Goofs for
Hidalgo (2004)

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• Revealing mistakes: When Hopkins boards the City of Paris, men are climbing rigging in the background. The rigging does not go to the top of the tower that supports it. Essentially, they are climbing to nowhere.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frank Hopkins is applying shaving cream to himself, he spreads it all around his chin. In the next shot, we see it covering only half of his chin.
  
  
• Continuity: When offered a smoke by Sheikh Riyadh, Frank takes out a cigarette, which remains unlit until he takes two steps away, and it becomes lit and half smoked.
  
  

• Continuity: When Frank is racing to the finish at the end of the movie, supposedly riding Hildalgo bareback, a saddle appears and disappears between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: The blood on Hidalgo's nose as he approaches the finish line disappears for one shot.
  
  
• Factual errors: One of the thoroughbred Arabian horses is actually an Andalusian. Although it's not totally implausible that such a horse would be there, claiming it is an Arabian thoroughbred is akin to claiming that the Chimichanga originated in Great Britain.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Damascus is the finish line for the race. In the movie, the finish line is just yards from the ocean. Damascus is 60 miles inland.
  
  
• Anachronisms: "Iraq" is mentioned several times in the movie, but the country wasn't named as such until the 1920s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Frank looks up at the Statue of Liberty, see she is holding the new gold torch that replaced the old one at the statue's centennial.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frank and Lady Anne are sitting having a conversation outside the tent halfway through the race, the clouds in the background, especially behind Frank, change between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frank is in the sheik's tent for the first time, and the sheik's horse goes through the tent, it's night outside. When Frank leaves, the sheik wishes him a good night, but you can see the sunlight coming in through the tent flap the horse just went through.
  
  
• Continuity: Frank's hair in the scene near the end where he is seeing the mirages.
  
  
• Continuity: When Frank is handcuffed in the tent and about to be castrated, the "torture aid" opens his case and removes a serrated blade. In the next shot, it is back in the case.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When "Cowboy" has a rope around Hidalgo's neck, pulling him out of the trap in the trap in the desert, you can see the horse climbing up a wooden plank
  
  
• Factual errors: The Scene at the well features British soldiers preventing the main character from getting water. In 1890, the race route went through the Ottoman Empire. The British did not have a military presence in that area until after World War One.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Frank releases Hidalgo into the wild, Hidalgo is wearing horseshoes. They would eventually fall off, but a good horseman would remove the shoes from the horse before releasing it.
  
  
• Plot holes: The sheikh is not allowed to touch Frank Hopkins since Hopkins is a infidel and them touching would cause the sheikh to lose his ability of foresight, however when the sheikh is examining Hopkins' Colt weapon they touch hands slightly.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: When Hidalgo collapses just before Frank has his visions he has black markings in a horseshoe pattern under his nostrils. In shots of Hidalgo's head during the sprint scene that follows, the horse is pure white under his nostrils. In the subsequent victory scene in the ocean, Hidalgo once again has the black markings.
  
  

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