AN 'EMPIRE' AT 45: FILMING THE 'BATTLE IN THE SNOW'...

"And.... action!"

With the primary film unit now returned to the UK's Elstree Studios by April, 1979, Peter MacDonald, Bill Westley, Stunt Coordinator Bob Anderson and other talents, would continue location work for The Empire Strikes Back with their unique second unit, effectively handling the barely English speaking Red Cross Norwegian volunteers playing Rebel soldiers, detonating the many necessary pyrotechnics, and choreographing lots of action taking place in the specially built snow trenches, a site fortified with many distinctive-looking props, weapons, and even a rebel tank, at one of the most challenging locations for filming within the Original Trilogy: the Hardangerjokulen glacier.

Fire and Ice!

Sadly, despite their best efforts, bad weather and ever-changing, inconsistent natural lighting conditions would hamper the filming, which was never completed. Thankfully, there was enough footage shot for George Lucas to use multiple angles and even reversed footage, to be mixed with the upcoming ILM stop-motion animation footage being captured that Winter, for a spectacular and unforgettable sequence that looked superb on the big screen...  

Digging the Rebel trenches at the glacier site prior to filming.

Assembling the props for filming.

Great wide shot of the location filming: note the Rebel Tank on site.

A fun Birthday art piece for Continuity/Script Supervisor Pamela Mann on location. 

A sunny day for filming.

But not so good on other days, as the Red Cross extras gather.

The Rebel weapons assembled on location. Image: Pamela Mann.

The action filming begins. Image: Pamela Mann.

Filming Bob Anderson as the Rebel Commander soon contacting Echo Base about the approaching AT-AT's.

Ready for trench warfare!

Destroyed props during filming.