MovieChat Forums > The Big Year (2011) Discussion > Some goofs noticed in this movie

Some goofs noticed in this movie


I saw this movie this afternoon. I thought it was good. The three lead characters all gave solid performances. Like in King Kong, Jack Black impressed me with his acting skills when he isn't trying to be a modern John Belushi.
I thought the movie played up the typical stereotypes of birders as slightly crazy nerds who walk about in public imitating bird calls, but at least it tried to explain people's obsessions with birds.

I noticed some goofs in the movie, none of which give away any major plot elements.
First, scenes in NYC show cars with the old blue and white plates. The new NY plates are yellow with blue lettering.
Second, when Jack Black is traveling from Baltimore to Boston after a Pink-footed Gull, he's on an Amtrak train which should have a direct route on the Northeast corridor with the only possible connection in NY city at Penn Station. An exterior shot of a train showed a Metro-North Railroad General Electric P32-9ACDM, which is mostly used for runs on the Hudson and Harlem Valley lines. I could also point out the engine has the old "stealth" paint sceme, but most of the engines have been repainted with new colors with a blue cab. Judging from the mountains and the river in the background, I'd guess the shot was taken near the New Hamburg station on the Hudson line, which isn't part of the Washington-Boston corredor.

As you may have guessed by now, I am triply cursed: I'm a birder, a rail-fan, and I nit-pick movies. You could feel pty for me, and not just because My llife-list has been stalled at 399 for the past two monthes!






I find your lack of faith disturbing.

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Pretty sure that the "Merrill Field" they showed in the movie is not the one in Anchorage--too much grass, no mountains :)

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And there was also the part when Owen Wilson got into his car when he was on his way to the fallout, he was driving a silver car in the next shot when he arrived he was in a red car.You sir have a good eye if you noticed different plates then it should be. :)

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Okay, noticed another goof in the movie. When he starts his year, Jack Black's character is standing in his office looking out the window with binoculars. He lowers them and a counter comes up on the screen and clicks to one. The scene he was supposed to have watched actually shows at least two and probably three types of gulls, Laughing Gull, Greater Black-backed Gull, and what looks like a Ring Billed Gull. The counter should have clicked to three.





"Six trips? Sounds to me like somebody doing a Big Year."
"Maybe I just love to watch birds."

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Lol, I noticed the multiple gulls too. 😄

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The Monterrey beach scene was shot on Vancouver Island

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Any idea where they shot the Patagonia Lake State Park scene? It sure didn't look like PLSP, or anywhere in SEAZ.

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Nice post, thank you for the goofs. But one goof you mention is not correct: New York did indeed allow drivers to switch to the new blue-on-gold "retro" license plates, but they are not required. They are optional. So anyone can still get an "older" blue-on-white license plate in New York.

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I had a number of minor factual complaints about the movie, but you have to admit that it's pretty unheard of for a Hollywood film to get anything zoological as right as they got it in this one. That said, though, my biggest unmentioned gripe was early on, when a Swainson's Hawk was seen in a tree while people were skiing below.

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a Swainson's Hawk was seen in a tree while people were skiing below


LOL. 😃

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I'm not a birder but I share your other two obsessions. One thing you might consider regarding the trains is that the story is a fictionalization of an actual big year that took place in 1998.

There are a lot of great stories out there now about Sandy Komito (Kenny), Greg Miller (Brad), and to a lesser extent, Al Levantin (Stu). Annie is also based on a legendary Big Year personality, Debi "Shearwater." It's worthwhile to check them out some night if you're bored and have nothing to do--or even if you're not. I enjoyed the movie long before I did this web-surfing, but I appreciate it even more now.

I've read a lot of reviews about the film (birder Greg Neise is doing an article about the reviewers) and very, very few "get it." I get it. More than all else, The Big Year is a very humane look at passion--and a passion for something is much the same no matter what it is.

I identify so much because I have a passion too and am often ridiculed for it (albeit usually "good-naturedly", whatever that is). True, I don't take off a year of my life to pursue it, or spend the money they did (six figures for Komito and Levantin, $35000 for Miller who like Brad was definitely not wealthy), but my investment of myself is the same.

Great comment, and much in the spirit of the film.

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Stu's daughter-in-law's pregnancy timing bothered me. On New Year's Eve, they said she was due "some time in the middle of May" which would make her about 5 months pregnant. No way would a 5-month-pregnant woman would go skiing. Plus, she's not even showing.

Also, Stu's comment about "that's why you were tossing your cookies last month" would lead one to believe the pregnancy is in its early stages.

Lastly, the baby doesn't show up in the movie until late summer/early autumn.

So, Stu's son should have said, "Some time in the middle of August."

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