MovieChat Forums > The Dying Gaul Discussion > Big flaw in the movie- 1995 Anachronism

Big flaw in the movie- 1995 Anachronism

posted 18 years ago by Preraphaelite-1
24 replies | jump to latest

Didn't anyone else notice that a crucial scene where Robert was trying to 'catch' Jeffrey while typing online and calling him on the phone- couldn't have happened in 1995? There was only dial-up then and the phone line would have been tied up. Even if Jeffrey could possibly have been rich enough to have a couple of phone lines- one dedicated to the internet- a struggling writer wouldn't have had that.
For an intelligent, provocative movie I thought that was glaring.
And the conversation about the poisonous root was just so obvious- that it would play some part.
I enjoyed this film- both Peter Saarsgaard and Patricia Clarkson were amazing- but couldn't they have gone that one extra step?

[–] HenryJFlower 18 years ago

It's so strange... All that could have been avoided if he set it in present day. 1995 really isn't that big of a difference from 2005 (relatively speaking).

I wonder why the writer chose to set it at the time.

Here's what bugs me -- why did Jeff go to Robert's place at the end and call the police? That totally came from left field.

[–] Fidelios_Film_Central 18 years ago

Hi didn't. The police called him because...

SPOILER

...his wife and kids just died in the accident. They were calling him to inform him, and to have him come down and identify the bodies. Jeffrey went to Robert's place to bitch him out for telling Elaine about their affair and possibly ruining his marriage.

Visit Fidelio's Film Central: www.geocities.com/fidelio1st/film.htm

[–] zkbiz 18 years ago

I think setting it in 1995 does make (if only subtle) difference the the story, as back then, chat rooms were still a relatively new online social phenomenon, not to mention much more popular. I was certainly on them back then. Nowadays, it's just much more about chatting with friends you already know in physical life rather than "socializing" in anonymous chat rooms, even though that facility still takes place.

I think the writer set it in 1995 because the feeling of chat rooms was still new and exciting, where as today it is seen as a passe technology that's been displaced by the likes of AIM, Friendster, and MySpace, etc.

[–] Naturalboy 18 years ago

All due respect, even in 1995, some of us had a "data-line" and a "voice-line", so that we could function onlineline and on phone at the same time-- so it is entirely plausible... especially in such a business mogul's mansion as that! Certainly they were careful to show she didn't have wireless...

[–] Preraphaelite-1 18 years ago

As I say in my post- I could believe tha a rich mogul would have two lines- but not a struggling writer- it seemed contrived and thoughtless.

[–] gridley23 18 years ago

A struggling writer perhaps, but one with a very expensive car. I suspect his love left him some money.

[–] cubicledweller 17 years ago

Huh? He had an old Karmann-Ghia... not 'a very expensive car'..

[–] Ithilfaen 9 years ago

As I say in my post- I could believe tha a rich mogul would have two lines- but not a struggling writer- it seemed contrived and thoughtless.

A lot of providers in the mid-nineties were trying to attract clients by offering a free extra line. It worked with families, it worked with people using the internet. I don't think it's an anachronism at all. Maybe in another place but certainly not in California.

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco

[–] tfangel 18 years ago

I had two lines in a small town, i was online a lot and the cost wasn't that much more. He could have had ISDN instead though, just a thought, that was pretty easy back then. Even in my small town.

[–] bigdreamer247 18 years ago

Methinks you think too much...

[–] fuzzylorax 17 years ago

Just a thought, but the 1995 setting made sense to me for one reason. Robert's script, The Dying Gaul, probably could be made today, even by a big studio, without making the couple heterosexual. Hollywood's still plenty homophobic, but post-Brokeback, i think it might strike an audience as disingenuous if, in 2005, a producer would refuse to greenlight a gay drama.

[–] brennanhill 17 years ago

1995 was the perfect year for all of this to take place because it was far enough in the past for Hollywood to practice homophobia of that caliber but recent enough for the technology of the internet to have existed.

[–] sgammans 18 years ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the real reason the movie was set in 1995 was because of the alternate ending that wasn't in the theatrical release (it's on the DVD) where we see Robert in (presumably) the present day as a wildly successful screenwriter getting a massage on the beach. You had to have all of the events shown in the movie take place long enough ago for Robert to have had enough time to achieve his success to be lying there on the beach.

Without the alternate ending, setting the movie in 1995 doesn't really make any difference to the movie, in my opinion. If it hadn't been for the clunky computer hardware (geez, I'd forgotten how brick-like laptops used to be!), I would have totally bought the chat-room skullduggery (which btw was a very clever plot device and very well-executed) taking place in the present day.

p.s. I was a struggling youngster eleven years ago and I had two phone lines... one voice and one ISDN. If you were online enough, it wasn't all THAT uncommon. Don't let that one quirk bug you too much.

[–] cgreene-3 17 years ago

I thought it would end with someting like "2005" or "10 years later" otherwise I don't why they set the story in 1995...maybe that alternate ending makes the difference.

[–] sewiltz 17 years ago

The tell-tale techno-anachronism for me was a close up of Elaine's characater plugging a cable into her laptop. It looked to me like a CAT-5 Ethernet cable, which I don't think was around in 1995. However, it didn't spoil the movie for me in any way; it was just something I noticed.

[–] bethell-nyc 17 years ago

Looked like a phone cord to me.

[–] JohnFK 16 years ago

I think the word you're looking for is RJ45 (or rather 8P8C, but that's another discussion), and yes, of course RJ45 existed in 1995 (it's from the seventies). It probably wasn't an RJ45 though (could have been RJ11), because that would mean that the laptop had a built-in NIC. Not very likely.

[–] bowieec 17 years ago

Most writers - even struggling ones - had a separate line for FAXES since the 1980s. You would send and receive changes to scripts and get contract revisions etc via fax. So once we all got on Compuserve or America Online way back when, we used the dedicated fax line for the Internet too. There was nothing unrealistic about that - in a movie with a lot of flaws.

[–] angelofvic 12 years ago

^^^ Exactly. Robert was a screenwriter. He would have definitely had two phone lines: one for telephone, one for technology. Both tax deductible.
.

[–] PropogandaFromTheSky 16 years ago

As that's exactly how it happens in the play--and Craig Lucas has obviously spent a considerable amount of time with his own work--I don't think it's an error at all. If Robert was willing to put out the money for a computer and an internet connection in 1995, I'm going to say that there's a very strong chance he did the same for a second line or something to that effect. Many people did that during dial-up, despite the expense. Besides, it doesn't affect the expense incredibly. The expense for two lines is mostly in the installation, is it not? I haven't had a phone line installed in a while, though, so I could be wrong.

Craig Lucas's play opened in 1998, when dial-up was still very much in use. Very much. I don't think this is an anachronism at all. I feel you're really overthinking it.

[–] marthalorusso 15 years ago

I also enjoyed this film and both Elaine and Robert seemed to me very complex-intriguing characters. They both shared a special chemistry (at least in the 1st half) until of course she found out they were sharing Jeffrey.

But, if we are going to talk about flaws, can anyone tell me how Elaine knew about Robert thinking Malcom reincarnated in an ant and felt sorry and guilty about the idea of killing it/HIM? That was a private conversation that Robert and Jeffrey had in bed. How did she know about it?

[–] aghinem 15 years ago

Maybe she had a bug planted in his house (no pun intended). She also had a lot of diskettes about him and Malcolm -- one was labeled diary, I believe, so perhaps Robert wrote about it in his diary. It seemed like she went to a lot of effort to find out all she could about him.

[–] angelofvic 12 years ago

She hacked and stole his files and diaries and his therapist's files.
.

[–] conedust 15 years ago

Seems perfectly reasonable to think that Robert might have had two phone lines in his house, especially if his chat-room habits were well established. A bit of an expense, sure (what, an extra $30 buck a month back in '95?), but no more so than a mild addiction to booze, porn, gambling, cigarettes, whores, comic books, video games or any of the other crap poor people find to waste their no-money on.