Almost Famous

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Almost Famous Goofs/Mistakes

Movie Goof (anachronisms): As William Miller and Lester Bangs prepare to part ways on a street corner, several modern-day vehicles, including a recent San Diego Transit bus, are visible beyond the trees.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When William drags Penny Lane across the floor as she's ODing, the soles of her bare feet are dirty. When the doctor and nurse pump her stomach in the bathroom, they're clean.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When William is sitting in the bathtub, Penny Lane comes in to use the bathroom. Startled, William knocks his notes off the edge of the tub. In the next scene, where we are looking straight at Penny Lane, the notes are still lined up on the edge of the tub.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Although the film takes place in 1973, William Miller appears in underwear with the "Fruit of the Loom" name printed all around the waistband. This style wasn't produced by the company until the 1990s.
Movie Goof (factual errors): One of the stops on the Stillwater tour is Greeneville, Tennessee. The movie spells it "Greenville."
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When the group comes to New York City, several buildings are visible in the skyline that were not yet built in 1974, most notably, the Citigroup Building, which was built in 1978-1979.
Movie Goof (continuity error): The position of the Abraham Lincoln poster behind William's bed changes position between cuts whenever a scene is in his room.
Movie Goof (audio/visual unsynchronized): In the pool scene, when William goes up to Russell and asks him a question with his recorder his lips aren't moving.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When the streets of New York are shown outside the hotel, the street signs are green and white. In 1973, New York City street signs were still gold and black.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Russell is about to be interviewed in William's room, a shirt is on the chair Russell sits on. He turns the chair around and throws the shirt on the floor. In the next shot, the shirt reappears on the chair.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the final concert, as the band walks onto the stage, several modern intelligent lights (MAC600s) are visible. The lights were first released in 1997. In other scenes, the instruments lighting the band are halogen and metal halide lamps, which also didn't exist in the 1970s.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): On the bus when everyone is singing "Tiny Dancer", William says something to Penny. Penny already had her mouth open to sing the next lyrics "Hold me closer." However, the next line is actually "Count the headlights on the highway."
Movie Goof (continuity error): During the backstage argument in Topeka, Jeff points to Dick sitting on a couch next to Ed. Suddenly, as the argument ends, Dick is standing behind Jeff. The preceding shots would have shown Dick getting up from the couch to break up the fight, but he is never seen in the background.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When William is typing his first article, the words, "And it's not about popularity" are appearing on the paper, but he is typing T G U G H M R and N.
Movie Goof (audio/visual unsynchronized): During the storm, the plane's engines are not audible, as if they were shut down. When the engines whine up again, the piston engines have acquired turbofans.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the summer of 1973, the World Trade Center wasn't quite finished. The cranes were still on the top and one of the towers still had about 20 floors to clad.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): At the Black Sabbath show where William first meets Stillwater, someone backstage can be seen wearing a 1997 Black Sabbath Reunion "Devil Twins" T-Shirt.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): 1967: Double yellow center striping is valid, but yellow dashed striping isn't. These wasn't introduced until late 1971. Even in summer 1973, finding yellow dashed road center striping was still rare as it took several years to change them over from white.
Movie Goof (continuity error): William's picture of Penny jumps from the left side of his typewriter to the right side before he picks it up and sets it aside.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When the sister leaves at the beginning, she puts on Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel's "Book Ends" album to play "America." We hear the song begin crisply, but on that album, "America" fades up as the tail end of "Save the Life of My Child" is fading out.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Before the lights come up at Stillwater's Cleveland show, fans are waving Chem-Lite glow sticks. Glow sticks did not become widely available for several years after their invention, the first patent for such a device having been awarded in October, 1973. The sticks would only become popular at concerts several years after becoming available to the public. Most of the film presumably takes place in the early summer of 1973, months before the initial patent for the glow stick was even obtained.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When the band leaves Jeff Bebe behind at the gas station, as he's running towards the bus you can see a Discover Card logo on the sign above him. Discover Card was first issued in 1985.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Penny Lane rides a plane with winglets. The advantages of winglets weren't proven until 1976, and they were first used on commercial planes in 1985.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In Topeka in 1973, some of the young party-goers by the pool are drinking from late-1990s Pepsi cans.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the Untitled version, when William and Lester Bangs are alone on the San Diego corner (just after Lester refers to "his many fans") there is a 1990s Obey Giant (aka "Andre Has a Posse") poster on the traffic box on the left.
Movie Goof (factual errors): In the end credits Michael Angarano is listed as "Michael Agnaro".
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): When William is in the tub writing and Penny Lane walks in, there are what appear to be Post-It Notes all over the tub. The movie takes place in 1974: Post-it Notes were not invented until 1977, and not released to the public until at least 1979. However, as noted by Cameron Crowe in the DVD commentary for "Untitled", they are in fact not Post-It notes, but folded yellow legal paper.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): A paperback version of "Trinity" by Leon Uris is seen on William's bed-bookshelf. This book was not published until 1976. The paperback version wasn't printed until 1977.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Lester Bangs is being interviewed at the radio station, he picks Yes' album "Fragile" from the shelf, says "Yes? No !" and throws the record on the ground. He then picks another record, "Live American Woman", and Yes' Fragile is back on the shelf.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): At the party that Russell takes Michael to, they are playing the song "Burn" by Deep Purple. The tour happened in 1973 while the song released in 1974..
Movie Goof (anachronisms): After William says goodbye to his Mom and goes to meet Penny Lane for their trip to Los Angeles, he runs across a street. On the right side of the screen, a 1980s-style Honda sedan can be seen parked among the myriad 'period' vehicles for the film.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The trivia book William keeps on the bus (shown in one scene behind the Roget's Thesaurus) is an edition published in 1977.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Anita talks their mom into pulling over to tell William how old he really is, Elaine turns the car steering wheel one way, but the car pulls over in the opposite direction.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When William is in the hotel room with Penny Lane after she has taken Quaaludes, she is wearing boots. When he picks her up off the floor and dances with her to keep here awake, she is barefoot. He never puts her down and takes her boots off.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When the entourage checks into the Gramercy Hotel the Led Zeppelin teenaged fan is holding a Marks-A-Lot marker with a modern logo.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Penny is flying away on the plane, the plane is far too close to the building (based on the Penny's POV shots.) If the plane were really this close its wings would be scraping the glass of the terminal building. Additionally, no plane would be accelerating to take-off speed on the taxi way.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When William returns home near the end of the film, he goes into his bedroom and starts to flop down on his bed, and his backpack is on his back. It then cuts to a closer shot of him, and the backpack is gone.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): When Russell is electrocuted, he is reaching for the microphone as though to sing backing vocals. However, the song itself has no backing vocals (song plays during the radio interview scene and on the "Stillwater" CD included with the Director's Cut). However many rock bands and the fictional Stillwater (most likely as well) would alter songs during a live show (add backing vocals, change arrangement, add solo, etc.) so the fact that the studio recording doesn't contain backing vocals does not mean the live version wouldn't as well.
Movie Goof (continuity error): The backstage pass on William's jacket comes and goes just before the pre-performance huddle scene.
Movie Goof (continuity error): In the scene on the bus where all the passengers begin singing "Tiny Dancer", the scenery outside of the bus is significantly different between each camera cut.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the 1967/8 scenes, there are plenty of modern lamp posts - which look too new to be of that era.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When William Miller and Russell Hammond are walking outside the concert, a VW bus is driving behind them and passes them on the street. In the next shot, the same VW bus is back 50 yards or so again. It then passes by again less that 10 seconds later and the driver invites Russell and William to a party.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When The Who song "Sparks" is playing on the turntable, the camera shows the vinyl record turning but it is side 4 on the label. "Sparks" is on side 1 on the flip side of the record.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the radio station scene, the closeup of the turntable tonearm shows a P mount head-shell and Stanton 500 cartridge. Neither was available until the mid 1980s.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): Throughout the movie, various albums and tracks are mentioned, heard and seen, even though they weren't released at the time the individual scenes are set. However, they are "of the period," and suit the scenes for other reasons.
Movie Goof (audio/visual unsynchronized): William is standing in the hallway at the live Black Sabbath show, but you hear the studio version of the song they're playing (Sweet Leaf).
Movie Goof (continuity error): When William meets Lester Bangs for the first time and walks with him, the bag over his shoulder changes position often between angles.
Movie Goof (factual errors): The closing credits show The Beach Boys song "Feel Flows" being on the "Animal Sounds" album/CD. It cannot be found there, but can be found on "Surfs Up".
Movie Goof (continuity error): When William Miller is in the Rolling Stone's conference room with Ben Fong Torres waiting for the fact-checker to return, a black telephone is on the corner of the table, to Miller's right. When the fact-checker returns, there are several quick cuts with the phone visible in each. As she leaves, that corner of the table is clearly visible, but the phone is not. In the next cut, the phone is there again.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): "Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid" is actually a quote of Dorothea Brande and not Johann Wolfgang Goethe.