From: sherman@deimos.math.ucla.edu (William Sherman)
Subject: Re: Is that a boom mike in Madonna's butt?
Organization: The Island of Misfit Toys
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 92 03:56:55 GMT

In article <ldcos7INNes7@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> linden@positive.Eng.Sun.COM (Trelford Pinkerton) writes:
>
># Back to the Future
>-In Back to the Future Part I, Marty and Doc send Einstein one minute into the
>future.  Einstein vanishes for a whole minute.  In Back to the Future Part II,
>Doc comes back from the future to take Marty to see how bad his kids turned
>out.  There is a contradiction here from the first movie's script.  If Marty
>jumps to the future, there should be no children for him to see because he
>will have been gone for thirty years, just as the dog was gone for a minute.

That's just it... the kids were the product of his life before Dr. Brown
came back to give him a look at the future.  Not a paradox.

>-LOADS of other time travel paradoxes.

The main one:  the whole premise of the first movie is that Marty can
go back, make some changes, and return to the present to find his father
a successful science fiction author and his entire world changed.  However,
when Biff does the same thing in the second film, he returns to the same
future that he left.  Mighty convenient... if he hadn't, Marty and Dr. 
Brown would have been marooned there.

># The Blues Brothers
>-When the neo-Nazi (played by Henry Gibson) goes off the end of the freeway
>in his Pinto, suddenly the view changes and the car is falling from nearly
>1000 feet, rather than from about 50 feet. (This may have been done on
>purpose to emphasize the comedy, but it's a little jarring to see how
>high the Pinto can jump.)

What we have here is an instance of a cinematic technique known as
comedy.  Don't worry about it.

># Casablanca
>-12 minutes into the film, it is mentioned that the stolen Letters of Transit
>are signed by General DeGaulle, and cannot be questioned.  But DeGaulle was the
>leader of the Free French, and CASABLANCA is set in Vichy France, where he had
>been sentenced (in absentia) to death as a traitor. (This is contentious; did
>Peter Lorre say "DeGaulle", "Weygand", or a mix of the two?).

I thought it was set in Casablanca.

># Gone With the Wind
>-When the horse-drawn carriages are driving up to Twelve Oaks, 
>they cast no shadows on the ground.

That's because they were bought used from Peter Pan.

># I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka
>-check out the scene where Jack's momma takes care of Mr. Big's goons in the
>diner.  The stuntman's mustachioed face is clearly visible for so long that I'm
>not sure if this goof is intentional or not.

This is intentional.  It got a big laugh from the audience when I saw it.

># Raiders of the Lost Ark 
>-Indy goes to Marion's bar to get the medallion.  She tells him to get 
>lost.  After he leaves she sits down and pulls the medallion, which she is 
>wearing on a chain around he neck, out of her blouse.  Straight-on shot of 
>Meriam looking at the medallion with the chain still around her neck.  Cut 
>to a profile shot where she is still looking at the medallion and the chain 
>is no longer around her neck.

In addition,  she seems to have magically changed from Marion to Meriam.  
Those kooky screenwriters.

># Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
>- When Robin returns to England and throws himself on the ground, he offers his
>hand to his Moorish slave.  In a subsequent shot, he is offering his other
>hand.

How about all the anachronisms?  And Morgan Freeman's character is
not Robin's slave; he's his friend.  Plus, the characters should all have 
English accents.  I guess they forgot, especially Costner.

># Top Gun
>-When Maverick (as Alert5 aircraft) is launched to help Iceman in the
>climatic battle near the end of the movie, he is more than 110 miles from
>Iceman.  

You mean there's heavy weather in that scene?

># When Harry Met Sally 
>-Billy Crystal spits the seeds on the window and then says, "I'll open 
>the window."  The next shot shows the outside of the car driving on 
>the highway, Billy's window is closed. (He may have said: "Next time
>I'll open the window". Anyone know?)

Maybe he finished...?

--
  Bill Sherman      S^1 `--> S^(2n+1) -->> CP^n     sherman@math.ucla.edu
     "Enter, o seeker of knowledge!" [pause]  "That's you, fathead!"
                  - Bugs Bunny
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