Goofs for
Atonement (2007)

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• Anachronisms: In the section of the movie set in 1935, there is a scene where Robbie is daydreaming and the image of a four engined bomber crosses the screen. The plane is a Short's Stirling, which entered service in 1939.
  
  
• Factual errors: On arriving on the beach at Dunkirk, Robbie is told of the sinking of the Lancastria and the loss of 3000 men. This event actually occurred 17 days later on June 17 1940.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Newsreel footage from the War mentions Queen Elizabeth. Some have incorrectly assumed that it refers to Queen Elizabeth II, who was crowned in 1952. However, the film shows the Queen Mother, wife of King George VI, who was Queen Elizabeth at the time.
  
  

• Continuity: In the love making scene in the library, Robbie pulls down the strap of Cecilia’s dress and she pulls her arm out. In the next shot it is clearly up and over her shoulder again.
  
  
• Factual errors: The BEF was a professional army and was not staffed with conscripted prisoners.
  
  
• Continuity: In the fountain scene, Cecilia pulls her blouse over her head before she steps in the fountain. When she rises from the water and dresses again, the buttons of the blouse are open.
  
  
• Continuity: During the library scene, Cecilia slips her shoe off while making love. When Briony interrupts, both of Cecilia's shoes are still on.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the scene where Robbie is writing the letter to Cecilia, he listens to the opera La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini. The recording we hear is the 1956 sir Thomas Beecham recording.
  
  
• Continuity: During the dinner party scene, Cecilia's fingernails go from being painted to unpainted, with no break in the action allowing her time to have removed the nail polish.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The bass bugle the nurse is polishing was introduced in the 1960s.
  
  
• Factual errors: The last day of Dunkirk evacuation was the 4th of June, not the 1st. The Navy officer tells Robbie that there were 3,000 men waiting on the beach, but the 1st of June, there were about 118,000 soldiers waiting.
  
  
• Continuity: When Robbie gives Briony the letter for her sister, she arrives at the fence with the hem of her collar down. In the next shot, her collar is up. In the next shot, it's down again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Briony drops her flashlight and runs to Lola's side in the woods there is a second flashlight shining on the two, even though no one else is there.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the movie, a recording of Jussi Bjorling and Victoria de Los Angeles is heard in the movie. We see a record being put on a phonograph. The recording is from what some consider the greatest operatic recording ever but it was actually recorded in 1956. Twenty years later from the time in the movie.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the scene in London streets, when Robbie and Cecilia are walking, the lens of the steady cam can be seen clearly reflected in the window of a parked car.
  
  
• Continuity: When Cecilia and Robbie are in the restaurant drinking tea, Robbie has a full cup. Then the camera moves. When the camera goes back to him and he starts to drink the tea, there is no tea in the cup at all.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the British Army, brassards (armband) are used on uniforms to denote temporary rank or insignia. They are always worn on the right arm for uniformity. In the movie, Robbie's brassard is on his left arm whilst his colleague's is on his right. There is no insignia shown on either brassard.
  
  

• Factual errors: SPOILER: Robbie Turner is said to have died of septicemia. However, in the scene in which we last see the body of Robbie Turner, he shows none of the signs of a victim of septicemia. People that fall ill and die from the disease have red spots all over their skin, due to blood clotting problems. He would have also had large red spots forming under his skin, not just small dots, as there would be bleeding that can be seen growing under the top layer of skin. Some septicemia patients also show swollen glands on the body, such as the eyes and areas on the face, which should have been clearly seen when Robbie Turner was covered with a blanket.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: The date of the Balham tube station bombing and flood is incorrectly stated by elderly Briony as being "the 15th of October, 1940." The date of the actual event was October 14th, 1940.
  
  

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