Saving Private Ryan

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Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 Academy Award winning film, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, set in World War II.

This film is particularly notable for the intensity of the scenes in its first thirty minutes or so, which depict the Omaha beachhead assault of June 6, 1944. Thereafter it takes a heavily fictionalised route built around the search for a paratrooper of the United States 101st Airborne Division (yet inspired by a true story).

Spielberg later pursued his interest in the liberation of Europe with the television mini-series Band of Brothers which he co-produced with Tom Hanks.

Awards

The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and won five: for Best Director, Best Film Editing (Michael Kahn), Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Sound Effects Editing. The film was widely considered to be picked as winner of the Best Picture award, but lost to Shakespeare in Love. Saving Private Ryan's failure to win a Best Original Screenplay award is sometimes blamed on an Screen Actors Guild investigation into Steven Spielberg's statements that such notable writers as Steven Zaillian and William Goldman had worked on the script, despite the fact that Robert Rodat had received sole credit as screenwriter.

Historical background

The real "Ryan" was Sgt. Frederick (Fritz) Niland, who, with some other members of the 101st, was inadvertently dropped too far inland. They eventually made their own way back to their unit at Carentan, where the Chaplain, Lt. Col. Father Francis Sampson, told Niland about the death of his three brothers, two at Normandy and one in the Far East.

Under the US War Department's Sole Survivor Policy, brought about after the death of five Sullivan brothers serving on the same ship, Fr. Sampson arranged passage back to Britain and thereafter to his parents, Augusta and Michael Niland, in Tonawanda, New York. There was no behind-the-lines rescue mission, and his mother was not a widow, although it is believed that she did receive all the telegrams at the same time (Ambrose, Stephen E., D-Day, Simon & Schuster, 1997). Additionally, the brother believed to be killed in the Far East turned out to have been captured and later returned home. Fr. Francis Sampson wrote about Niland and the story of the 101st, in his 1958 book, Look Out Below (ISBN 1877702005).

Main cast

See Cast of Saving Private Ryan for a more comprehensive cast list.

Filming locations

Locations for the film include:

• World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial: first and last scenes of the movie
• Hatfield, Hertfordshire
• Curracloe, Wexford, Ireland: D-Day scene

Influence

Film

While researching the film, director Steven Spielberg met the military historian Stephen E. Ambrose. Spielberg subsequently adapted Ambrose's 1992 book Band of Brothers into a television miniseries for HBO, which premiered on September 9, 2001. The series was closely related to Saving Private Ryan, with a similarly mature style, a frank approach to battlefield violence, and a desaturated color scheme and cinéma vérité-style cinematography. Tom Hanks, star of Ryan, co-produced the series and even directed one episode.

The film's realistic approach to battlefield action influenced subsequent war films, notably Ridley Scott's 2001 Black Hawk Down and Jean-Jacques Annaud's 2001 Enemy at the Gates.

Video games

The amphibious assault and other battles shown in the movie have inspired many PC and video games, such as the WW2-themed Battlefield 1942, the Half-Life modification Day of Defeat, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, ', ', and Call of Duty 2. Several attempted to re-create the famous D-day landing. Although only Omaha Beach was portrayed in Saving Private Ryan, these games often include elements from another D-day assault point, Juno Beach, which had a higher sea wall and heavy gun batteries. The games Conker's Bad Fur Day and include a chapter called "It's War!" and a multiplayer mode, both of which parody Saving Private Ryan. Both the Call of Duty series and the "Brothers in Arms series copies the slow-motion action and muted audio used occasionally in the film when an explosion occurs near the player.

Trivia

• This is one of three Tom Hanks movies, (along with Forrest Gump and Apollo 13) where socks play a role in the plot. The G.I.s use their socks to hold the components of sticky bombs that they improvise in the field.

• Noted Star Trek actor James Doohan, who served with the Royal Canadian Artillery and was wounded at Normandy on D-Day, was one of many veterans who thanked Spielberg for not holding back on the intensely violent scenes of the Normandy landing.

• According to Paul Giamatti in an Entertainment Weekly profile, his management and agents advised him not to take the part in Saving Private Ryan since they felt the part was not big enough. But Giamatti insisted on taking the role.

• Before casting Tom Hanks for the lead role, Arnold Schwarzenegger was considered. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

• Several of the film's younger stars including Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel and Giovanni Ribisi as well as Hanks endured several days of grueling "boot camp" training and work on the film set to prepare for their roles. As a result, they all agreed to call it quits and approached Tom Hanks about participating in their stand. But Hanks refused and warned his younger co-stars that they would be making a big mistake if they were to quit the film. They subsequently followed his advice and the film became a smash hit and major awards contender. Also, actor Matt Damon, who plays Private Ryan, was kept out of the "Boot Camp" training so his fellow actors would let their resentment for him shine through their performances.

• This film is one of a rare few that won the Academy Award for Best Director without also winning Best Picture.

• Former general, (later Secretary-of-State), Colin Powell asked Steven Spielberg: "Why didn't the soldiers just blow up the bridge before the battle began, which would have been the intelligent thing to do, (even though it would have gone against their orders)?" Spielberg's reply was: "That blowing up the bridge at the start of the battle, (with the Allies on the defensive side of the river), would not have been as dramatic as what is shown on film."

• This is one of several films that were made by Paramount and DreamWorks, before the 2 became sister studios after Viacom, the parent company of Paramount, acquired DreamWorks – or at least its live-action studio – in 2005. Paramount then sold the DreamWorks live-action library (through 9/17/2005) to a George Soros-led group, but Paramount will retain distribution rights among other rights. As Saving Private Ryan was released originally by DreamWorks in the US, it is expected that Paramount will re-issue this film (among others) on DVD in the US.

Historical inaccuracies

• In reality, it took weeks rather than hours for casualty news to reach headquarters.
• Tiger tanks of the Waffen SS did not serve in Normandy during the timeframe portrayed by this movie. The two Tiger tanks used in filming were actually converted Russian-designed T34/85s formerly in Yugoslavian service. This is clear by their wheels; Tigers had interleaved wheels and those in the film clearly have the T-34 suspension. There is currently only one working Tiger tank in the world and that was still being restored when filming took place.
• Tiger tanks in reality had one coaxially mounted and one bow mounted MG34 to defend against infantry
• The fictional battle scenario in the end of the movie depicts SS-Panzergrenadiers from the elite 2nd SS Division Das Reich which were historically not engaged in the front lines until July — and when they did, they faced the British near Caen, a hundred miles east. The SS soldiers also have an incorrect mixture of weapons and are depicted in a militarily unsound fashion, both done in the name of dramatic license.
• At the end of the film, a German Tiger tank is seen being destroyed by American P-51 Mustang fighters. In reality these were high altitude fighters, little suited to the close air support role. On and around D-Day allied air to ground support would have been carried out by American P-47 Thunderbolts or more likely RAF rocket firing Hawker Typhoons.
• German soldiers of both the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS are depicted in the film with shaved heads. In reality, German soldiers generally wore their hair short on the sides but long on the top and bangs, which were then slicked back with pomade.
• In the Ryan farmhouse scene, the camera pans across the room. A telephone is visible, hanging on the wall. That type of phone did not appear until at least the 1950s.
• After reloading a .30 machine gun, Pvt. Ron Parker is shown to be shooting using modern disintegrating link ammunition.
• On Omaha Beach, the ramp-type obstacles made of wood are shown with their flat end facing the water, when in reality the flat was facing the beachhead.
• When attacking a pillbox during the Normandy invasion, a live grenade is thrown from soldier to soldier before being thrown into the enemy position. This would introduce unnecessary risk into the attack (the grenade might be dropped or mishandled during the process) and would contravene standard military tactics of the time.
• When Pvt. Jackson is in the bell tower of the church during the later attack in the movie, he fires up to 7 shots from his rifle without reloading. In reality, the Springfield 1903 rifle only held 5 rounds.
• It is unlikely that a sniper would take position in a church bell tower — bell towers were routinely destroyed at distance by both Axis and Allied forces to reduce the risk of it being used by enemy snipers or artillery spotters.
• During the D-Day scene, Hanks' character states a few times that no armor has made it ashore. However when he is pulling the wounded soldier, a DD Sherman tank is visible in the background.
• The destruction of a Tiger tank by air attack would likely have killed anybody in the surounding area.
• Vin Diesel's character being shot first by the German sniper is innacurate. German snipers like any snipers are trained to shoot squad leaders first to cause a break in morale and combat effectiveness. A trained sniper would have waited for a better target before revealing himself.

Criticism

Some critics have claimed that the film is too patriotic and too focused on the American contribution to D-Day. Commonwealth forces are not really mentioned in the movie and when they are shown in a negative light (Miller's conversation with Ted Danson's character regarding Montgomery). The portrayal of the normal German soldier, as "yelling, nameless killing machines", has also been claimed as unfair.

Counterbalancing these arguments are the scenes of American troops killing surrendering Czech-speaking soldiers (members of what the Germans called Ost [East] Battalions, men taken prisoner in eastern European countries invaded by Germany and forced into the German army) after the breakout from Omaha beach. Supporters of the film have observed that the actual plot of the film is not about D-Day but about a group of American soldiers trying to find another American soldier. D-Day is merely the backdrop to the plot and as such the exclusion of Commonwealth (Great Britain and Canada) forces was dictated by the story line (US and Commonwealth forces did not mix during the invasion). The views expressed by Miller and the Airborne captain were reflective of the opinions of some American soldiers of the time.

Finally, the movie was shot from the perspective of the American soldier on D-Day and immediately after. The essential humanity of the enemy is not evident to the soldiers involved in battle, thus the portrayal of German soldiers as "yelling killing machines" may be a valid one from the standpoint of the film. On the other hand, a particularly gruesome and possibly gratuitous scene of a German soldier slowly killing one of the main characters later in the film undermines this argument, as does the color saturation of the film. While the colouring of the film is desaturated with high contrast to give the impression of the bleak tone of war, the American soldiers are shot with warm-toned faces while the German soldier's faces are "washed out", making them less appealing.[link]

See also

• The Thin Red Line, a close contemporary of Spielberg's film, directed by Terrence Malick
• Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War, a film that has been dubbed in some circles as "South Korea's answer to Saving Private Ryan". Apart from the brutal battle sequences, the two films have otherwise little in common.
• When Trumpets Fade, a TV film that was almost simultaneously released with Saving Private Ryan. It deals with the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, one of the bloodiest battles fought in World War II by western allies. Directed by John Irvin.

External links and references

• [Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia]
• Alex Kershaw. The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice. Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0306813556.
• [Real Images and Videos of the War on Omaha Beach]

 

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