9. Period Pains And Audio Fails - A Most Violent Year
Statistically speaking, 1981 was the most dangerous year in the history of New York, and writer/directer J.C. Chandor brings that period in the city's history to life in this gritty and thought-provoking thriller. Watching ambitious immigrant Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) take the American Dream by the cahonies amidst the violence and deceit all around him reminded us all just how much we enjoy a good gangster flick, though at times A Most Violent Year was hard to take seriously as a period piece. A number of modern cars make it into shots throughout the movie, from the opening scene in which the Standard Heating Oil truck pulls up to the toll gate, to Abel's own car, a Mercedes Benz W126 Coupe with side bumpers and alloys that were added to that model after 1983. Satellite dishes, inaccurate train-lines and modernised toll booths all give the game away, and it seems that every other scene is trying to remind you that this is not 1981 NYC. These kind of mistakes are always going to slip through the cracks, and most viewers won't even notice them, though there was also a glaring audio/visual synchronisation goof that was pretty hard to miss. The scene in which Abel goes to Lefkowitz to ask for a loan originally had him ask for $500,000, though that figure was changed to $1.5 million in post-production, and the overdub job is pretty damn awful.