I was an extra in the movie -- the blond guard who was taken hostage.
To answer a previous question, the "nude" scene was not at the end of the movie and was shot as we hostages were driven outside (most of us were nude, but not all) into the yard where about 1,000 other extras were supposed to be trying to kill us while other inmates protected us.
We called it the gauntlet when we were filming it. It was cold and muddy and we had to shoot it several times. They gave us bed sheets to wrap up in between takes -- but it was more for warmth than modesty as after the first take, we were pretty muddy head to toe from being pushed around a lot in the mud by 100s of people -- there were about 35 of us playing hostages. We hostages were paid three or four times the regular daily pay for that day and I remember a lot of the movie's big shots had their wives and/or girl friends on the set that day, too.
The scene was included in the European release of the movie. I have copies of both.
The end was more about the state police just shooting at the inmates sort of randomly and depicting the fact that since many of the police were shooting shotguns, many of the dead and wounded hostages were shot by the police, not inmates.
It was hard work... long, long days inside a hospital for the criminally insane... and long stretches of nothing at all to do, as well... lots of hurry up and wait.
The movie won a few big awards -- Chomski had just finished Holocaust previous to this movie and was sort of riding that success -- ABC Circle films, I believe.
To answer a previous question, the "nude" scene was not at the end of the movie and was shot as we hostages were driven outside (most of us were nude, but not all) into the yard where about 1,000 other extras were supposed to be trying to kill us while other inmates protected us.
We called it the gauntlet when we were filming it. It was cold and muddy and we had to shoot it several times. They gave us bed sheets to wrap up in between takes -- but it was more for warmth than modesty as after the first take, we were pretty muddy head to toe from being pushed around a lot in the mud by 100s of people -- there were about 35 of us playing hostages. We hostages were paid three or four times the regular daily pay for that day and I remember a lot of the movie's big shots had their wives and/or girl friends on the set that day, too.
The scene was included in the European release of the movie. I have copies of both.
The end was more about the state police just shooting at the inmates sort of randomly and depicting the fact that since many of the police were shooting shotguns, many of the dead and wounded hostages were shot by the police, not inmates.
It was hard work... long, long days inside a hospital for the criminally insane... and long stretches of nothing at all to do, as well... lots of hurry up and wait.
The movie won a few big awards -- Chomski had just finished Holocaust previous to this movie and was sort of riding that success -- ABC Circle films, I believe.