Saturday, January 07, 2017

You Don't Say

Hidden Figures, which seems to be scoring well with audiences, tells the story of three African-American women employed at NASA in the early days of the space program.  I'm sure a number of people worked to make the costumes and sets (and math) look realistic.  Which is why I don't understand why someone didn't go through the script to make sure people talked as they did then.

I note anachronisms in period films all the time, and this film is far from the worst.  Nevertheless, when I hear something that no one would have said in 1961, it takes me right out of the film. I have two examples.

First, one character refers to the three women at "you guys." Calling women guys is a modern usage (and sometimes frowned upon, though usually by feminists, not linguists).  The 1950s musical was called Guys And Dolls, not Guys And Guys.

Worse, Kevin Costner's character, speaking to the John Glenn character during a tense moment, wants to make sure they're "on the same page." This wasn't a phrase people regularly used for at least another generation.  Why confuse poor Glenn just before he's about the orbit the Earth?

2 Comments:

Blogger ColumbusGuy said...

Speaking ill of the dead, shame on you. As if John Glenn could be easily confused.

10:32 AM, January 07, 2017  
Blogger New England Guy said...

Only those listening to his speeches were confused

9:45 AM, January 08, 2017  

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