Renaissance Man Trivias

The writer, Jim Burnstein, and his family can be seen behind Danny DeVito when Bill Rago and his daughter are at the Tigers game. To the right of Mr. Burnstein are his son Gabe, daughter Devon and his wife. Usually Mr. Burnstein and Gabe are the only ones visible on screen.After failing to bring in audiences as a comedy under the original title "Renaissance Man", the movie was re-released to theaters a couple months later marketed as a drama with the alternate title "By The Book", and unsurprisingly pulled in far fewer receipts the second time through the theaters.

About halfway through the movie, when Bill Rago (Danny DeVito) is in Col. James's (Cliff Robertson) office, you can see a red patch on the far right in the background. This is a Ragin' Bull Six patch from the United States Air Force Academy.Mark Wahlberg's feature film debut.

The Silver Star medal is actually a small silver star inside of a large gold star, so at first glance, it would appear Pvt. Davis received the wrong medal, but his medal was was the actual Silver Star.

During the awards ceremony, a close up of Pvt. Davis shows him in formation with other graduates to his left. Yet, when Colonel James walks up to Pvt. Davis to present him with his father's "silver" star, Pvt. Davis is standing at the end of the row of graduates with no one to his left (Colonel James approaches him on his left side).Near the end of the movie, Sergeant Cass is marching a new bunch of recruits, and the group of men are supposed to be singing the "Hamlet" cadence. However, although we can hear them, none of the men's lips are moving.

The underlining under "OXYMORON" changes between when Bill first writes it and when he explains it to Montgomery.When Hobbs is being handcuffed we see one arm being cuffed. A close-up shows the same arm being cuffed again, then wide shot shows both cuffed.

The police car picking up Hobbs has only blue lights but the reflections show flashing red lights. When Hobbs' first arm is handcuffed, the chain side of the handcuff is on the inside (palm side) of his wrist. But, after the second cuff is applied, both are on the outside (knuckle side) of his wrists.

If you're watching the movie with subtitles you will notice that, when one of the guys is impersonating Robert DeNiro in Raging bull, the subtitle says "impersonating Robert DeNiro". Later on however when the same guy is impersonating Scarface, the subtitle also say “impersonating Robert DeNiro”. However a true fan will know that it is Al Pacino who is in Scarface.Although the movie is set in Detroit, when Bill Rago takes his daughter Emily to a Detroit Tigers game you can see a Toronto Blue Jays symbol on the field.