Vexatious Vexillology

Talk about mixed messages: One of Hollywood’s most vexing — and most easily avoidable — vexillology anachronisms has shown up again in the TURN universe.

The “King’s Colours,” adopted 1707.

The “Union Jack,” adopted 1801.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see by the dates posted above, the flag pictured at left is the only British standard that’s appropriate to use for any sort of recreation of the American Revolution.  Information on the Union Jack is fairly easy to come by, but for those who prefer more authoritative sources, you can check out this BBC News article, or this page from the British Monarchy’s official website.

We’ve already pointed out the appearance of the 19th century Union Jack in the cover of the TURN: Origins online comic, along with some other Hollywood examples. (There sure are a lot of them!) Early in TURN’s premiere episode, however, as the camera pans across a scene of occupied Setauket, the most prominently featured British flag flying is the correct one for the late 18th century. It’s the visual focal point in a striking scene:

A very encouraging sign!  (Especially if you’re a loyalist.)  However, the eagle-eyed viewer might have spotted a couple of curious inconsistencies elsewhere in the pilot episode.  Fast-forward to the dockside scene in Brooklyn Harbor:

I spy not one, but two 19th century flags — though they are admittedly easy to miss in this epic and visually busy spectacle.  Granted, this particular anachronism is a small detail that is (like little Thomas’ baby couture) not hugely integral to the larger storyline of TURN.  But I’m a bit surprised by the internal inconsistency regarding — to paraphrase Major Hewlett — the British “beacon of authority.”  Since the footage of the King’s Colours in Setauket was used during the promotions leading up to the premiere, I wasn’t expecting to see Union Jacks appear anywhere in the show footage.  That said, the harbor scene above didn’t surprise me as much as the theme song, after taking a second look at it:

Obviously the theme song is a heavily stylized artistic rendering, but would it have been that difficult to include the correct British flag? What do you think, readers — does the Union Jack in the theme song get a free pass because of artistic license? (For the record, I’m a big fan of the “two-sided flag” concept — just one of many very clever visual transformations that take place in the opening theme.)

For many historians keeping an eye on TURN, including myself, it’s difficult to resist falling into the tempting trap of focusing on details that aren’t major enough to impact the show’s main storyline.  In general, we’ll focus on historical topics of greater consequence here — but the anachronistic Union Jack is admittedly a bit of a pet peeve.  It’s almost ubiquitous in historical Hollywood productions, despite an abundance of easily-obtainable and widely known information. However, there ARE bigger and better things to be said for what we’ve seen in the show so far — including the debut of an ancient (and very cool) form of spycraft.  We’ll be discussing that soon, along with what might be considered a shocking exposé of the REAL state of Abraham Woodhull’s family in 1776. So stay tuned!

-RS