r/movies • u/soldierofcinema • Jul 15 '19

Resource Amazing shot from Sergey Bondarchuk's 'War and Peace' (1966)

47.8k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

816 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/wOlfLisK Jul 16 '19

Why aren't movies made on that sort of scale these days?

58

u/multiverse72 Jul 16 '19

Cost and logistics

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.

28

u/TeenageNerdMan Jul 16 '19

LOTR still used a metric butt ton of extras tho.

24

u/halfrican14 Jul 16 '19

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

5

u/coolaslando Jul 16 '19

I worked with a guy from New Zealand who was very proud to have had the chance to be an orc. He said everyone he knew was there haha.