Cool Hand Luke (1967)

◄ Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Anachronisms

Dollar bills seen during egg eating contest is Sixties-era money, not that of decades-earlier period in which movie takes place.
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At one point in the movie a "white on red" stop sign is shown. In the film's late-1940s time period, stop signs were "black on yellow."
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Luke sings "Plastic Jesus," a folk song that wasn't written until 1957, well after the time period of the movie (approximately 1949).
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1960s vehicles are visible in the background of some scenes.
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Character error

Dog Boy fills Luke's plate with more food than Luke can eat, saying gleefully that Luke will be punished for not cleaning his plate by spending the night in the box. However, as punishment for his escape attempts, Luke is already being made to spend every night in the box.
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Continuity

After Luke cuts his chains with the axe, he ties the chains to his ankles with a strip off his trousers. He ties his left ankle but not his right, yet as he gets up and runs away both are tied on.
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When Carr gives his famous "Night in the box" speech, just after he tells Luke he hopes he won't be any trouble, he drops the spoons with a clattering sound. In that instant, the camera cuts from a close-up to a long shot, and the cigar stump clenched in his mouth is suddenly now in his left hand.
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While Luke's mother is smoking a cigarette, it gets smaller when the camera switches angles.
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Just before Luke enters the church to have his talk with God, he looks toward the church which is silhouetted against the late afternoon sky. In the next shot when he starts walking toward the church, it is dark.
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During scene when Luke is cutting chains from ankles, he throws the axe off to his left. When one of the trackers arrives, the axe head is resting on the stump with the axe handle off to the right.
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During the fight scene with Dragline, Luke is knocked down into the dirt many times and is covered with black soil by the end. When the long shot shows Dragline walking away towards the barracks Luke has suddenly lost most of the black soil that was covering his sweat-soaked body.
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During the road tarring scene, the "boss" is walking in the midst of the crew shoveling sand in the close ups (he even gets sand on his shoes, which he inexplicably, doesn't punish), yet long view shots has him walking well, well behind the road crews' working area.
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Errors in geography

When the Walking Boss shoots the snake, it appears to be a western diamondback rattler. This species is not found in the deep south where the film takes place.
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Factual errors

In the provocative roadside "carwash" scene, the blonde washes the car by rubbing her chest against the car windows and subsequently arouses the onlooking road crew (chain gang). In actuality the view as seen by the crew is obscured by the car itself.
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Spoilers

The goof below may give away important plot points.

Revealing mistakes

Just before Luke is shot in the church window, a squib goes off so that Luke is bleeding before the bullet hits him. Also, the glass in the window is blown outward even though Luke is being shot from the outside.
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