Agent 355 & the CIVIL WAR?

I'm watching a show on Netflix about unsolved mysteries and they had a segment about an unknown female spy known to history only as "Agent 355." She was a spy during the Revolutionary War, but the geniuses who produced this show kept showing clips of Civil War reenactments as they were talking about the Revolutionary War. Perhaps they figured people would not notice.

yet those of us old enough to have seen both of those wars know the difference, right?

Unfortunately, seems that most of the history shows these days are pretty weak on reality and research - but pretty good on flashy computer graphics.

An exception:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/episodes/to-walk-invisible-the-bronte-sisters/

Wow.

Heck, how many WWII movies have you seen where the hero loads up into a B-17, take off is a DC-3, and cruise in formation is B-24's?

Or December 1941 warships with radar antennas all over the superstructure?

Remember the guy in the opening scenes of In Harm's Way, wakes up on the beach with the XO's wife, takes off in his (looks like) 1941 Lincoln Continental Convertible, gets run off the road....and watch the crash.

46-7-8 Ford convertible with a continental kit screwed on the deck lid.

What's the position? "Continuity"? Sure doesn't work.

How about one of the older Scrooge movies, where he wakes up free and clear of the ghosts, starts dancing around, and in one mirror in the corner is a full length stage hand in modern clothing?

It's all entertainment, and I usually avoid it.

However, taking the grand daughters to see Ralph wrecking the Internet was fun.

I like the old movie scenes where the 1957 Buick is racing down the mountain road and ends up going over the edge. The next scene is a un upside down Rambler burning at the bottom.

Gliderman8 said:

I like the old movie scenes where the 1957 Buick is racing down the mountain road and ends up going over the edge. The next scene is a un upside down Rambler burning at the bottom.

Click to expand...

I took these screen shots from the movie "Twister." It one scene, the windshield of the truck is badly smashed by flying farm equimpent.

Then, like magic, in the next scene, the windshield has repaired itself! (And the side mirrors are different)

Safelite! Or whatever it is...

I think the biggest difference between continuity goofs in movies and serious historical inaccuracies in something purporting to be a documentary is that the former is strictly entertainment and the latter is supposed to be educational. I sometimes find some really good documentaries on Netflix as well as on Amazon prime, however, many are complete rubbish.

I was recently clicking through a slide show on a tabloid web site that purported to show famous actors and actresses, other personalities, etc., as thay have aged. Basically "then and now" pictures. Here is the before and after pictures they had for actor James Lipton. Anyone spot the problem?

While the spoken text in many cases isn't bad it seems like the person putting together film to accompany it has said to an assistant, "get me film of an aircraft carrier, plans dropping bombs and stuff exploding", and none of them know enough to recognize what is correct or close enough to what they're talking about.

Lipton looked an awful lot like an older Edward G. Robinson when he was younger.

I watch a lot of AHC's programs and have been surprised at the inconsistencies in footage vs. timeframe, different aircraft depicted as TOC noted:

TOC said:

Heck, how many WWII movies have you seen where the hero loads up into a B-17, take off is a DC-3, and cruise in formation is B-24's?

Click to expand...

Viet Nam depictions where an F-4 comes in on a gun run and next shot is an A-7... supposedly the same run. Overdubbed sound tracks of line chatter totally bogus, machine guns firing in a scene and rate of fire is completely wrong. Nevermind the soundtracks where the battle footage was most likely made with hand-wound 'field' cameras, no sound recording capability possible. Credibility gone for a chop.

Rambo firing a LAAW from the front seat of a huey...