Goofs

At about 1:42 Sgt. Waters and private Wilkie at drinking at the bar. Waters drains his glass in one gulp, continues his dialog, then drains it again.

When the three black sergeants and Pvt Wilkie are seated in the bar, Pvt Wilkie has his unit patch sewn on his right shoulder. We later see Pvt Wilkie with his unit patch on his left shoulder.

When Peterson (Denzel Washington) bunts, the play is shown at second base, where the infielder attempts to tag the runner. Any decent fielder would simply force the runner by stepping on the bag. Also, the result of the play would obviously have Peterson safe at first, but when C.J., the next batter, homers, we see Peterson in the dugout clapping and smiling.

Just before a search, when Sgt. Waters says "All you baseball n's are innocent ... ": From the front his arms are along his sides, but from behind his hands are on his hips.

When Davenport is interviewing Wilkie, the Captain's sunglasses start out on the desk, next to the books. In subsequent shots they are on the top of the hat where they stay until the final shot as Wilkie is leaving the room, when they disappear.

Just before Davenport goes to the jail for the last time he carries an umbrella in the rain. Male officers were not permitted to carry an umbrella then or now.

When the Lt. walks into the barracks and the group is called to attention the sgt. renders a hand salute. You do not render a hand salute in-doors. When called to attention, should have simply come to attention until the officer called "at-ease".

While Wilkie is being questioned by Capt Davenport about the murder of Sgt Waters, he tells the captain that Waters received awards called the FEF and the ETO. There is no award with the abbreviation FEF, and ETO stands for European Theater of Operations, which is a geographical area, not an award.

The African-American guard at the main gate, wears the shoulder patch of the 87th Infantry Division, while various other African-American characters are seen wearing 63rd Infantry Division insignia on their sleeves. (Both divisions were "all-white" formations during WW2.)

During the final scene when the Soldiers are marching in parade formation, they are actually moving towards the rear of the Fort Chaffee Garrison area (the actual filming location), literally just a few hundred yards before entering the tactical training area. An actual military parade would begin its march near a remote point such as this, move along the prescribed parade route, and finally pass in review at the Post Commander's Headquarters building, which is approximately 1 mile in the opposite direction.

The film is reversed during a play at second base, evidenced by the mirror-image numbers on the uniforms of the players.

After Sgt. Waters is shot, we hear the sound of the Army 45 being cocked for the next shot. A semi-automatic pistol cocks itself when the slide comes back after shooting the round in the chamber.

The baseball scene which is reversed is the same scene in which a tag is made at second after Peterson's (Denzel Washington's) bunt. If one would view this scene NOT reversed, it appears to be a pick off play at second base -- and Peterson is the runner diving back into second. Being tagged out on the pick off would have put him in the dugout for the home run which followed. It may be that the scene was reversed to shorten the sequence of plays.

There are captain bars on Lt Byrd lapel and helmet when he encounters Sgt. Waters.

Peterson and Smalls would have had to turn in their side arms at the conclusion of their guard detail in which Peterson kills Waters. When their weapons were turned in someone should have noticed that Peterson's pistol had been fired.

In some of the scenes, characters are being driven around the base or the town. The stop signs are red, but before the late 1950's, stop signs were all yellow.

Although set in WWII while President Franklin Roosevelt is still alive, the white and green bus Capt. Davenport arrives on is a post-war 1946 GMC model. A pre-war model would be extremely rare as no new buses were made during the war and existing buses were driven until they became irreparable and then scrapped for the war effort.

When Howard Rollins' character questions the two white officers in the O Club pool hall, there are pictures from H. Charles McBarron's "The Army in Action" series; specifically noticeable is "First at Vicksburg". Although the series could be found on virtually every Army post, and could be ordered through government printing services, it was not available until after World War II. "First at Vicksburg" was not painted until 1955.

When C.J. hits his home run, it has the look of a walk off, game-winning home run, and all the other ballplayers gather around home plate to congratulate him, the White fans start to leave the stands and the Black fans celebrate. However, the Black players' dugout has a "Visitors" sign hanging from it, so the game wouldn't be over after a home run from the visiting team.

Cpl Cobb mixes military and civilian time when he is being deposed by Cpt Davenport. He states a time frame between "between 2120 and 930"; he should have said "between 2120 and 2130".

When Captain Davenport first meets Colonel Nivens, he is wearing a tunic-sized Colonel's insignia rather than the smaller blouse-sized insignia he should be wearing. The insignia is also rotated to an incorrect position.

When C.J. is accused of stealing the pistol that's found in the barracks, he addresses Sgt. Water as "Sir," e.g., "No, Sir!" yet only officers are addressed as such. NCO's are addressed by their rank e.g., "No, Sergeant!"