movie cars and how fake they are

The "biker movies" always switch to honda 750's for stunts and wrecks.

 

I saw movie on opening weekend in the theatre. I was with a bunch of people, including another car guy and no one else noticed. Wasn't sure if I was seeing things, but I guess I know I wasn't now...

 

Thunder Road where Robert Mitchum flicks that cigarette from his 57 Ford over into the window of the car going alongside at 70 MPH. Only in the movies!

 

'Ya know I've always wondered about those tires that squeal in the dirt.....even J.C. Whitney did'nt have those! Gary 4T950 Chevy Guy

 

Hot Rod magazine had a funny editorial on movie cars and experiences with them -- talk about a timely issue. I caught the weather stripping on the old truck in "Walk the Line" too.

 

Theres this movie I seen the other day called "Christine", in it there is a Plymouth Fury that can reconstruct itself after being beaten , crushed and burnt, it also drives round attacking people - how fake is that a car that just springs back to mint original and is posesed with killing people on its own! Fake Fake Fake I say!

 

movies or tv, the breaks squeak when you stop in every car new, or old in existance!

does anyone remember the early 80s show where the private eyes helper drove a shiney black chopped merc? i think the name of the show was private eye..

 

I said something about it too and my wife was like "Huh?" and I explained the brand and model of the wheels and how they were not time appropriate for the time period of the movie then I could actually hear myself talking and I just shut the hell up.

 

Don't know if I believe this one but I read somewhere that one of the original Beachboys was introduced to Boyd Coddington and he asked Boyd, "What the hell IS a deuce coupe?"

Boy, if that one is true it is really pitiful...

One movie that has lots of old cars which I have to watch more carefully for screw-ups is "A Christmas Story" - one of the funniest movies ever IMHO! Someone's comment about tires got me thinking about that and the scene where Ralphie's old man is changing a flat on the Olds in the snow. The narrator's comments about the quality of his spare tires was sure accurate and the "baldinos" in the trunk sure looked period-correct to me... The part where the kid drops the hubcap with the lug-nuts in it and utters the famous "Oh, Fuuuuuudge" is so funny!

 

I can't believe that would be true, but maybe. Brian Wilson wasn't much of a car guy, I don't think. I think Dennis was the real gearhead and by the time Boyd got popular, Dennis was dead. Didn't "Little Deuce Coupe" originate as a poem written in about 1949? I'll have to check the songwriting credits, but like most early Beach Boys stuff the writer is credit as xxx-Wilson, the xxx being the name of the other writer.

 

Actually, I saw the Ralph Malph pickup for sale at Carlisle years ago, and it was a bit rough--but isn't that the type of rod most '50s teenagers would have been driving? I don't think too many 17 year olds drove Barris cars.

 

I think he's probably referring to the non-functional SBC headers on the flathead.

 

Hey, I don't care if they're functional or not---I swear it ran better after I put them on!!!

 

It's a concern all the time for the director and production staff.....not the errors mind you, but the time it takes to make SURE that there aren't any and the ammount of time it takes to fix them. Alot of times, prod. staff guys and gals notice stuff like equipment that is "too modern" or realizing that the car you had last month you need again to reshoot a scene, but the guy has left the state and you need to find the closest version QUICK because you're blowing $10,000 a day in equipment rental for the lights or some bullshit like that. Alot of errors are knowingly looked over in post production because they simply don't have the time or budget to go back to fix stuff that went wrong, and the producers are a bunch of dot.com'ers who sit in offices on their blackberrys all day...all they care about is your budget and how you're spending their money.

But then again, even as a grip and a flim student myself...I still do it too! I litteraly got slugged by my g/f for pointing out the solid state equipment in the first studio Jaquin Phoenix was in during "Walk The Line", commenting on how that shit wasn't even produced till the mid 60's....and kept doing it to all the shots where they just used the same amp stacks and light rigs over and over as the "years" progressed By the end of the night I couldn't feel my arm on my right side from her slugging it

 

Fullmetal, just what is a "grip" anyhow? I always see that in the credits and wonder.

I do, at least, know what a Foley Man is. Wilhelm scream, anyone?

 

It's funny that everybody gives BTTF credit for cars accurate to the era... they deffinately were... of course me being the weirdo that I am, I built a diorama for a model car contest of the chase scene with "Biff's" 46 Ford Convertable. I watched that scene in slow motion atleast 100 times, and got a big surprise. Not only was Biff driving a 46, other times he was driving a 47 and a 48. Of course all the same body, but different badging. Not to mention one of them didn't have hub caps on it during slide through the corner... Yea, I know I went a little to far with that one lol

 

71% of all statistics are made up on the spot. =)

 

I knew Biff's car changed a couple times in the movie, most obviously it moves between the rectangular lights of a '46 and the round lights of a '47/'48 a couple times. I don't know enough of the minutae of '46-'48 Fords to notice the rest of the details and I completely missed the hubcaps. That's really an awesome car, though. Anybody know was it (they?) really a hot rod or just a stock ragtop that they made pretend with?

 

I remember that. I think the baddies car is a '72 or '73 Grand Ville 4dr hardtop, which would have had a 455. Those cars will haul, I've had a few of them. Looked like this one was filmed all around New York City -


The TV show Crime Story was interesting for cars, but I spotted some errors in the pilot movie when I watched it a while back - some street scenes they only had old cars up close, and if you looked down the street you could see the late model (1980's) cars parked there. But unless they shoot on a back lot, you get that - this show was shot in Chicago. They beat hell out of some '59 Ford 4drs for that one.

But then if you grew up on 80's TV staples like The Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider, you should be used to continuity errors and even fake engine components to make cars look fancy. I was flipping channels the other day and there was a Knight Rider with some kind of race and the one Camaro had a fake blower mounted on the hood.

Of course, I've seen them so much I can spot where the same locations were used in both those shows and The A-team or CHiPs. For that matter, "Hazzard" became some kind of post-apocolytic city under siege in an episode of this sci-fi show "Sliders" ....


Probably the most amusing error I can think of is a first-season Dukes when it was filmed on location in Covington GA - they're being chased around the town square and there is another General Lee parked in front of one of the stores -

 

I remember when "Dukes" was still in production seeing a transporter with a bunch of orange Chargers heading for the old Paramount Ranch not far from here. They also used to shoot alot of stunts out at the old Indian Dunes offroad park in Valencia....I think alot of the jumps were filmed there. Since they had a dirt airstrip some of the "Black Sheep Squadron" stuff and some "MASH" stuff was also shot there.

 

A grip is alot of what the name implies....a grunt. Mainly they're the worker ants of the production setting up equipment, loading and unloading gear and god knows what, and also being used and abused as a cheap ass source of mechanics/electricians/miracle workers. It's not exactly glamourous...but it's fun if you like working with other nuts to pull off miracles underbudget.

Jarrod aka Fullmetal aka Me

 

I noticed the tyres on the 40 in Walk the Line and the weather stripping on the truck, must admit I missed the mags though!!
I laugh my arse off in war movies, I was an Australian Army Special Forces Medic for 10 years. Tears of the Sun was one I rolled around laughing in, near the end there is about 4 soldiers left, they stop and 'set up a perimeter' with four guys? Right, not only that one of them climbs a tree!!
I also spent some time volunteering at a museum restoring old Fighter planes, in the movie 'Pearl Harbour' there are so many inaccuracies I walked out.
Modern ships being bombed, an Aussy River class Destroyer from the 80 blowing up, when they were in England Mk 5 and Mk 9 spitfires in 1940?? Fighter piolts flying Dolittles famous raid?? Err no.
A bomb that has the arming impeller still turning after it has struck the ship, it finished turning then explodes? I mean really do they have anyone there to point out the sheer stupidity of it all?
Don’t even get me started on anything medical, I have never seen anything remotely accurate ever in movies.
It sucks, everything sucks.
Do I sound negative??
Doc.

 

I'm with you guys, I try to find (unconsciously) mistakes like wrong year cars, parts, deteriorated parts, etc. in "period" movies all the time. It's become an annoying habit to whomever is watching the movie with me.

The 2 things no one here has mentioned yet that really irk me is:

1) "old cars" in movies, correct or not, are 9 times out of 10 very clean, shiny, waxed, and show-ready. All of them, in one movie...not one dirty car! Especially movies set in the 50's. Did everyone wash/wax their cars religiously back then?

2) On the other hand, you have a movie/documentary set in, say 1982, and you use a 1979 car as your main vehicle (fine for the time frame), but that 1979 vehicle LOOKS like it is 30 years old, ripped up vinyl top, rust, faded paint, etc...that doesn't make sense to me either. I've seen it.

 

The so called reality shows aren't any better, I worked at 702 motoring in Las Vegas when they filmed the episode of Rides, where we rebuilt a 1969 Lincoln, the interior of the car was fully built when the film crew showed up, we took it all out and put a bunch of trash in it, took off the new wheels and put on old steelies with one snow tire, then pushed the dang thing in and out of the shop 8 times in 110 degree weather when it had a new motor and tranny and ran fine!!! Then the announcer keeps talking about the Lincoln's owner wanting to be the "King of Bling" at the all GM car show in Cali!!! We did drink alot of booze on the film company's credit card though, that was fun!!!

 

My 63 Fleetwood was used in "Heart and Souls" and ended up with a cracked windwing glass and a hole poked into my seat. I complained when I picked the car up after a week. After writing a letter to the insurance company for the film, they sent me a check for two grand! $750 car rental + $2000 = use my car in any movie you want!

 

Grips also do a ton of carpentry work. Anything that isn't a "set" is built by grips as well. Their unofficial motto is "We make it safe." After being friends with my buddy for about ten years into his trade as a grip, I knew their motto is a lie(man, the stories). However, grips can make big money. Any movie people here? Want some Golden Time?

 

Apollo 13, wrong year Vette, and wrong color. Warbonnet Yellow didn't come out till later, in '71 or so.

F and F had a car with "stand-alone fuel injection". What the hell is THAT?? It cant stand alone, it has to be hooked to R's or soemthing.

We do the same thing in RC airplane circles. Lots of errors in aviation films, like the Aviator, or Saving Private Ryan or Band Of Brothers. They typically use a later model of P51 or some such in an early part of the war.
Of course, who can even think about a P51 now, knowing that Tom Cruise owns "Montana Miss", a P51 D? Weenie.

Mark

 

I'm a TV editor, and long ago the first show I worked on, the editor told me, 'F -continuity, edit for performance!'. Who cares about the small details if the acting is good and the story is compelling, you'll be too into it to notice. You can't use a bad performance or reshoot just becuase a detail is wrong, it just doesn't work like that.

Hey, wasn't Bullitt still good even though he passes that dang volkswagen like 3 times???

 

I actually found it quite amazing that he could drive out of the Marin Headlands into Potrero Hill by just making a left hand turn.

 

I just saw Vanishing Point again recently on DVD. Does anyone know what engine those cars were running in that film? Wer they Hemis? Just curious.