The one thing that’s most important for movie immersion, has to be the costumes. Just imagine Frodo walking up to Mount Doom in regular people clothes. Not quite that epic, is it? It would look like a little person walking through a forest where the trees start moving due to his severe psychedelic drug abuse, which he funds with his disability check. Yeah, all of a sudden that movie took a very dark turn, didn’t it?
That’s why we have the people from the costume department. They make sure the clothes reflect the setting and tone of the movie. And, as people do, sometimes they fuck up. It’s usually little anachronisms, which makes it go highly unnoticed until some history major looks at the movie and catches the mistake. Thankfully, history majors can’t find a job worth a damn in this economy, so they have plenty of time to look at movie costume mistakes and list ‘em all out. Lo and behold: ten of the best times when someone from the costume department did not check their history facts.
10. The Wedding Singer
The movie is set in the 80s, and Drew Barrymore’s hairstyle wasn’t popular until the 90s. And no one believes Drew Barrymore was a haircut trendsetter. Literally no one.
9. Captain America: The First Avenger
While this isn’t exactly a movie known for its realism when it comes to technology, Jim Morita can be seen wearing a headset in this World War II movie. The kind of headset he’s wearing, wasn’t produced until 2000.
8. Schindler’s List
Even one of the most impactful movies in the world had a small anachronism in it. In the 30’s and 40’s, it wasn’t common practice to shave or trim body hair, yet all the women are trimmed in this movie. That and the Holocaust never happened (it did and you’re a Trump voter if you believe otherwise).
7. The Doors
Val Kilmer can be seen wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses that were introduced in the 80s, yet Jim Morrison died in 1971.
6. Saving Private Ryan
The paratroopers wear black boots in this WWII-timed movie, yet the paratrooper boots were brown in that period. They were only black after 1950. I don’t know about you guys, but consider me triggered. This movie sucks for me now!
5. Gladiator
While fighting the tigers, you can see a Lycra bike short coming up from under his tunic. Shocking as this might be, ancient Rome did not have Lycra bike shorts. Don’t get me wrong, they should have. But they didn’t.
4. Back to the Future
Remember when Marty traveled to 1955 to play a Gibson ES-345 and “create” Johnny B. Goode? Well, the Gibson ES-345 guitar wasn’t built until 1958. And that simple fact pulled us all out of the movie.
3. Indiana Jonas and the Last Crusade
This is actually a pretty big one. The movie takes place in 1938 and several Nazi officers are wearing WWII combat medals.
2. Braveheart
As much as we all appreciate a Scottish man juggling his man-bits about, Braveheart takes place in the 1290-somethings. Scots only started wearing kilts in the early 1700s.
1. Django Unchained
This movie takes place in the age of slavery, which was abolished in 1865. Sunglasses, as we all know, were only invented in 1925. So pretty much everyone would have looked at Jamie Foxx and have been all “brother, what alien technology doth thou wear on thine face?” I don’t care what anyone says, that’s how they spoke back then.
