Goofs for
The Majestic (2001) More at IMDbPro »

• Anachronisms: Acker Bilk 's "Stranger On The Shore," written in 1961, is played by a band in 1951.
  
  
• Continuity: When Peter first arrives in the city, he has a big gash on his forehead, which soon disappears.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The siren speaker on the police car is a Federal Signals electronic speaker that was not introduced on police cars until the mid-'60s. Sirens of the era of this movie would've been electro-mechanical wind sirens.
  
  

• Anachronisms: The diesel locomotive pulling the train that Pete is riding back to Lawson near the end of the movie is a later model Electro Motive Division GP (general purpose) engine that was not available until the mid-60s. Diesel engines were certainly available in the early-1950s, but not that model.
  
  
• Continuity: When Pete returns to Lawson at the end of the movie, the sun moves around between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Harry and Peter are in the auditorium of Majestic together for the first time and Harry is explaining the Majestic to Peter, Harry's shirt collar changes from being inside of his sweater to outside of it between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The "Sand Pirates of the Sahara" movie poster at Graumann's, and the one at the Majestic, are the exact same prop, as shown by the serial number 51/340 and other details.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In Mabel's Diner, the catsup bottles have the rounded metal, quick twist tops. In the early fifties, the tops were a cylindrical design with vertical ridges to aid with grip.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Pete wakes up from the car crash on the beach it is early morning and the sun is shining but as he walks on the beach his shadow falls on the east, away from the sea, indicating the sun is in the western sky. In California, that only happens in late evening.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Leo Kubelsky tells Appleton that the "studio has suspended negotiations this morning," the shot shows Allen Garfield with a modern "in-ear" hearing aide.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Luke Trimble died in the 1944 Normandy Campaign, yet in 1951 several characters refer to Luke having been dead for "9 years."
  
  
• Plot holes: By 1951, sufficient forensic technology in photography, fingerprinting and handwriting analysis was in existence so that a questionable identity could be verified or falsified within days, if not hours. Surprisingly, no person in Lawson thinks to do this when "Luke Trimble" improbably "returns" after having been lost in France 7 years ago. While it makes sense that Luke's father is senile and gullible, and Luke's fiancée has built up an idealized fantasy image, it is not credible that *nobody* in the whole town shows any legal or scientific common sense when placing on him a Medal of Honor which may not be his (and we know isn't). That is only one of many obvious ethical and moral considerations which the entire population seems to forget.
  
  
• Continuity: Before Pete's car goes off the bridge, the front end is hanging off the edge of the bridge angled downwards towards the water. But a brief reverse angle shot shows the car's rear end hanging off the edge of the bridge, with the headlights angled up towards the sky.
  
  

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