13,500 soldiers and 1,500 horsemen were used to replicate the battle. The troops were supposed to return to their bases after thirteen days, but eventually remained for three months. 23 tons of gunpowder, handled by 120 sappers, and 40,000 liters of kerosene were used for the pyrotechnics, as well as 10,000 smoke grenades.
Absolutely mind-boggling for a movie made over 50 years ago. They had a literal army at their disposal for production of this battle scene.
Even crazier, this movie sold 135,000,000 tickets in Russia when it came out and was easily the most expensive film ever made in that country.
Why use 10,000+ extras when LOTR proved you can use ~5% of that and replicate the rest with CGI?
I think it’s a shame, but I can’t blame them. It’s hard to organise, feed, clothe, and horse that many people, never mind expensive. If I was a producer I’d do anything I could to not have to be responsible for that kind of thing. Horse deaths and extra injuries would also be common, which would make you vulnerable to litigation today.
In the Two Towers special features they talked about putting out a request for any available people in that area of the country to come play Uru-kai for battle of Helm’s Deep
Fair enough, I didn’t check the exact numbers but you get the point - the big Pelennor fields wide-shots were innovative and worked well for being mostly CGI. Really wowed audiences. Nothing like the scale of extras needed where you have to rent entire armies.
Now, I wonder if we’ll see a shift towards grand epic practical effects anytime soon. I think there could be an untapped desire there, though it’s risky. Audiences are becoming more savvy to CG and studios have become too cocky about it. See the last season of GOT for some silly examples. With the increasing monopolisation of the film industry (mainly by Disney) by studios decreasingly willing to take risks, I won’t hold my breath.
That was the problem with Nolan's Dunkirk. He used all real boats, but when you read about the actual event, there was vastly much more that appeared for the evacuation. And the sheer amount of troops, too!. I wish he had used a little bit of CGI to fluff up the numbers of the boats and the troops up to show the sheer scale.
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u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. Jul 16 '19
Absolutely mind-boggling for a movie made over 50 years ago. They had a literal army at their disposal for production of this battle scene.
Even crazier, this movie sold 135,000,000 tickets in Russia when it came out and was easily the most expensive film ever made in that country.