Herzog is a grade-A nutter. Here’s a video of him getting shot during an interview:
He doesn’t seem all that bothered.
I think any film that spends a lot of time in the water has to be difficult. I remember Kate Winslet relaying how difficult the water scenes were in “The Titanic.” They don’t heat the water, of course, and they were fully clothed. Sounds like hell to me.
William Friedkin was notoriously difficult on the set of The Exorcist, including things like slapping an unsuspecting actor in order to generate an honest emotion for a take. Also, both Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair reportedly suffered back injuries from stunts that required them to be jerked around on harnesses.
It’s not mentioned in the Wikipedia article linked above, but one of the recent documentaries on the film claimed that Friedkin occasionally fired a pistol before takes so the actors would appear genuinely frightened.
The 1914 film In The Land Of The Head Hunters (aka In The Land Of The War Canoes) was shot on Vancouver Island. Motion picture cameras of the day were heavy, awkward, and bulky – and they had to be hand-cranked. The ubiquitous B&W Eyemo camera, which is often seen in (and was used to shoot) WWII documentaries wouldn’t be made until more than a decade later. Just getting to the locations was a chore, using boats and canoes. Edward Curtis made his film in a remote, primitive location using equipment most people used in studios. I’m sure it was a difficult shoot.
Search for the Holy Grail was tough with the wool costumes, cold and damp weather, and lack of hot water at the hotel.
Raiders of the Lost Ark had notoriously bad filming conditions because of the heat and disease from bad water and/or food, leading to Indiana just shooting that guy with the sword because he was too tired to film a fight scene. Oh, and snakes and spiders don’t help much either.
Let’s be clear, Divine popped it into his mouth and then spit it out off camera. IIRC they had to follow that poodle around for a few hours before it shat. And that chicken scene maybe wasn’t that arduous to film but I would not have wanted to be involved with that one, nosireebob
It’s a bit more than that. There’s chewing involved, and it remains in his mouth for some time. Here’s the link, spoilered so that you don’t click on it accidentally. Be warned: It’s retch-inducing. No, really. I have a strong stomach and have seen it before. (I have the DVD.) It’s still difficult to watch.
It’s just the actors, but the three in The Blair Witch Project were hungry, cold, and terrified the whole time.
I just watched Predator and read that that was another “Montezuma’s Revenge” shoot. Seems to be surprisingly common for foreign location shoots. (See also: Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
I think The Conqueror qualifies:
I’ve seen the documentary. I wouldn’t say it was hell for everyone involved, in the way Apocalypse Now was. Gilliam’s film was suffering mostly from being tragically jinxed. Everything that could go wrong did. Such as trying to shoot dialogue with jets flying overhead destroying the sound, or a sudden storm causing a flash flood that swept some equipment away sending the crew chasing after it in the rain.
My then-girlfriend worked in the film industry in such a capacity that we both found the documentary extremely stressful to watch because it was so much like a really, really bad day at work. I would not compare it though to the on-set conditions of Apocalypse Now.
Kathy Bates has said that the filming conditions for At Play in the Fields of the Lord were particularly unpleasant in the Brazilian jungle.
You HAVE to see My Best Fiend, the documentary about their relationship. Fantastic.
Joe
I came in here to mention the Shining which seems to set the bar for Kubrick’s insane perfectionism. He demanded literally hundreds of retakes of scenes, causing both Shelley Duvall and Scatman Crothers to break down in tears on separate occasions. Ages ago, on some site that’s long since gone, there were sound clips of Kubrick SCREAMING at Duvall in a harshly critical, patronizing manner - he was accusing her of wasting time after she objected to doing a retake for the umpteenth millionth time in a row. Duvall is clearly sobbing throughout it. Angelica Huston, who was living with Jack Nicholson at the time, said he that he would literally get home (sometimes as late as 2am), fall onto the bed and instantly fall asleep, only to get up the next morning at 5am to be on the set by 6pm.
A notorious example of harsh set conditions would be Metropolis. For the final scenes of the movie, director Fritz Lang had a mob of extras (including young children) standing in the middle of a pool of frigid water (and get doused by a hose as well) for HOURS. Ironically, the film is supposed to protest the abuses of the working-class proletariat.
I’ll see your **Metropolis **and raise youNoah’s Ark–a 1928 silent Biblical epic (and notorious Hollywood flop) in which during the filming of the flooding of the temple sequence, three extras drowned, one was severely crippled, and nearly a dozen more were badly injured.
The cast and crew of Super 8 are currently going through hell. Should be worth it, though.
Two movies I’ve heard horror stories about:
- Monty Python’s Life of Brian was filmed in Tunisia. Between heat and bad water, the entire cast and crew was sick constantly. Graham Chapman, a medical school graduate who’d never actually practiced medicine, was prescribing medication for co-workers on a regular basis.
- Scott Glenn, among others, thought working on Ron Howard’s ***Backdraft ***was terrifying (though watching it was far more miserable, believe me).
The actors and crew for Myra Breckinridge are all quoted as saying the movie was just a terrible experience, not for any physical danger, but for the difficulties of working for director Michael Sarne, who directed like a combination of Herzog and Kubrick with all the talent removed.
Care to share any details?
Jean-Jacques Annaud is like Kubrik in being obsessive and meticulous. His **Quest for Fire ** was Ron Perlman’s first film. Perlman has acted in 175 films so far and maintains that it was the most difficult. A prehistoric story, it was shot in primitive conditions in remote areas of Kenya (during the summer, 120 degrees F), the highlands of Scotland (during the winter, 25-40 degrees F), Alberta’s badlands, Iceland and British Columbia. Actors and crew began their 16-hour work days walking in costume 2 miles from the nearest road to begin filming. Most of the costumes were animal pelts and mud. I think Rae Dawn Chong’s costume was only mud. After filming they stayed at hotels, sometimes without hot water, a coupel nights in Kenya without running water at all.
Just one. A few nights ago, they rigged a huge explosion. It went off perfectly. Unfortunately, because it was so big and powerful, that meant crew parking and the trailer village and so forth had to be way far from the set. Which meant a 45-minute ride, one way, in vans and stakebeds from parking to the set. Which doesn’t sound like much, except that it adds another hour and a half to days that are already 14 to 16 hours long. Still, as I said, it’ll be worth it when it comes out. And it’s already worth it to Mr. Rilch and me. 
(We need a smiley that holds a wad of cash!)
BTW, PunditLisa, are you sure about that Titanic anecdote? I thought the water was generally heated, not to 98.6 of course, but warmer than right out of the pipe…except for one shot/scene. When Rose comes back down with the axe to find that the water has progressed halfway up the stairwell, that gasp was for real, because Cameron had deliberately ordered the water to be left cold, and deliberately didn’t tell her because he wanted a genuine reaction. That’s what I heard, but I could be wrong.