Scott swims underwater in David Goodstein's pool. In the next shot, his head is out of the water, but his frizzy hair is dry.
At the beginning, when Scott and Harvey are lying in bed together, Scott tells Harvey he'll be "fat by 50." When the same scene is shown at the end of the film, Scott tells Harvey he is going to be "a fat ass."
During Milk's speech in front of City Hall, after he reads the threatening postcard, his microphone switches between two different types.
During the Proposition 6 election, the characters mark Imperial County in red, discuss losing Imperial County, then mark it on the wall board.
According to title cards at the end of the film, Dan White's lawyers argued that consumption of junk food caused a chemical imbalance in his brain. White's lawyers actually claimed that massive consumption of junk food was a symptom of his depression, not a cause. Psychologists employed by White's defense argued that he was clinically depressed, as evidenced by changes in behavior, including consumption of large quantities of junk food. One psychologist claimed that junk food may have contributed to White's mood swings.
Several times, the characters refer to The Advocate as a magazine. In the 1970s, the Advocate was a tabloid newspaper. It became a magazine in 1992.
When Harvey and Dan are being interviewed on TV in January 1978, Dan says he's expecting his first child. At the baby's christening, which appears to take place a few weeks later, baby Charles can hold his head up. Babies can usually hold their heads up at around four months old. Also Charles White was born in mid-June 1978, after the contentious vote on the youth campus, and after Harvey's forty-eighth birthday in May. (Dan's grudge against Harvey developed before Charles's birth, but Harvey was still invited to the christening.)
The site of the Milk/Briggs debate is incorrectly identified as the Walnut Creek Unified School District. The debate was in the city of Walnut Creek, at Northgate High School, which was (and is) part of the Mount Diablo Unified School District.
When Dan White's son is baptized, two godfathers and one godmother are at the altar. A Roman Catholic baptism includes one godfather and one godmother. Protestant baptisms include two godparents who are the same gender as the baby, and one of the other gender.
Harvey Milk uses the term "African-American" during a speech. While Reverend Jesse Jackson popularized the term in the early 1980s, it has existed since 1782.
A scene shows Harvey Milk at the opera during the last act of 'Tosca'. In the next scene, the next day, he says he saw Bidu Sayao, a Brazilian soprano, the night before. Harvey was referring to his date, not anyone on stage. Ms. Sayao never sang 'Tosca.'
While the Castro Street parking meters are historically correct, modern painted T-lines (to define each parking space) are visible. T-lines appear in the 1970s archival footage used in the 1984 documentary "The Times of Harvey Milk."
When the mayor is about to sign the ordinance, the pen is in his left hand, signaling that he's left-handed. However, the camera then cuts to a close-up to the Mayor signing the bill with his right hand. The close-up is an insert filmed with a right-handed actor.
The cars in some scenes are obviously turning around and driving the other way before looping again to make it appear as if there's more automobiles passing by than what see.
When marchers leave the Castro and pull the trolley pole off a PCC streetcar, the destination sign says "F Market." The F Market line entered service on September 1, 1995, as a tourist line between the Castro and the Embarcadero.
In the camera shop during Milk's 1973 campaign for supervisor, the song "Rock the Boat" by the Hues Corporation played in the background. But that song wasn't released until the summer of 1974, by which time Milk had already cut his hair short and was clean shaven. In the film the clean-cut Harvey Milk didn't appear until the beginning of the 1975 campaign.
During rally scenes in the San Francisco Civic Center, the old and new San Francisco Public Library buildings are visible in the background. The New Main Branch Library, designed by Pei Cobb Freed, was built in 1995.
During one of the first scenes in the camera shop, a Kodak cardboard on the shelf has a newer Kodak logo.
When Milk is walking the streets gathering support to run for supervisor, one shot shows modern cars (including a black SUV) on the right side of the screen.
Biopic fails to make any mention of Milk's involvement with Jim Jones. Jones promoted gay rights, which appealed to Milk. Milk spoke at the Peoples Temple, and praised it in his column in the Bay Area Reporter. He lobbied on Jones's behalf to President Jimmy Carter, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano, Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, and other powerful figures. Jones organized followers to vote for George Moscone.
Harvey quotes the inscription on the Statue of Liberty as "Your huddled masses yearning to be free." The actual verse is "Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
When Dan White is sitting shirtless looking out the window, you can clearly see a tattoo on his right shoulder blade. Dan White's only tattoo was a shamrock on his arm.