War Films - Not a lot of people know this

[woa2]

I enjoy a good War Film and have got to know some 'behind the scenes' information about some of them. Has anyone else any little known background info from War films?

 

I will start this off with something from 'The Guns of Navarone'. The guns were built with the wheels coming from London Underground trains. I once met Harry Moss, the man who helped supply props for the film company.

 

[Snapper]

Brilliant! More please as and when you can share it....

[woa2]

In the film 'A Bridge too far' the dummies used for the Para casualties had the correct style leather soled boots. I had the job of going to collect the boots from a surplus dealer in Leominster for a film props company in London, and I sorted through a large pile of boots selecting 50 pairs with the correct soles to make sure this detail was correct.

[Tony B]

In Force 10 from Navarone. The bit at the beginning where a Dodge weapons carrier pulls up alongside an airfeild and the actors stael a Lancaster. the whole area was about 200 foot square near Batterie Moltke in jersey. The Lancs were 8 foot wooden flats, standing by the fence though you'd have had a hell of job to know it. A lot of second unit stuff was filmed in jersey, including a number of my old horses.

[Lauren Child]

Not really war films, but I'm a bit of a sci-fi nut and one of my friends knew the chap who was camera technician on Aliens.

 

The APC in that is actually an aircraft tug borrowed from Heathrow airport. It wasn't going to have a gun until they saw the action of the hook that goes around the front landing gear, and wrote in the scene where the gun folds around the back to fit into the building. There's a similar looking one on Witham Specialist Vehicles at the moment.

 

Also the power loader (the thing that's a bit like a robot meets a forklift) was made entirely out of balsa wood so that it could be moved around by Sigourney Weaver who stood inside. It only looks heavy in the film because of the sound effects that were added later.

 

The gun supports that the marines with heavy weapons use are actually steadycam harnesses borrowed from film crew's stores.

 

Oh, and the girl who played Vasquez really was that butch

Edited June 22, 2008 by Lauren Child
typos

[Bazz]

Some of the tanks on A Bridge to Far, were in fact Landrovers with wood and fibreglass bodies as they couln't get enough roadworthy real ones. slightly of topic,driver of the recovery veh seen on the drive through is my big brother REME attached to Life Guards who supplied some of the AFV crews.

 

Barry

[N.O.S.]

Saving Private Ryan -

 

Some of the close-up beach scenes were filmed in a gravel quarry in Hertfordshire. The silt lagoons were deemed to be the ideal colour and beach - like.

 

However - Tom Hank's insurance advisers were not happy about him swimming in the water (concerns over bacteria etc) so for his scenes a very, very large tank was constructed and filled with water. Then............

 

A 20T load of gravy browning arrived, and was mixed in until the colour matched that of the silt lagoon.

[Tony B]

Doing a 'War' film, well TV series called 'By the Sword Divided' English civil War' One scene required a coach and four to be driven at high speed through astone arch. Now riding horses fine, driving them scares the S** out of me so avoided it . Anyway the rehersals went OK and lunch was called. During lunch some wisea** decide the tarmac under the arch was showing so dumped about two ton of tan bark on it, then wandered off not doubt feeling smug. Trouble was it raised the ground level sevral inches. When the actual scene came to be shot, the horses at full gallop towards the arch when the driver realised The arch is several inches lower, he got through just, but the language, :nono::shocked:

[Tony B]

A lot was made of the fact in the 'Young Churchill' that they had found his original Mauser 1896 pistol. I had one once Edit: Polotics.

 

There was something on the media about making a Bridge to Far a while ago (100 best War films) One interview was with Micheal Caine. He was saying that he had stood on the bridge in the scene where the Dingo moves off as the barrage started, he said when the bangs started he jumped a mile. Afterwards the officer he was playing and was and adviser on the film came up and said, 'Yes, I jumped to at that point'. that was the beauty of British Films at that time, if you have the people who were there at the time, you can't take to many libertys.

[AlienFTM]

Some of the tanks on A Bridge to Far, were in fact Landrovers with wood and fibreglass bodies as they couln't get enough roadworthy real ones. slightly of topic,driver of the recovery veh seen on the drive through is my big brother REME attached to Life Guards who supplied some of the AFV crews.

 

Barry

 

AIUI three Shermans were real. ALL the rest were Land Rovers.

[Lord Burley]

Not really war films, but I'm a bit of a sci-fi nut and one of my friends knew the chap who was camera technician on Aliens.

 

The APC in that is actually an aircraft tug borrowed from Heathrow airport. It wasn't going to have a gun until they saw the action of the hook that goes around the front landing gear, and wrote in the scene where the gun folds around the back to fit into the building. There's a similar looking one on Witham Specialist Vehicles at the moment.

 

Also the power loader (the thing that's a bit like a robot meets a forklift) was made entirely out of balsa wood so that it could be moved around by Sigourney Weaver who stood inside. It only looks heavy in the film because of the sound effects that were added later.

 

The gun supports that the marines with heavy weapons use are actually steadycam harnesses borrowed from film crew's stores.

 

Oh, and the girl who played Vasquez really was that butch

The weapons themselves were actually a cobble up of MG42,s and Spaz shotguns.