Was 1956. Goof or intentional? Best I could tell from piecing different aspects together, the movie took place in 1958 or 1959 - when Cory would have graduated high school. 2 thoughts - '56 was a year his team won some kind of championship, or maybe it was a hand-me-down? What do you think?
Was probably just an older jacket, but how do you know it took place in 1958 or 9?
shareRough math piecing together some of the events that Troy spoke about. But then when Cory came home from the service it was said 6 years had passed calendar in kitchen said 1965. Also the daughter seemed to be about 6.
shareSo you don't know at all
shareCory is wearing a Vietnam Service ribbon on his uniform. If wikipedia is to be trusted, this ribbon was introduced in July 1965 (and the first Marines were sent there in March, 1965). This is cutting the time a little close for him to be back for his father's funeral some time in 1965. It's possible that the film costuming is not accurate, however.
shareThey did mention in the movie that there was a lot of paperwork they had to go through for him to get home. Even though the Marines went in as a large force in 1965, there were some military advisors there beforehand and he might have been part of that detachment.
That being said, I'd go with costuming error as you said. I just don't see the moviemakers putting that much effort into creating a backstory and getting the ribbons right. It's not like they're making "Band of Brothers" or "Saving Private Ryan". They probably said to the prop house "Get us a set of 1960s-era Marine dress blues in a size 36 Regular" and that's what they got.
I don't see how it's out of the norm for anyone to be wearing an outdated jacket. No different than sports fans who wear long outdated jerseys with their favorite player's name on the back, even though that player moved to another team years ago.
shareTroy said that he was 14 in 1918. He's now 53. The year is 1957
share1957 is the only logical choice.
Early on, they say that Hank Aaron has already hit 43 home runs - in 1957, he hit 44. He didn't hit that many prior to 1957 and he wouldn't achieve that again until 1962.
My first thought was that the 1956 jacket was his senior jacket. However, if his high school won a championship in 1956, it might be something from the year before.
He says he was 14 years old in 1918 and that he's now 53. Adding 39 to 1918 also gives you 1957.
EDIT: After posting, I googled and found the screenplay online. The very first line is "It is 1957."
Thanks for confirming the year the movie is set. But my original question about the date on Cory's jacket has not yet been answered.
shareI doubt anybody on this site would know for certain.
Digging in further... we know for certain its supposed to be 1957 and the fall of 1957 at that. Cory's being recruited by a college, so he has to be a senior, which means if the jacket is supposed to be a senior's jacket, it should say 1958 since he'll graduate the following year. On the other hand... it might be an award from a championship the prior year. That being said, the letter jackets I've seen would say "1956 State Champs" or something like that, not just "1956". Neither the movie nor the play gives any backstory other than that Cory's a talented player.
Trying to fill that all in is just too complicated for the movie. With that in mind, I'm just going to stick to the answer that I think is simplest: Nobody thought it through, it's simply an error by the costuming department.
As a former HS athlete, doesnt have to be Sr. year to be recruited.
shareNowadays, that's true. A junior can't be recruited until Sept 1 of his/her junior year.
I was wondering if that was true in the 1950s - I did some googling and it turns out college recruiting abuse was rampant back then. So, I don't think we can use that bit of information one way or the other.
In any event, regardless of the letter jacket, we know the movie begins in 1957 because that's where the writer August Wilson set it. As to the 1956 patch? I still think its a error by the costuming department. The only other thing that makes sense to me is that it refers to something unspoken that happened the year before.
Would anyone in the family have spent hard-earned money on a jacket? The location was barely post-war PA, not southern CA in the '60s. Watching the movie, my first thought was a hand me down from an older team-mate. Most people don't wear actual dated clothing for very long, as it says little good about you.
shareGood point. I remember my freshman year in college - there were a handful of other freshman in the dorm who were still wearing their HS senior letter jackets. They got teased and most stopped wearing them pretty quickly. Nobody really cared what they did in high school so I can see that jacket being a hand-me-down.
shareCan we even be certain that the jacket was his school's colors? I'm from PA, and not aware that PA schools could have, or would have, afforded to hand out jackets to anyone. I received a new pencil each year, and was darn careful not to lose it. Heck, I remember it was dangerous to sharpen it, as it would sooner be gone. And, the eraser end would wear out even faster! His father might have pulled that jacket out of the municipal trash he was lifting, or his mother might have picked it up at the local thrift shop for $1, if not been gifted it by a fellow church-goer.
It was 1957 and they were among the working poor, close to the very bottom of the economic spectrum. On top of that, they were "colored." Cory's job at the local market might have allowed him to buy a comic book each week, but not much more. Most children did not get to keep what they earned. Keep in mind, the next step down was moving in with multiple relatives (assuming even one of them would have been better-off), or being homeless. Money was really tight in 1957... for everyone. People did not throw away deposit bottles back then, they always turned them in for the deposit. President Eisenhower's economists believed that an annual inflation rate of more than one percent was dangerous. And, he was already a conservative man before that.
Same colors as his Uni, USC/Iowa State type colors
shareI trust that Mom would have convinced pops, and he was gunna pay for 1/2 the TV
share1956 doesn't make any sense. Earlier in the film, Cory mentions that Hank Aaron hit his 43rd home run. He did so on Sept.23, 1957! (Aaron had hit 13 in 1954, 27 in '55 and 26 in
'56.)