Nevertheless, in spite of the deadlines and constraints, the filming progressed smoothly, with occasional re-shoots of certain scenes following the comments of Spielberg and Hanks who, for the most part, were overseeing the project from a safe distance. This was particularly the case for the scenes concerning the famous attack on the guns at Brecourt Manor where wholesale re-shoots were ordered just as the location Lot and Sets were about to be struck. Spielberg and Hanks had seen the rushes from the original shoot – and hadn’t liked what they’d seen. So back everyone went to do it again; obviously the second attempt must have cut the mustard.
The pictures below are of some of the Special Ability extras that were used on the Brecourt scenes. The difference between a Special Ability extra and the ordinary, everyday, common-as-muck variety was that the Special Ability extras had probably been through the boot camp exercises at the beginning of production, and had been trained to handle weapons. Only weapons-trained Special Ability extras got their hands on real firearms – all the rest had to make do with the rubber variety.
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Catalogue pose number 43: Fallschirmjager for the Town and Country
“Am I mean-looking or what?â€
ABOVE AND BELOW: These fellows formed a machine gun crew for some of the scenes shot for Brecourt; although they were well ensconced amongst trees and bushes across the other side of a field thus rendering the only thing visible the flashes from their machine gun, they nevertheless had to be correctly attired at all times. The guy holding the MG is actually a fluent German speaker, and the Special Ability German extras often had to react to commands spoken in German.
A stunt man waits to meet his doom on the Brecourt set
Picture courtesy of J Rowe
A couple of the minor (but only in the context of the film) named characters of Easy Company who appeared throughout the production, Plesha and Hendrix.
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