Movies & TV Shows With Anachronistic Time Settings

[emuboy]

When a movie or TV show is produced the time frame in which it takes place is important. This is relatively easy if the setting is contemporary for the time it is set, more care is obviously required if it is a past setting to make it authentic.

Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and found noticeable anachronisms where things appear out of place with period of time in which is set? To clarify, I don't mean cases where this is done on purpose for comedy - for example the two Brady Bunch movies made in the mid 1990s were very successful because it featured the Brady family living in the 1990s but living and dressing in the 1970s - but where it doesn't appear to be done deliberately.

This could be a TV show with a contemporary setting where characters look, act, talk and dress like it is several years earlier. Or perhaps a past setting where this is not done convincingly, and it looks more recent or perhaps even further in the past than the actual setting.

Here are some examples from movies I noticed:

Bridge to Terabithia - Made in 2007 and with a contemporary setting, Bridge to Terabithia had many positives. However, adapted from a novel written and set in the 1970s, this showed and made quite a lot of the movie look quite anachronistic. The way the characters interacted with each other, the dialogue, the way the school was run, the family dynamics and problems faced by the families coupled with a lack of 2000s technology made it seem more suited to the 1970s. The school bullies in particular use slang and taunts from years gone by, and they are not the only ones to use anachronistic dialogue. You have to wonder why the movie simply wasn't set in the 1970s.

Welcome to the Dollhouse - This hard hitting 1995 film shows in graphic detail the cruel, vile and at times downright evil physical, verbal and psychological bullying inflicted upon the main character 12-year-old Dawn Weiner. Middle child Dawn suffers this at the middle school she attends from both students and teachers, in the community and even at home, where her cruel mother openly favors Dawn's smart older brother and pretty younger sister over her and her cranky father doesn't want to know about anybody else's problems, least of all Dawn's. The year in which the film takes place is not referenced, but by the hairstyles of and clothes worn by the Weiner family and several others characters such as the high school principal, it would seem to be in the late 1980s. However, other characters have a mid 1990s appearance, suggesting it has a contemporary setting for the time it is made, so this remains ambiguous.

Cool Cat Saves the Kids - To say this bizarre 2015 children's film has a low budget is to understate things significantly, and this shows in too many ways to list in detail here. Despite clearly being set in the time it was made by the technology, the film overall looks like it comes from circa 1998-2003. But this is not the end of the many anachronisms in this film. One of the kids in the film Maria uses the expression 'groovy' as well as skipping down the street when she comes to see Cool Cat. Then we get to Butch the Bully, who behaves like a pantomime villain and looks like he is a stereotypical fat bully from a 1980s Canadian kids show like Degrassi or Circle Square. He also uses the expression 'punked', years out of date by the time the movie is made. As for Cool Cat himself (a six foot six man in a cat costume), at one time despite the obvious abundance of technology (he has a smart phone) he becomes very excited by surfing the internet, much like kids would be in the mid 1990s. In many ways this movie feels like a parody film, but it is not.

 

[emuboy]

A movie I forgot to post is 'The Notebook' from 2004. The scenes in the past take place in 1940-1946, and this is very clear and well done. But just when the 'present day' is set is not so clear as illustrated:

1. Noah and Allie were both born in the early 1920s and therefore by 2004 would both be aged in their 80s. However, despite both suffering severe health problems - dementia for Allie, heart disease for Noah - neither look to be aged in their 80s.
2. We meet Noah and Allie's children and grandchildren. Their children are of course adults - but look way too young for the kids of two people who married quite young in their 20s during the mid 1940s. One would expect the kids to have been born somewhere between 1947-1955, but Noah and Allie's kids all look to have been born post 1960, and aged in their late 30s/early 40s in the present day part of the movie. It would be extremely unlikely that Noah and Allie would have delayed having their family until both were pushing 40, especially in those days. The same is true of their grandchildren, who are about middle school/elementary school age, whereas grandparents that age would likely have grandchildren who are young adults.
3. It is possible that the present day part of the film takes place in the early 1990s, but if it is the film-makers made no attempt to make it appear that way and everything in the present setting looks to be around 2004, the year it was made. And while 1990-1994 didn't look as dated in 2004 as it would by 2020, even by the early 2000s the early 1990s were looking dated. As an example popular sitcoms Friends and Frasier came to an end in 2004 after runs of more than a decade, and the early episodes were starting to show their age.

So just when the scenes where 'Duke' reads the elderly Allie the stories from the Notebook take place remains unclear.

 

[RolandF1]

Deadwood and its use of curse words. Some of which weren't wildly used back then. The wild west's version of cussing would seem pretty mild these days so the creators of the show intentionally went the modern route for impact.

 

[Shell]

A movie I forgot to post is 'The Notebook' from 2004. The scenes in the past take place in 1940-1946, and this is very clear and well done. But just when the 'present day' is set is not so clear as illustrated:

1. Noah and Allie were both born in the early 1920s and therefore by 2004 would both be aged in their 80s. However, despite both suffering severe health problems - dementia for Allie, heart disease for Noah - neither look to be aged in their 80s.
2. We meet Noah and Allie's children and grandchildren. Their children are of course adults - but look way too young for the kids of two people who married quite young in their 20s during the mid 1940s. One would expect the kids to have been born somewhere between 1947-1955, but Noah and Allie's kids all look to have been born post 1960, and aged in their late 30s/early 40s in the present day part of the movie. It would be extremely unlikely that Noah and Allie would have delayed having their family until both were pushing 40, especially in those days. The same is true of their grandchildren, who are about middle school/elementary school age, whereas grandparents that age would likely have grandchildren who are young adults.
3. It is possible that the present day part of the film takes place in the early 1990s, but if it is the film-makers made no attempt to make it appear that way and everything in the present setting looks to be around 2004, the year it was made. And while 1990-1994 didn't look as dated in 2004 as it would by 2020, even by the early 2000s the early 1990s were looking dated. As an example popular sitcoms Friends and Frasier came to an end in 2004 after runs of more than a decade, and the early episodes were starting to show their age.

So just when the scenes where 'Duke' reads the elderly Allie the stories from the Notebook take place remains unclear.

The Notebook shits me to tears in that aspect.

And they look nothing like ryan and rachel imo.

Cant stand "non lookalikeies" in films. Eric Banas in the Dry is not the best.

 

[Shell]

No Country for Old Men- set in 1980.

Like u wat mate.

 

[emuboy]

When I started watching the movie 'The Way Way Back' which starred Steve Carrel, Allison Janney and Toni Collette I thought I was watching a movie set circa 1991, and it wasn't until I saw a smart phone that I realized that it was set in the present day. Everything about it looked so early 1990s.

 

[jackn]

When I started watching the movie 'The Way Way Back' which starred Steve Carrel, Allison Janney and Toni Collette I thought I was watching a movie set circa 1991, and it wasn't until I saw a smart phone that I realized that it was set in the present day. Everything about it looked so early 1990s.

I think it's supposed to in this case. It's set in a quaint holiday town and the dated appearance is part of it.

 

[emuboy]

Two more:

La La Land - The main movie poster, the physical appearances of the two lead characters and the overall plot of the movie made me think it was set in the late 1940s or early 1950s, but La La Land takes place in the present day.

Kath & Kim - I find this show so annoying and cringe worthy that I can't watch it, but from the appearance (hairstyles and clothes) of the characters and the premise made me think it was set in the very early 1990s. However, it has a contemporary setting in the 2000s when it was made.

 

[RolandF1]

No Country for Old Men- set in 1980.

Like u wat mate.

The story makes the year known right at the start when referencing the year on the coin but requires a bit of calculating while watching the film.

However, the novel has a character using a mobile phone at one point, confusing the setting further. The film corrects the mistake, but leaves in references to ATMs which was pushing boundaries as they weren't widely used yet.

 

[emuboy]

The story makes the year known right at the start when referencing the year on the coin but requires a bit of calculating while watching the film.

However, the novel has a character using a mobile phone at one point, confusing the setting further. The film corrects the mistake, but leaves in references to ATMs which was pushing boundaries as they weren't widely used yet.

I've never read or seen No Country for Old Men (it's not my thing) but I can't believe such blatant anachronisms could make their way into the novel like this.

True, there's always going to be anachronisms in works set in the past, but usually these are small. For example a movie set in early 1972 features a song not released until later that year. Or a movie set in 2003/2004 where characters have mobile phones that were popular in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

If it was a parody type of film you could get away with it. Say you made a parody of a beach movie set circa 1962 and had the teenagers with smart phones and using social media, this works because it is comedy. But if you made a serious movie set in 1988 and had characters using smart phones, this doesn't work at all.

 

[RolandF1]

I've never read or seen No Country for Old Men (it's not my thing) but I can't believe such blatant anachronisms could make their way into the novel like this.

True, there's always going to be anachronisms in works set in the past, but usually these are small. For example a movie set in early 1972 features a song not released until later that year. Or a movie set in 2003/2004 where characters have mobile phones that were popular in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

If it was a parody type of film you could get away with it. Say you made a parody of a beach movie set circa 1962 and had the teenagers with smart phones and using social media, this works because it is comedy. But if you made a serious movie set in 1988 and had characters using smart phones, this doesn't work at all.

I've since discovered there are quite a few anachronisms in the film NCFOM but nothing hideously obvious like a mobile.

As for the obvious issue in the novel, not sure of the story behind that. I would have thought McCarthy or an editor would have picked up on it but perhaps between drafts he changed the time setting and the blooper got overlooked along the way. Its still a great read

 

[Richard Cranium]

Kath & Kim - I find this show so annoying and cringe worthy that I can't watch it, but from the appearance (hairstyles and clothes) of the characters and the premise made me think it was set in the very early 1990s. However, it has a contemporary setting in the 2000s when it was made.

I think that was pretty much the whole point of the show...

 

[emuboy]

The recently released movie 'The Dry' had an interesting anomaly if not a full anachronism between the present day and the flashbacks where a teenage girl Ellie is murdered in the same town, the crime still unsolved.

The present day storyline clearly takes place in 2019, it is seen on documents etc. in a number of scenes. Likewise, the flashbacks clearly take place in the very early 1990s given the appearances of the teenagers and other characters; that Ellie sings the song 'Under the Milky Way' which was released in 1988; and that the now middle aged characters in 2019 would have been high school age in the early 1990s. This is officially confirmed when the main character Aaron Falk visits Ellie's grave and her date of death is listed as 1st March 1991.

However, on quite a few occasions various characters reference Ellie's murder taking place 20 years ago, when it was 28 years ago. It seems odd given that it is closer to 30 years, even if rounding to the nearest decade you think they would have said '30 years' or 'nearly 30 years' or something similar.

 

[emuboy]

One of the best known TV cases that drives the show's fan base crazy is the Unit Dating Controversy in the classic series of Doctor Who.

UNIT first appeared in the last years of Patrick Troughton's tenure in the late 1960s, were a major part of the John Pertwee era when he was exiled to Earth and continued into the early years of Tom Baker up until 1975.

However, the dates these stories took place are ambiguous. Some things suggest that these stories are set in the near future (perhaps the early 1980s), such as more advanced technology than the 1970s, but there is no attempt to make the show in general look futuristic and overall it looks to have a contemporary setting for the time it takes place. Dates are rarely referenced, and sometimes they suggest a future setting (such as Sarah Jane saying she is from 1980), other times a present setting (World War 2 referenced as being 30 years ago in a story set in the early 1970s).

During the actual 1980s things got even more confusing. The Peter Davidson, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy stories with a contemporary setting all squarely take place in the 1980s, and to compound things even further a Peter Davidson episode from 1983 sees the Doctor and his crew travel a few years into the past in 1977, where the Brigadier has retired from UNIT and is now working as a teacher.