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Anachronisms (2) |
Character error (1) |
Continuity (9) |
Factual errors (5) |
Miscellaneous (4) |
Plot holes (4) |
Revealing mistakes (1)
Anachronisms
The beautiful widow's dress is very inviting to the viewer, but a respectable woman of the 1870's would never allow her upper torso, arms, or legs to be seen in public. That was the province of prostitutes.
Both the seven and other male characters are a remarkably liberal group for 1879. The seven represent at least five different ethnic groups, and the only overt sign of bigotry in the film is Chris Pratt's character's "Oh, good! We have a Mexican." The slur r*dskin was also used only once. The racism Billy Rocks faced was implied in a story. Denzel Washington's character gets lots of push-back, but apparently not based on his race. All of this not likely in that era.
Character error
Goodnight Robicheaux addresses Emma Cullen as "mon cher". By using the masculine form and not the feminine "ma chère ", he is implying that Emma is male.
Continuity
In a long shot of the damaged Church bell tower the re-instated bell is seen way above head height but in a tighter shot the bell is shown much lower.
When Bogue is in Sacramento and the Seven are helping the townspeople prepare for battle, a dedicated shot depicts them removing the Bogue banner from the outside of the mining office in town. In a subsequent scene, the banner is in place.
When Matthew Cullen (Matt Bomer) is stood outside the church with his arms round his wife he throws his hat to the floor. The camera angle changes and its back in his hand before it flicks back to the original angle where he's not holding it again.
Shortly before Jack Horne is killed by Denali, the former is shown lying face down in the street, motionless, for a split second.
When Josh Faraday is about to light his cigarette (before he is about to blow himself up) you can see some cards visible in his pocket. In the next shot the cards are gone.
When 'Goodnight Robicheaux' is killed, he smashes through the railing of the belfry, slides down and off the roof, and hits the ground. A few scenes later, the belfry railing is intact.
Despite the church having been set on fire in the beginning of the movie, the last scene inside of the church the floor boards are free of burns or soot.
The year is 1879 and all of the actors have perfect looking teeth which wasn't characteristic of that time period. People back then in fact had rotted or no teeth.
Early in the movie when Farady tells Chisolm "Pity. I had just ordered a drink from him." (after Chisolm shot the wanted bartender), Chisolm pushes a drink across the bar towards Farady. The camera cuts between the two characters a few times, and after the final cut just before Chisolm exits the bar, the drink is no longer on the bar at all.
Factual errors
The Gatling Guns used in the time period of this film were chambered in .45-70 Government, which had a muzzle velocity of 1.600 feet per second and a 300 grain lead bullet and had a range of well over a mile. In fact the Army's standard target in the time the caliber was used was a 6 x 6 wooden target at 600 yards, well over the distance shown in this film and the .45-70 round was also used to shoot bison (buffalo) in the late 1800's. So modest cover would not have saved you and the range for the Gatling gun in the movie was more than accurate.
The one time we see Chisolm (Washington) reload his Colt Single Action Army revolver, he flips open the loading gate and spins the cylinder upside down which quickly dumps his empty shells to the ground. Spent shells would not be able to loosely fall out of the cylinder like that due to the pressure of firing the bullet causing the mouth of the cartridge to swell and basically get stuck in the cylinder. He would have needed to use the ejector rod to punch the shell out. However, it's Hollywood, and that looked way cooler than having to eject a single shell at a time.
As the crew ride into the mining operation to score some dynamite, an American flag is flying on a wooden pole. This particular flag didn't come about until 1896, about 20 years after the film's time period.
Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) has a Mohawk hair style in the film. The Comanche never cut their hair in the style of a Mohawk. However, he does claim to be sort of an outcast and could have decided to cut his hair that way, y chance, since the Comanche were located in and around Texas and the Mohawk in New York state.
The look of the Mohawk hairstyle which Red Harvest sports throughout the film is a modern one and not at all unique to the time period in which the film takes place. It is also very doubtful that a Native American out in the West would have facial paintings which look as clean and well-designed as his do.
Miscellaneous
Despite hundreds of shots and explosions, only men's bodies are seen on the ground and no dead or wounded horses.
During the final battle, everyone calls out they are running out of ammunition. When Sam Chisholm faces off with Bogue, his gun belt is full of bullets.
Like most westerns, this film depicts the characters repeatedly "fanning" their revolvers to get off multiple shots very quickly. While it appears to be effective and accurate, for all practical purposes, it is quite the opposite. For one, holding the trigger back and slapping the hammer with the opposite hand (fanning) is very hard on the action of the gun and unless they had a gunsmith custom build their guns to withstand that punishment, they would have broken within a few reloads. Second, the accuracy of fanning from the hip would be horrendous unless one spent countless hours practicing, and even then, to hit multiple targets running and on horseback and while under fire, would be quite a feat indeed.
When 'Goodnight Robicheaux' is killed, he smashes through the railing of the belfry, slides down and off the roof, and hits what is obviously a stunt board on the ground, kicking up dust.
Plot holes
The Gatling gun managed to shoot the top of the bell tower down to the ground without the height being adjusted.
Early on in the film, Sam Chisolm tells the bartender that Powder Dan had killed a tenant farmer and his son before raping and murdering the farmer's wife. A few minutes later, he tells the sheriff that half of the bounty payment would go to the man's widow.
When Bogue returns from Sacramento, his mini-army numbers perhaps 70, with distinct boundaries to the lateral column of men, at least in the wide shots. In the ensuing battle at least 70 are seen being shot or blown off their horses prior to Bogue requesting "the wagon", whilst many more subsequently appear to die. This does not preclude reinforcements being bought in from off screen but no indication is given where they all came from.
During an inventory of kills after the initial major shoot up, four of the seven claim 6,6,5 and 7 respectively (24). Bogue when confronted with the news in Sacramento states that 22 of his men were lost. n.b. The claim of seven kills may have been just braggadocio on the part of Faraday.
Revealing mistakes
In a close up shot of the shells under the Gatling gun, we can see that it is firing blanks.