Hot Rods Script writers don’t know how to research?

Was watching one of the old Peter Ustinov Perot movies the other day. Set in 1951, an American actress is seen tearing around the English countryside in a late '50s Cadillac. I laughed and pointed it out to my wife. But think about it: There they are in the 1980s shooting on a budget in England. The prop guy says all he can find is a '56 model. You think the director is going to hold up production while they search for an earlier model? How much would that cost them, vs. how much people would notice, or care?

A creative director I worked with in a publishing house summed it up this way: Out of a thousand readers, maybe 10% will notice. Out of that group, maybe 10% will care. Out of that group, maybe 10% will care enough to be negatively inclined. And out of that group, maybe 10 will be upset to the point of taking action of some kind So, do we blow the budget to satisfy one in ten thousand? Nope.

 

I know it's not a movie but if you read the book Christine, there are lots of things that are incorrect. Same with the movie. One of my favorites is the scene at the airport diner in Goodfellas showing them leaning against a car that wouldn't come out for over a year. I think in most cases they just want to shoot the scene and will use something that is "close enough" Like said above, most people do not know the difference.

 

Oh, one more thing, in Dirty Dancing he breaks the big side window to get in his car. Wouldn't you just break the little window and stick your arm in?

 

What has become painfully obvious to me is that I need to pay way more attention (something I hear a lot from my wife).
It seems I have been slacking off and just enjoying watching the movies.....

 

Andy Dufresne busted out of Shawshank in 1966 and headed down the coast of Mexico in his 69 GTO convertible.

 

"" Then, the main actor didn’t have enough hand strength to open the door with the outside handle. ""

Doesn't that beat all?

 

For the under 50 crowd a made for tv movie starring the chick the that played the pink power ranger was in one in the 90s. Called "Suzie q". First part of the movie shows where she does in 1955.....in an accident with her boyfriend in his 1956 Chevy lol

 

Was watching NCIS, Los Angeles. They were trying to start a truck. Cranking over real strong, but no start. "We need some jumper cables." Damn if that wasn't the right call.

 

How many of you guys have ever seen a movie with a hot rod type car with a 4 banger sound effect?

 

What I've never understood on the show "supernatural" is why the Impala sounds like it has an out of time straight six. The actual car supposedly has a healthy big block lol

 

I actually got to see that car.... broken glass and all ...in the early 90s at the Missouri State Fair. They had all the glass taped together with a sign saying "broken by Patrick swayze in dirty dancing". I understand the car has since been redone including new glass lol

 

If you look at older movies and/or tv shows, they have a car missing a curve and going over a cliff. In a lot of 50's movies the actor is driving a 50's car, but the car that goes over the cliff is definitely out of the 30's.

In the TV show Night Stalker, they had a story line about a number of congressmen being killed. One was from Illinois and they showed his car going off a cliff in Springfield, Il. I grew up in Springfield, Il and I never saw a mountain anywhere near the city. In fact the tallest roads were the overpasses on the I - 55.

 

In the '80s, I saw plenty of the opposite; someone tearing out of a parking lot in a K car or Ford Escort with the sound effects of a V8 with dual glass packs left over from Adam-12.

 

Pretty much, 99% of the viewing audience does not care...
Life is tuff , when you sweat the small stuff.

 

Better yet, anyone who ever owned any of the '50s/'60s hardtops knew that you could break into them with a piece of coat hanger in about five seconds.

 

I used to like watching movies set in the 50's and catching a 55 or 57 chevy in the background driving by with rally wheels or polished torque thrust

 

One of my favorite movies is another locally filmed one, Dazed & Confused. I remember watching it when it came out and noticing the cars in the background were too new for the setting of 1976, I still like the movie though.

*Note the S-10 Blazer in the background as just one example...

 

Not specifically a car movie but the recent Landman series is pretty much unwatchable for me. I'm a retired 50yr petroleum engineer and the technical buffoonery on that show is painful. From rig workers with no hard hats, a terminable offense, to a guy standing on a trailer load of drill pipe resulting in him predictably being crushed by the load rolling off, it's just terrible. And it would be so easy to do it right. ANY roustabout would be qualified as a technical consultant to clean it up. WHY?

 

Two pages? This has been a long,slow winter!

 

Or the second Gen f body on 16" iroc wheels lol

 

Are you somehow under the impression that the person who wrote the script picked out the cars for filming? Or maybe they made the movie from existing footage and then had a person write the script after watching it?

If you’re going to knit pick maybe pick at the person that has anything to do with what you’re picking at.

- to be clear I also love picking out the “wrong” car stuff in movies and shows.

 

I was going to post an image of that one too, but I couldn't get a good shot of it with Parker Posey.

 

You might remember that first scene in Ford v.s. Ferrari...night time racing. The gauges are later gauges. Such a big buck movie & they get the first 30 seconds wrong.

 

Still a surprisingly good flick

 

After all of this, I will say that I happened to see an episode of "Happy Days" from one of the earlier seasons where Fonzie helps Richie hop up his father's Desoto in preparation for racing some greaser that night, and his friends show up carrying what looks like an Edmunds dual intake for some sort of inline engine, which would make sense.

 

Same movie...there's a band that looks suspiciously like ZZ Top. They weren't around until the late 60's!

 

Not necessarily defending the movie here but.......

In my experience, certainly with more modern OT vehicles, the larger side glass is usually cheaper than the small awkward shaped pieces.

 

My favorite was watching Starkey and Hutch and listening to that Grand Torino shifting through gears even though it was an automatic.

 

Ultimate rendition of that is the image of the jet airliner making propeller noises in the movie Airplane!

 

Not to mention it's easier to get some yards to even sell a used quarter glass than to get them to quote "break up a good door"