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lane batot
Colonial Settler
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 15 2011
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 Posted - November 09 2011 : 10:05:40 AM
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I didn't get to have any conversations with Kernel Monroe(Maurice--what the heck is he doing with such a FRENCH name as that? Really confuses the issue! Perhaps he WAS a French spy all along, and he and Magua faked that whole scene together to fool the English? Yeah, that heart didn't look like a human heart to me!), but I got to be around him plenty, especially during the surrender-and-evacuation-of-the-fort scenes. He was a HOOT! Always laughing and joking and making fun between takes--and he'd talk with ANYBODY! He was a breath of fresh air on that anal set, I can tell you! He lightened the mood with laughter constantly! I can't begin to remember all the clever jokes he constantly quipped, but I do remember one very well! We were filming the evacuation for the umpteenth time(remember that loooonnnggg train of people and livestock? Just think about them having to reverse and go BACK into the fort and exit again.....and AGAIN.....and AGAIN!!.... It got to where this collective refugee groan would go up every time they were told to do it over!), and Kernel Monroe was on his steed(a fidgety, spirited animal for sure, obviously VERY bored with the proceedings!), and he began SHOUTING at one point during a cut,"YOU CAN HAVE THE WOMEN!!!! YOU CAN HAVE THE CHILDREN!!!!! BUT THE SHEEP ARE MINE!!!! KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY SHEEP!!!!!" Which had everybody laughing their heads off! Sigh--we needed every precious moment of humor we could get on that strict, anal, sweltering set. And Kernel Monroe, TOTALLY unlike his serious, go-by-the-book character portrayed in the movie, gave us all many a light moment!
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James N.
Colonial Militia
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 24 2007
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Posted - November 09 2011 : 8:26:42 PM
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Maurice Roeves and Stephen Waddington were the two cast members who worked most closely with us of the "Military Core" and both were very approachable and good-natured, as I've described in my account and various postings. He also attended our "wrap" party held in Asheville held at a local pub; I remember him there with a beer bottle in one hand, one arm around a young black girl, and the other around a young white girl, all laughing heartily - not at all like the dour and serious "Col. Munro"! He also brought the 25 - 30 of us in the core group who were with him at the "boot camp" souvenir caps I pictured before. At least the only scene I really show up in is the one you're describing with him riding past as we salute:
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But he was always very accomodating on set too:
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lane batot
Colonial Settler
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 15 2011
Status: offline
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Posted - November 10 2011 : 09:23:29 AM
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| ...yeah, I think I was down in that dip in the terrain, also on the left, during a lot of this scene--invisible(but always observant!) as usual! This photo can give people not there an idea of just HOW LONG filming take after take after take of this one short scene took! The dejected body language and looks of abject misery on the faces of the refugees was NOT acting, I can tell you! Over and over and over--at least as an eenveezabull coureur de bois, I could sit on my arse most of the time and just WATCH! Yet another reason being a coureur de bois was THE BEST Xtra to be in this movie! Being totally unimportant can be so....FREEING! There was one really fun shot taken of us Frenchies and Injuns storming into the fort after the evacuees were out--we were all yelling and screaming and it was fun as heck stampedeing in a savage horde into the fort. The Mann only took a couple of takes on it--which should have told us it would never get used, alas! I bet it looked purty cool, though, and it was really fun doing it--especially after sitting around bored out of our minds for days! I can well understand why it was so difficult trying to keep the Indian and more feral French allies(or vice-versa on the English/American side) around during actual fort seiges of the period--it is very boring and tedious! You just want to hurry up and get to the looting and pillaging and other fun stuff!! |
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lane batot
Colonial Settler
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 15 2011
Status: offline
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Posted - November 10 2011 : 09:36:17 AM
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| This reminds me of another fun story involving one of Kernel Monroe's horses--there were TWO, the real one, and the fake one! The big rubber(?) fake one was used in the scene where the horse has been shot down, pinning the Kernel on the ground, while Magua is carving him up like a Thanksgiving turkey(payback to them ungrateful pilgrims!). They couldn't use a real horse for that scene, of course(of course...). During the shooting(literally and film-wise) at massacre valley, they were toting the dummy horse in an ATV up to where they'd be filming it, passing all us Xtras along the way, and one of the guys driving the vehicle was yelling, "Let us through! Clear the way! Taking meat to the Xtra commisary tent!" Of course I couldn't resist as he passed me, so I yell out "YEE HAW boys! We's gittin" an UPGRADE! That's shore-as-hell better'n whut we bin gittin!" Being French, of course, we were just fine with horsemeat! |
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lane batot
Colonial Settler
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 15 2011
Status: offline
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Posted - November 10 2011 : 09:52:51 AM
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| ....I forgot to decribe what the fake horse looked like being hauled up to the site--it was on its back, four stiff legs sticking up in the air like with rigormortis--really gross looking! So much of what went on was surreal in nature and often unintentionally ludricous in appearance--rather like watching one bizarre "Monty Python" skit after another!....I have been reading past posts which are triggering many buried memories--but I am finding it very amusing just how invisible I WAS on that set for the most part! James's lists(even of coureur de bois specifically!) that he has dug up, and all the photos--it must seem strange to anyone who was not there how anyone could be around so long but be so invisible! But if you were there, you KNOW--there were just SO MANY people around, such huge, sprawling scenes, it was actually very easy to dissapear on the screen in such a movie. Nowadays, we'd likely all just be computer animated, not real Xtras at all! |
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Zee eenveezable coureur de bois ahb-sair-vay-shi-ohn regardezment Colonel Monroe
