If there’s one thing that drives folk on the Internet, it’s pettiness. Being right matters, dammit. This is why IMDB’s Goofs section is a terrible, terrible idea. The idea of a list of goofs in general is appealing – despite the horrible American name, only slightly better than “blooper”.

The stamp used by the parole hearings people in 1947 prints in the Helvetica font, which was not invented until 1957.

In typical Internet fashion though, people are racing to the bottom to find the most obscure, nitpicky, unimportant things wrong with films and leave their mark on the world.

What constitutes an actual goof or mistake? We’re going with mistake, because it’s a normal word used by normal people. We also considered “fucking cunt up”, as an old boss used to say, but we never liked him anyway.

When C-3PO and R2-D2 are in the control room of the Death Star, the storm troopers barge in, and one hits his head on the door.

That’s interesting, amusing and something to look out for when you’re watching Star Wars. All in all, a perfect thing to list. Even if you already knew it. Stop looking so smug.

In the opening sequence, we see that the Griswalds live at 8805 Skyline Drive, Chicago IL. There is no Skyline Drive in Chicago, IL. There is a Skyline Drive in Justice, IL (a very small southern suburb), but it does not run nearly long enough to have an 8800 block.

I mean. Really. Someone was actually bothered enough to think about this moment in 85 “comedy” “hit” European Vacation. The street doesn’t exist where they say it does, and there’s a similar street that’s smaller. Well fuck me. Is this really the route they want to go down? Similarly, the film centres around a man called Clark Griswold, and after checking the electoral register (the American version, obviously), it turns out that this “Clark” didn’t exist at all, and didn’t go on any vacation, to Europe or otherwise. Because it’s a work of bloody fiction. You massive, massive arsehole.

The Shawshank Redemption is listed as IMDB’s top-rated movie of all time. This doesn’t stop the nitpicks coming in thicker and faster than the Essex Grand Prix. It’s just churlish and rude to sit and point at where they’ve made the most minor of mistakes.

During the warden’s “Inside Out” speech, a CP-16R camera with new style magazine is visible. Additionally, a Pentax k1000 SLR still camera is visible, which was produced in 1975-1997.

This requires specialist knowledge of Pentax cameras; which may or may not even exist for all we know, but while the greatest film of all time is showing, some fella has nudged his wife and said, “that camera wasn’t bloody around then”. He’s rewound the tape, checked it out, dug out a catalogue, and then fired an e-mail off to IMDB, revelling in his mastery.

When Andy’s climbing out of the hole, just before he’s going into the sewer, you see him with his old shoes. But just before that he had put them in the warden’s shoebox and replaced them with the warden’s. However, at that point, Andy had been in prison for nearly 20 years and enjoyed special privileges. It’s possible he had an extra pair of prison issue shoes in his cell, and took the warden’s off before making his escape. This makes sense considering that when Andy entered the bank the next day, the shoes were still polished, and clearly had not been worn while wading through a sewage pipe.

Spoiler alert, in the previous paragraph. Really, a tremendous conversation as to whether something that may or may not be a mistake is or isn’t a mistake. Really. Someone had multiple thoughts about his shoes, and wrote them ALL down.

Obviously, you’re saying to yourself, “well.. stop reading the page if it winds you up that much. It’s a list of mistakes on the Internet, people being people, they’ll report any old shit to see their words up in e-lights.” And you’d be right, I don’t hold it against these people for having the free time to check whether Duck Crossing signs existed in 1963:

During their road trip on the bus, they pass a “DUCK XING” road sign. Those did not exist in 1963.
(One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)

It’s IMDB’s fault for printing such banal garbage and encouraging the never-ending stream of movie-botherers to continue sending their shit observations. On the bright side, every day that passes is a day closer to the day that someone invents a “punch people through the Internet” machine.

Leave a Reply

Your Name

E-mail address

We have absolutely no interest in e-mailing you,
selling your details or sharing your address.

Website

Comment

Captcha

Submit Comment