Goofs
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Anachronisms (2) |
Audio/visual unsynchronised (2) |
Character error (1) |
Continuity (10) |
Factual errors (3) |
Incorrectly regarded as goofs (1) |
Revealing mistakes (7) |
Spoilers (1)
Anachronisms
When Adam and Millie arrive at the cabin, and a brother discovers they are married, he exclaims "I'll be a monkey's uncle!" But this is 1850, and The Origin of Species was not published till 1859, and the phrase originated in response to the reaction to the theory of evolution.
The "Cook Wanted" sign shown after Milly leaves is clearly written in permanent marker.
Audio/visual unsynchronised
When Milly is ringing the bell for dinner, she is striking it with a spoon and steadying it with her right hand. This would have muted the bell, but the sound rings true.
During "Going Courting", when Calebs groans, he groans longer than his mouth is open for.
Character error
the fight in the town happened early in the morning. yet; Milly waited until the evening to scold the brothers for it.
Continuity
When Adam is showing Milly the house, he opens the front door twice.
During the barn dance after Gideon's axe jumping, he Daniel and Caleb dance with the girls until three townsmen jump from the roof and take the girls away. In the shot immediately after, Daniel has turned into Frank when they slide underneath the wooden beam.
When Adam climbs out of the window to get into the tree, the leg he puts out first changes between shots.
During the barn dance, there is a part where Frank, Ephraim and Caleb are dancing with the girls, Frank is dancing with Alice and in the shot immediately after, Alice is standing behind Gideon at the side of the dance floor.
In several shots during the barn dance, Liza's hair comes loose from her chignon, only to be neatly combed again in the next shot.
Frank's flap on his red shirt changes from a v shape like Ephraim's to a square like Gideon's throughout the same scene.
Milly's white dress is long at the barn raising and when she returns home to minister to the brawling brothers. However, when she's dancing with Frank it's a little above her ankles.
Gideon's shirt as he's doing handstands.
In the "June Bride" number, after the 6 girls kneel on the bedroom floor, you can see that the knees of their bloomers are visibly soiled. A few seconds later, they are white again.
In the big fight and dance at the barn raising, the brothers change locations rapidly. Also, there are noticeable discontinuities during the acrobatic bits, probably because they needed some repeating.
Factual errors
After Millie and Adam's baby is born, we hear the baby cry after being slapped. The slapping of newborns originates in Victorian England when the sedation given to the mother also passed to the baby. The stimulation of the slapping is what caused the baby to take its first breath.
During the "June Bride" sequence, one of the girls plucks a bunch of fresh flowers to signify a bridal bouquet from a container hanging on a post in the bedroom, but the scene takes place in the middle of winter.
As a brother is dancing on the spindle of the water well, while another brother cranks the handle, the amount of rope on the spindle should increase as it raises the bucket, but the amount of rope on the spindle doesn't change.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs
The brothers claim that there were no F names in the Bible. While there are "F" names in the New Testament, all the names shown are from the Old Testament, so presumably that was the only part of the Bible they were referring to.
Revealing mistakes
In "Wonderful, Wonderful Day" birds fly onto the set and and several crash into the painted backdrop in the background (the director acknowledges this in a documentary).
Obvious stand-in for Jacques d'Amboise (Ephraim) during the birthing scene.
Takes place largely in Oregon winter, yet in all outdoor scenes no one's breath is visible.
During "June Bride", the icicles on the eaves of the porch are swaying
When Milly allows Adam to come back in the house he is supposed to be walking on tree limbs to get back in the window, but you can see that he is obviously stepping on flat ground.
When Gideon tells Milly that Adam is leaving to the trapping cabin, Milly is holding a teapot full of hot tea with her fingers closed around the top of the spout. This would burn her hand. In addition, the teapot does not release any steam when she proceeds immediately to pour a cup of tea for Dorcas.
In the opening montage sequence where Adam drives his wagon down a hill into town, the 'morning' shadows cast by some roadside bushes are exactly the same as their 'afternoon' shadows, when he and Milly drive back up the hill out of town.
Spoilers
Character error
In the wedding scene at the end, it may seem that Rev. Elcott is reciting the names of the six brides in right-to-left order as they stand before him because he begins with his daughter Alice (screen right) and ends with Dorcas (screen left); however, the order does not match for the four brides in between. He recites: Alice, Ruth, Martha, Liza, Sarah, Dorcas. But the right-to-left order is Alice, Sarah, Liza, Martha, Ruth, Dorcas. It's not clear if this is an error because Rev. Elcott is not seen at the beginning of the shot so it is unknown if he looks at each bride as he says the name. The order that he recites each groom's name matches the left-to-right order in which they stand and, now in the shot, his head is seen moving left to right looking at each groom as he says the name.
