William Goldman, screenwriter, recounts in his book Adventures in the Screen Trade
I love the bit about shouting into a megaphone at the corpses. Ah, the crazy business of making movies. Deadly serious and absurd, all at the same time.
Eight o’clock is coming nearer and nearer and things seem as if they’re starting to break. Everything’s got to work because there’s no time to go back and do things over but the weather seems as if it’s going to be clear enough to shoot and now Redford’s in position and the stunt men portraying German soldiers are climbing high in the girders of Nijmegen Bridge, roping themselves in, not for safety but because that’s what the Germans did there in their final defense, and then the signal comes that all the stunt men are secured and you can begin to see the confidence flowing into [Richard] Attenborough, because there can’t be anything wrong on this shot, he’s thought so much about it, covered it from every angle the mind of man can come up with, and as crew members come running up to him with last-minute questions he’s snapping back the answers crisp and fast, “Is the machine gun nest all right like that?” and “Yes, fine” from Attenborough without a pause, and this questioner runs off while another comes up, going, “Will you see the sentry box emplacement in this shot?” and the immediate “We will, thank you,” takes care of that and “Have the Sherman tanks been positioned properly?” and Attenborough quick takes a look, and says, “The Sherman tanks are splendid as you have them,” and now an assistant director comes up behind with, “The corpses, Sir Richard,” and even though that’s not a complete question, Attenborough knows precisely what to say and he says it, “The corpses must keep their eyes shut at all times, all corpses will be visible in this shot,” and that cry echoes along the bridge as the assistant takes a megaphone and shouts to the extras playing dead Germans, “Corpses, listen now, you corpses, all corpses will keep eyes shut at all times while the cameras are rolling, you got that? – not one bloody blink from one bloody corpse and that’s final!” and shooting time is almost on us now, and the rain is going to hold off, and now another assistant runs up, asking, “What about the smoke pots?” and Attenborough, on top of his game, replies, “You may start the smoke pots now, thank you very much,” and right then, this trusted aide comes roaring up, excitedly saying, “What about the jeeps in the orchard, sir?”
I was standing by Attenborough and for a moment his eyes glazed over and he had to be thinking that suddenly the world had gone mad or was the world sane and the mistake his – had he forgotten – forgotten something vital? He was standing on a freezing bridge – what orchard? what jeeps? Was there some part of the shot that he’d neglected, something involving an orchard and jeeps, and here he was, with smoke pots going and, high in girders, guys hanging and a star ready to shoot and 275 people waiting but this question must be answered because what if it ruins the shot and if the shot’s lost a million dollars are lost and –
-then he smiles very sweetly to his aide and said, “We will not require jeeps in the orchard at all, thank you so much for reminding me.” This, it turns out, referring to the last half of a later scene to be shot afterward, the first half having been shot the day before, all this in another location, and what this trusted aide had done was pick this particular moment to inquire if Attenborough’s camera angle for this future sequence would require the placement of jeeps in the distant background in order to match what had been done before.
The weather held, the shooting on the bridge went quickly, the last major disaster had been averted. As we left the bridge, there was a genuine feeling of exultation.
Attenborough was cheery as usual, no more whistling needed that day. Later, perhaps, but not then. There are always “laters” lurking in the lives of film directors, jeeps in the orchard that need tending to.
Sheila – love this, love this movie. Nijmegen holds a special place as my Uncle died there 9-24-44 and it’s become a little obsession of mine. Did you know Audrey Hepburn was “hiding” out there and this was the campaign (Market Garden) that released her? I’ve read all of the books on this campaign – many self-published. A family from Nijmegen arrives on July 5th and we go there next year as a little exchange.
Great story from a movie I only saw once, on cable, years ago. I have that “jeep in the orchard” feeling all the time, now I have a name for the feeling.
More importantly, stop titallating me woman with Facebook stories of new template designs and magical wonders of new platforms! Every time I come here now I expect to see a change. Arrrggghhhh!!!
Seriously – my whole life is jeeps in the orchard.
and hahaha about the new site. It’s gonna be really simple at first – I just need to export my content (or my brilliant friend Mark needs to do that) – all I know is, The Gibson Girls are going. So if anyone has an attachment to them, say goodbye now. Time for a sleeker homepage and easier navigation – not so much SHIT on the main page. It’ll probably happen this weekend. I want to “manage your expectations” – it won’t be fancy, but it will sure be easier to find stuff (for myself included!)
Love, love, love A Bridge Too Far! And yeah, I think “jeeps in the orchard” is my new parlance for – well, yeah. Pretty much my whole life, too.
Kate, yours is an amazing story. Can you recommend a good book if I want to get started w/ Market Garden?
Goodbye, Gibson Girls.
That could be the title of a memoir subtitled, “Reflections on my Youth.”
Yeah, really. Mais où sont les Gibson Girls d’antan?
A great story! I love Goldman’s followup to this book, too, “Which Lie Did I Tell?” He dissects some of his screenplays, talks about what worked, what didn’t, what translated well onscreen, what didn’t. He’s so damn funny. I love him.
What’s this about no more Gibson Girls?
O how I suffer in the dark for my rejection of Facebook!
Tracey – I remember you posting some excerpts from that other one. He is SO good on script writing and structure. I like the gossip, too – but his insights into the process are really helpful for me to read right now.
And yes, FB scorn-er: I’m moving to WordPress which is daunting, seeing as we need to export 8 years of content and photos. Permalinks will change, which will be a bitch for all the links I have on IMDB … And I’m getting rid of the Gibson Girl theme. They served their purpose – I want something simpler now. Just a big banner, and then categories and links over to the right – and MUCH better archives. Not sure when it will happen – this weekend maybe, but maybe not. I’m excited – I’ve played around with the backend a bit (ahem. Figuratively speaking) and I am in love with Word Press.
Oh, good. (Maybe some day you can explain Word Press to me, stubborn FB scorner that I am? For God’s sake, I USE Word Press and don’t know how to do anything with it.)
I can’t wait to see the new look! Exciting!
And, yes, Goldman is a crush man of mine. I love him. I love that he is ruthless with himself, mocks his own ego. I get a little twitterpated about him, frankly.
You MUST read “Which Lie Did I Tell?”
Time marches on. The Gibson Girls will understand, as do we all. The permalinks will be a challenge, though it will be worth it when your archives are easier to search.
Gotta screen cap the “classic Variations” before I go!
NF – I’m also nervous about the photos, since I have a photo in most of my posts. But the export is happening, as we speak – slowly but surely – and it’s gonna be good.
Sheila – you have the most pared down web site I read. Are you really planning on simplifying, really? Ms. No-Frills – love it – so European and elegant.
I’m not with my books right now but A Bridge too Far is obviously a good start. I’ve been in touch for years with a Dutch fellow who runs a web site called marketgarden.com and he has been a great resource for books. He also publishes many wonderful accounts from vets. Also, I know you have a nephew. A great children’s book is Sky by Hanneke Ippisch about Dutch resistence. Even Audrey Hepburn’s biography talks about Arnhem. I met a fellow, my Dad’s friend, who was there and was told to go over the the bridge they’ve just taken and shoot all the German bodies again. Really devastated him – worst war memory he had and he had been in for 4 years already from Africa to Italy to Normandy to Holland. The crazy part of the accounts is how the Americans, after two bridges taken say “Let’s go get the third” and the British are like “we have to wait for orders.” Americans: “Our orders are to get these bridges” and the word is the English get out their tea thermoses and close their tanks. They just wouldn’t go without Montgomery saying that’s what was going to happen. In the 12 hour delay, Germans regroup, send reinforcements and the War lasts 8 more months. I wish I would have gone to the 50th anniversary (almost did as my brother just married in England that month) as I heard the British and Americans finally made up. Montgomery’s name was not allowed in my grandfather’s house.
Kate – I am very glad to hear you think it’s pared down. That is encouraging. But if you look along my right nav – what I ahve done, because my archives are so unwieldy, is move many posts out onto the front page – so that people can fIND them. If people wnat to read my movie posts, I want them to find them, so I post links to my review on the main page. This slows down the load-time of my main page, and is also, again, unwieldy. The new way will have easily searchable and scrollable archives – like every other wordpress site I know.
Looking forward …
Yes, I haven’t done tons of searching on your site – maybe because it’s too hard?! The new look is great – very straightforward which I really do appreciate. Thanks for all you do Sheila! You da bomb.
I’m working on paring down the number of Categories I have. I didn’t even realize I had so many until I saw them in the dropdown. It’ll take some time, but that way the content will be organized, and set up in an intuitive way (as opposed to the chaos of my old site).