I didn't vote on it, just to be fair.
It was really pretty cool to be an extra, and to see the finished product. We shot one complete sequence at a "French" farm/farmhouse that never showed up in the final cut. It was Truman first receiving his troops. Too bad, approaching the farm outside Kanssa City, I figured the bomb-hole in the roof was faked, but could never quite focus well enough to stop fooling my eyes. It was tar paper under the red tiles of the roof, and was perfect! The horses, cannon, cheering/heckling were fun to do, too.
Shooting the opening scene, the muddy French battlefront outside KC,MO on a very cold 3AM or so Palm Sunday, they had to chip the ice off the cannon before each shot. We were being "showered", literally, with 5,000 gals of cold water (I forget what the amount on the tanker truck said). They gave up after the second load!
They had assigned me to stand on a particular hill with the younger guys. Ha, I was about 40!
We were in authentic militaria, my helmet's strap had the soldier's name, and Armentiers, I think, written in it. Some parts weren't period, but there were some re-enactors who brought the cannon, real rifles to add to the production's real and fakes, and the horses to pull them in both scenes.
I had to run in front of and dive/slip/get very muddy Gary Sinise riding into the scene. Finally, I thought I was too muddy to do it again, or be able to use the same costume for later shooting that week!
Gary Sinise was standing in the mud with the rest of us between takes. They put out ONE cannister of propane with a 1-foot square radiant heater atop. I stood a bit to the back of the group, and just hopped about, up and down, to keep my feet warm...-er. I was just concerned about keeping the same just-above-dead-frozen-yet-still- almost-completely-miserable temperature; the heater just LOOKED warm, and red, but didn't do much unless you kept spinning about, cooling off immediately, fast as you turned. It merely reminded you that you were cold.
Gary Sinise saw me hopping, felt sorry for me, and tried to get me to take his place close to it! Pretty nice guy, especially as I was just a grunt! (So much better than The Battle at the Met.)
