Wouldn't that chest wound Charlie gets from the spear have been fatal? I'm no doctor, but seeing him cough up blood at least seemed to indicate that it had gone through his lung. Even with the best medical care back then, I thought he was a goner after that scene.
shareTo answer the OP question: yes, it probably would in a real life situation. Obviously, this is a film, where logic will always take a back seat to the needs of the narrative. More often then not films depict what could happen (when they're not depicting what couldn't, of course!), not what normally would happen.
As for all those saying it's just a shoulder wound; wrong. Watch the film again and you will notice two things. First, that the angle of the entry and exit wounds do not match the shot of him actually getting speared, and second, even in the initial spearing scene, the entry of the spear is through his pectoral muscle just below the shoulder.
Excluding the initial scene, by matching up the entry wound in his pectoral and the exit wound in his lower back, you can clearly see that the spear went through almost the full length of his torso, and very likely caused some damage to a lung (and other organs, too).
This continuity error probably just falls under the wound they needed from the script not matching up with the 'best' special effects shot they chose for the spearing scene (if the exit wound in later scenes corresponded to the spearing scene, it would be much higher, in the region of his ribcage, and not in his lower back).
It's a joke. It's all a joke.
He bit his tongue. It happens a lot when you get a surprise impalement.
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