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The epic battle scenes in the movie were shot on a farm with an area of about 5,000 square feet rented from a local farmer in Germany. After paying for the crops already planted in the farm, the props team called eight stations. Crane, more than 60 crew members worked non-stop for more than three weeks, and finally reproduced the trenches, craters and rough muddy terrain on the battlefield of World War I.
Winston Churchill said that this film highly and accurately restores the true appearance of both sides of the war in the phase of positional warfare, as well as the misdirection of military strategy that sometimes occurs.
In 1969, Kirk Douglas recalled that from now to the future, this movie will be in the annals of history forever. I don't need to wait 50 years to confirm this. I am so sure now.
Director Stanley Kubrick, known as a perfectionist, was filmed 68 times for the doomed "last meal" scene in the film. Because of the detailed performance of the scene, the actors seemed to be eating, almost every time. A new roast duck must be prepared when shooting.
The scene where the soldiers in the prison discussed their fate was filmed on Saturday and exceeded working hours. Director Kubrick has been dissatisfied. After filming 63 times, producer James B. Harris reminded the director that overtime is not allowed in Germany. The director Kubrick lost his temper and insisted on continuing to shoot, and finally got the desired effect after the 74th time.
Stanley Kubrick paid great attention to the key early test results during the filming process. Kirk Douglas recalled, "He let the veteran actor Adolphe Menjou shoot the same scene 17 times," and then Menjou said, "That It's already my best time, I think we can have lunch", lunch time has already passed, but Kubrick said he wanted to shoot again, Menjou was furious. In front of Douglas and the entire crew, he questioned Kubrick's directorship. Stanley just listened quietly, and after Menjou finished his belittled conclusion, he calmly said, "Okay, let's shoot again", and Menjou went back to work completely obediently.
The name of the film comes from a section of Thomas Gray’s famous poem "Elegy for the Cemetery":
"The flamboyant coat of arms, the grandeur of power, the beauty of the world, the once endless wealth, all waiting for the inevitable moment: The Road to Glory , Leading to the grave."
Director Stanley Kubrick brought the script to Kirk Douglas. Douglas immediately liked the script and said to the director, "Stanley, I don’t think this movie will make any money. A nickel, but we should shoot", it turns out that Douglas's statement is true, and the film itself is not good at the box office. The cost of the film does not exceed 1 million U.S. dollars, of which about 300,000 U.S. dollars is Kirk Douglas' salary. Kubrick shared the profits of the film, but received no compensation.
Director Stanley Kubrick met Christiane Harlan during the filming and played the singing girl (and the only girl in the film) at the end of the film, in 1957 (the year the film was released) Kubrick and his second wife Divorced and married Christiane Harlan until his death in 1999.
Considering box office factors, Stanley Kubrick originally planned to adapt the ending to a happy ending. But after changing the manuscript several times, he changed his mind and decided to shoot according to the ending of the original novel. Because the producer James B. Harris had to inform the company’s CEO Max E. Youngstein about the changes to the script and feared that they would be rejected, Harris simply submitted the final version of the script without submitting the corresponding memorandum of changes. He assumed the company No one would read this final script seriously. Obviously, Harris was right.
Because of the negative portrayal of the French army in the film, it was banned from being shown in France until 1975. Due to consideration of relations with France, Germany also banned the release accordingly. Switzerland did not lift the ban until 1978, because it accused the film of "subverting the image of France." When it was screened in Belgium, it was requested to add a foreword, stating that the film was only an isolated incident and could not represent and reflect the bravery and honor of the French soldiers. In Spain, the film was banned from being released due to the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, and the ban was not lifted until 11 years after Francisco's death in 1986.
During the filming, Timothy Carey (playing Pvt. Maurice Ferol) had a problem. He faked his kidnapping for personal propaganda purposes, so Stanley Kubrick and producer James B. Harristo fired him. . Because of this, the three soldiers who were approved were unable to film the corresponding battle scenes, and the priest used a stand-in while listening to Ferol's confession.
Although the story takes place in France, the film was shot in Munich, Germany. Most of the French soldiers in the film are actually under-duty police officers from the Munich Police Department. There are about 600 people in total, using six cameras to track and shoot, recording their "deaths on the battlefield. Every actor (many of them’s fathers actually participated in World War I) was arranged to encounter machine gun bullets, shrapnel, etc. Location and "death" location. Kubrick kept reminding the policemen who played soldiers that they should show fear on the battlefield, but only after Kubrick repeated instructions did the actors realize that they should learn to act fear.
Richard Anderson recalled: "The trenches were terrifying. At first it just gave off a certain breath, and then the weather was very bad, cold, freezing, gloomy, and gloomy. We all caught a cold. From the first week of filming, we We are all sick. We all look terrible, but it does add to the realism of the movie."
Stanley Kubrick followed a lot of shots, requiring the trenches to be two feet wider than the actual trenches of World War I. That is, it is six feet wide instead of four feet, so that the space allows for the positioning of the moving track required by the camera.
Before obtaining special permission from the German government, film special effects supervisor Erwin Lange had to prepare as much as possible for the large number of explosives required for shooting battle scenes. In the first week of filming, nearly a ton of explosives was used.
The song sung by the girl in the tavern at the end of the movie is the German folk song "Der treue Hussar" (Faithful Hussar). In this scene, the exhausted French soldier in the war was moved by a German prisoner singing a song in his mother tongue, which has a realistic basis in history. On the Western Front in the winter of 1914, there was the so-called Christmas ceasefire. Some historical memory said that French and German soldiers went from their trenches to no-man’s land and sang Christmas carols together.
Colonel Dax’s residence is composed of several severely damaged buildings that appear to have been hit by shells. In fact, the building is the castle of Schleissheim in the 18th century, and the scene of the military court was also shot here. During World War II, the factory near the castle of Schleissheim was attacked by air. Some bombs fell on the castle, causing major damage. Therefore, Dax's station did not look like it was bombarded, it was actually bombarded.
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