Shite car casting decisions in films

[RustbucketP6]

I’m sure I can’t be the only one who gets incredibly wound-up by bad casting of cars in films. It’s incredible how Hollywood can throw so many millions at a film and then get something like this so very wrong.

Last night I watched ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. It’s a fantastic film – let down only by this car. The film is supposedly set in the early 1970s – which begs the question of would this early 1970s Ford Maverick really look like this? Does this look like a two-year old car to you?

 

I have thought of a few other examples – which I have stuck up on my blog today – like ‘Ronin’ and ‘The Last King of Scotland’. Please feel free to check it out (and boost my hits and make me look good at work in the process!). http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/truc ... films.html

 

Incidentally, the pictures all came from Internet Movies Car Database - http://www.imcdb.org/

Can anyone else think of any bad castings?

[mouseflakes]

I think it's Gorillas in the Mist that opens with a caption proclaiming the year to be 1969, as a Renault 16 drives into shot with the large rear light clusters that didn't arrive until 1970. After that glaring example of slap-dashery I was unable to engage with the film and felt strangely ambivalent towards the fate of the apes. Shame.

[r.welfare]

Any film or TV show set in the 1970s/80s always seems to have streets full of conkers-condition period motors, whereas in reality a lot of stuff would be hanging! Life On Mars is a good example...

 

Ronin and the TAXI films feature a huge amount of French tat getting destroyed, but a lot of it was very young at the time:

 

 

Fr'instance, this 106 at the front would have been a couple of years old, max. PSA sponsorship perhaps?

 

Incidentally I watched a documentary about the close-call of WW3 (the Soviets almost pressing the red button in November 1983 due to NATO carrying out a nuclear exercise) on C4 the other night, and I'm damn sure that when they were showing a reconstruction of a Russian double agent making his way across London to share secrets with MI5, he paused by the rear end of a Chrysler 180

[Mr Lobster]

Ronin and the TAXI films feature a huge amount of French tat getting destroyed, but a lot of it was very young at the time:

Superb films although the amount of stuff getting destroyed is astonishing...Incidentally, in a previous job I supplied a large number of French cars (Lagunas, 406s, Clios, 106s - all of which were then new) to a TV production company so they could make Ripon town centre look like a French town. Can't remember the programme though, possibly the Christmas special for some detective series.

[Albert Ross]

Gorillas in the mist also dropped the bollock of showing the Series 3 Land Rover in the 1960s, trouble was, they weren't fully line built until late summer 1971........................Nice to know I'm not the only saddo.............

[reallyloud]

I find this point a constant form of irratation when watching films and period dramas. Whether its a vehicle wearing older plates or simply the same cars during different takes. Some films however are so great I can forgive - like Withnail and I. The film is set in 1969, yet the Jag they drive could not have been more than 10 years old, yet in a terrible state! Jags of the period couldn't have been that bad could they? There is also discrepancies regarding signage and background traffic, but I suppose you have to take budget into account.

[Guest]

This isn't particularly bad casting as it was the early 70s when it was made, but the Jag from Vanishing Point has always confused me.

 

 

According to the data available, it would have been a maximum of 7 years old at the time of filming! Admittedly it is a bit of a battle-wagon with the rollbar etc. but would an E-Type be that rubbish in America by the 70s?

 

Silver Streak says no:

 

A mystery.

[Betaphile]

I’m sure I can’t be the only one who gets incredibly wound-up by bad casting of cars in films. It’s incredible how Hollywood can throw so many millions at a film and then get something like this so very wrong.

Last night I watched ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. It’s a fantastic film – let down only by this car. The film is supposedly set in the early 1970s – which begs the question of would this early 1970s Ford Maverick really look like this? Does this look like a two-year old car to you?

 

You say this, but I reckon some people who owned Mavericks from new would beg to differ...

[Electric Leyland]

Yeah, Quadrophenia sprints to mind. Set in 1965? Have a squint at these:

 

 

 

 

 

McVicar is riddled with kit from 1979-80, meant to be set in 1970 innit?

 

Off topic slightly: One of the "recent" episodes of Minder (after Waterman left) from I think 1992 has a clear shot of a Talbot Matra Racho drive past in the background, almost extinct even back then.

[vicsmith]

Check out the scrapyard in Quadraphenia - There`s a Fiat 128 in there, I always thought the film was set in the mid-late sixties, therefore the 128 must be either a prototype that Fiat had flown in specially to be stacked up in a yard and made to look at least 8 years old or a brand new example that someone was really unhappy with....I think Ronin must have been given some stuff to smash up by Peugeot, if you watch the chase enough, you`ll eventually spot what must have been one of the first 406 Pininfarina coupes, which dedicated pausing reveals to get completely smashed up. They didnt even make a big centrepiece out of it, it`s destruction and indeed it`s prescence on screen is barely perceptible. This must have made Peugeot v.angry

[Guest greenvanman]

Yeah, Quadrophenia sprints to mind

 

I see what you mean, the crafty bastards have made it look as if that Lambretta is actually running

[Guest Tony Hayers]

 

Dogs fucked the Pope... no fault of mine.

 

You're not Portuguese, man!

 

Never watch that film whilst drunk.

[ashmicro]

The movie of The Odessa File. Part of the book (Freddie Forsythe) deal with the fact that Miller's car is booby trapped, but the bomb didn't go off cos of the Jaguar's hard suspension.In the film, Miller has a Merc.IIRC it's supposed to be 1965 or 6, yet there's more than one mark 1 Escort in it.

[FredTransit]

Oh you should see it from my side! I won't pretend to be the only supplier on the planet, and I haven't done anything major big budget feature type thing on my own (yet), but there is a LONG list as to why the wrong stuff gets used. Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes - big get out on that one is it's all happening in the main character's head, so (and I don't want to turn this into a grumpy old man thread) within reason the cars and other vehicles could/should all be brand new. Great, I will trundle out an 07 sprinter next time then..... Anything else - a mixture of ignorance (on the part of the Art Director/Buyer) and misinformation (on the part of the Action Vehicle Supplier) and budget (like not having one for the classic motors).A good supplier should guide the Art Director/Buyer towards something appropriate for the part or character, but sometimes they stamp their little feet, and we end up moving mountains (or sometimes an ice cream van) from the other end of the country even though something just as suitable could be found locally. Anybody remember The Bank Job? Set in 1971/2 there was a character who had just come out of jail. He had done 5 years, and during that time the Governor must have been kind enough to allow him to order a Mk3 Cortina, which he must have had delivered directly to storage, as on the day of his release he drove it, still covered in dust and looking a right dog with missing bits. Not guilty your Honour.....Keep an eye out in epp 1 of the next series of Ashes, there will be a scrapper in the car park that had a really hard life. Guilty as charged your Honour.....

[HillmanImp]

Think Sid and Nancy was the worst. By putting P reg number plates on an '85 Civic shuttle does not make the film look like it was filmed in the 70's.If i remember rightly there was about 3 cars that appeared in every outdoors scene including a BRIGHT yellow scrote to make it look realistic.

[shite_meister]

Withnail and I was set in 1969 but also featured a Series 3 Land Rover.

...Which also featured this 'old' mk2 Jag, the oldest at that time would've been ten years old

[trigger]

Anybody remember The Bank Job? Set in 1971/2 there was a character who had just come out of jail. He had done 5 years, and during that time the Governor must have been kind enough to allow him to order a Mk3 Cortina, which he must have had delivered directly to storage, as on the day of his release he drove it, still covered in dust and looking a right dog with missing bits.

The E-type that he was selling also made me laugh at the time, How many back street garages would of been selling a brand new E-type back then?.

 

[Richard]

 

Withnail and I was set in 1969 but also featured a Series 3 Land Rover.

...Which also featured this 'old' mk2 Jag, the oldest at that time would've been ten years old

To be fair a ten year old Jag was perfectly capable of looking like that.

[FredTransit]

 

Anybody remember The Bank Job? Set in 1971/2 there was a character who had just come out of jail. He had done 5 years, and during that time the Governor must have been kind enough to allow him to order a Mk3 Cortina, which he must have had delivered directly to storage, as on the day of his release he drove it, still covered in dust and looking a right dog with missing bits.

The E-type that he was selling also made me laugh at the time, How many back street garages would of been selling a brand new E-type back then?.

 

 

This one? I wondered what that E Type was for! Never seen the film, only saw the bits we did.....

 

Let's not get on to Consuming Passions then, also set in 1972, with a scene in the second hand car lot

 

 

[FredTransit]

Don't forget the Series 1 Land-Rover right at the end in Ice Cold in Alex. Also the Blue Allegro in the background in the bus station in Let Him Have It

I didn't know about the aggro in Let Him Have It!

[hennabm]

I was asked to have my car in a short series for BBC1 Scotland called "Looking after Jo Jo". It was about the drug scene in Edinburgh in the very early eighties. The main star was Robert Carlyle.It didn't seem to bother the production crew that my car wasn't released in the UK until March 83. Still i didn't mind for the money they were paying me.

[FredTransit]

It's usually the Art Director that does the picking. Look closely at the Mk1 transit in the pic about (from the Bank Job). It has chromed Mk2 mirrors, from 1978 at the earliest, they are a good 6 years later than when the film is set.....

[Richard]

In this week's Armstrong and Miller there was a Mk2 Granada in a sketch set in the early 1970s.

[warren t claim]

It's usually the Art Director that does the picking. Look closely at the Mk1 transit in the pic about (from the Bank Job). It has chromed Mk2 mirrors, from 1978 at the earliest, they are a good 6 years later than when the film is set.....

Did they dub over the sound of the Duratorque motor?

[FredTransit]

Er, no , Them "what's that whistling noise?"Me "oh er it must be a dry belt or summat" Makes swift exit......:oops:The pinto in me minibus was dubbed for a DI in History Boys, god knows why.

[trigger]

Did they dub over the sound of the Duratorque motor?

Well remembered!

[FredTransit]

The Mk6 dash was a living nightmare too, all LEDs that had to be hidden cos they lit up like a Christmas tree! We had to fashion a mask from matt black gaffer tape and a scruffy rag! :lol:Anybody see the shot of the keys on the floor? I didn't know anything about the shot, just thought they kept dropping out of the ignition. The chubb ignition keys must have looked nice......

[Mr H Sceptre]

 

Withnail and I was set in 1969 but also featured a Series 3 Land Rover.

...Which also featured this 'old' mk2 Jag, the oldest at that time would've been ten years old

Plus they've got it on 'H' plates ie 1969, the year the film was set. So in effect they were driving a brand new Jag looking like that.

[Rusty Pelican]

How can 405 SBH be a 69 plate , its pre 63 surely

[Mr H Sceptre]

Errr shiiiiit, I'll get me coat.............