2012-10-19T00:12:51Z")
In the movie [Creation](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974014/) there is a scene of two married people (Charles and Emma Darwin as it happens) lying back to back in bed, but with their arms thrown backwards over each other, sort of a backwards embrace. This struck me as so real. Sometimes you just can’t be face to face anymore, too much breathing, that side of your body hurts, whatever, but you’re still feeling close and connected. You never see this in movies because it’s pretty awkward looking and not very romantic looking. After watching the movie extras I found out the actors (Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly) are married, which I didn’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/12 "2012-10-19T00:13:22Z")
I remember my father being impressed that in **Breaker Morant** (set during the Boer War) they were using the correct, early style round-nosed .303 ammunition rather than the later pointed ammo which was introduced in 1910. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/13 "2012-10-19T00:38:36Z")
In the movie _Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World_ there was a scene in which Capt. Aubrey(Russell Crowe) was peering through fog. His ship and an enemy were hunting each other. Suddenly he sees a flash of light and grabs the young boy beside him and dives for the deck. THEN you hear the roar of a cannon and a ball whizzes by. Usually flash and sound are done simultaneously. But since the other vessel was far enough away for the sound to take time to travel, that’s how it was done. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/14 "2012-10-19T09:42:49Z")
In **Cleopatra** , (the version with Liz Taylor), most of the Romans wear the stereotypical _tunica_, with short sleeves and a knee-length skirt. Julius Caesar always wears a longer, long-sleeved version. In the real world, this was an actual quirk of Caesar’s. It was an old-fashioned style, and his enemies made jokes about it. Also, Cleopatra’s two servant-girls are named Iris and Charmian, after the corresponding characters in Shakespeare’s **Antony and Cleopatra.** If you want a bizarre experience, do some research on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War. Then watch the brat-pack movie **Young Guns.** The weird thing is, the got a lot of small details right. In some early draft of the screenplay, someone did a lot of research. Then the moviemakers deliberately mangled the big stuff. You will spend most of the movie going “This is BS . . . this is BS . . . this is BS . . . this is BS . . . hey, that part was true!” ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/15 "2012-10-19T11:45:52Z")
Since the OP doesn’t explicitly require only movies, and other posters have had non movie examples, this post > [@Zsofia](#): > > Did you want to talk about other “wow, they bothered with that?” things in films? There was a labor of love silent Lovecraft movie done by fans, _The Call of Chthulu_, that’s the only movie I’ve ever seen do “old newspapers” that really look like old newspapers. That always drives me crazy in movies because old newspapers are my work-life. reminds me of The Onion’s [Our Dumb Century](http://amzn.com/0609804618), which is delightful. 100 years’ worth of parody newspaper pages. Everything from language usage , contemporary references, typography and page design, even the evolving Onion logo at the top, makes the pages look like real newspaper pages from the ages. The only quibble I have is that the staff cartoonists didn’t quite capture the look of cartoons of the times. This is the one Onion book I can get lost in; the appeal is supposed to be in the headlines, but all of the articles, even the fake ads, are worth reading. ETA: The “labor of love” she mentions in reference to Lovecraft fans is applicable as well to whomever on the Onion staff who put this together. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/16 "2012-10-19T14:25:17Z")
**Social Network** Some of the techno jargon is amazingly accurate. Surprising, since the movie is otherwise a big fuck you to accuracy. ---
**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:** [October 19, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/17 "2012-10-19T17:37:55Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > Since the OP doesn’t explicitly require only movies, and other posters have had non movie examples, this post > > reminds me of The Onion’s [Our Dumb Century](http://amzn.com/0609804618), which is delightful. 100 years’ worth of parody newspaper pages. Everything from language usage , contemporary references, typography and page design, even the evolving Onion logo at the top, makes the pages look like real newspaper pages from the ages. The only quibble I have is that the staff cartoonists didn’t quite capture the look of cartoons of the times. This is the one Onion book I can get lost in; the appeal is supposed to be in the headlines, but all of the articles, even the fake ads, are worth reading. > > ETA: The “labor of love” she mentions in reference to Lovecraft fans is applicable as well to whomever on the Onion staff who put this together. My favorite: **WA -** [sub]Headline continued on Page 2[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/18 "2012-10-21T07:21:17Z")
In **State of Grace** there’s a scene where to ‘good guy’ is preparing for a confrontation and they show him loading a handgun. He puts a clip in, racks the slide to put a round in the chamber, uses the decocking lever to release the hammer, then cycles it back to the fire position, ready to rock and roll. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/19 "2012-10-21T08:37:59Z")
I really enjoyed the [cracked.com](http://www.cracked.com/article_20020_7-movies-that-put-insane-detail-into-stuff-you-never-noticed_p2.html?wa_user1=1&wa_user2=Movies+%26+TV&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=companion) piece\* 7 Movies That Put Insane Detail into Stuff You Never Noticed\*. Some of them are almost obsessive. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100/20 "2012-10-21T13:41:28Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > In the movie _Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World_ there was a scene in which Capt. Aubrey(Russell Crowe) was peering through fog. His ship and an enemy were hunting each other. Suddenly he sees a flash of light and grabs the young boy beside him and dives for the deck. THEN you hear the roar of a cannon and a ball whizzes by. Usually flash and sound are done simultaneously. But since the other vessel was far enough away for the sound to take time to travel, that’s how it was done. A friend of mine was a technical advisor on that film. Just thought I’d share 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-they-got-that-little-detail-right-impressive/638100.md?page=2)