Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan
Poster of "Saving Private Ryan"
Directed by	Steven Spielberg
Written by	Robert Rodat
Produced by	Steven Spielberg Ian Bryce Mark Gordon Gary Levinsohn - Production Companies - DreamWorks SKG Paramount Pictures Amblin Entertainment Mutual Film Corporation Mark Gordon Productions
Starring	Tom Hanks Edward Burns Tom Sizemore Barry Pepper Adam Goldberg Giovanni Ribisi Matt Damon Vin Diesel
Cinematography	Janusz Kaminski
Edited by	Michael Kahn
Music by	John Williams
Distributed by	DreamWorks (USA and Canada) Paramount Pictures (elsewhere)
Release date	July 24 1998
Running time	170 min.
Language	English
Budget	$70,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	Domestic $216,540,909 Foreign $265,300,000 Worldwide $481,840,909

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 25 minutes, which depict the Omaha beachhead assault of June 6, 1944. Thereafter it presents a heavily fictionalised version of a real-life search for a paratrooper of the United States 101st Airborne Division.

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.

Plot

The story follows a squad of U.S. Army Rangers from the D-Day invasion of Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944 to their defense of a strategic bridge in the fictional French town of Ramelle on the Merderet River. The film begins with a graphic recreation of the landing of the first wave of troops on the beach. The film focuses on Captain John Miller who eventually manages to lead a group of men through the German beach defenses to reach the heights overlooking the beach.

The story shifts to the U.S. War Department offices where thousands of death notification letters are being typed for delivery to the families of the dead soldiers. It is discovered that three of the four brothers of the Ryan family have all died within days of each other and that their mother will receive all three notices on the same day. The fourth son, James Francis Ryan, a paratrooper, remains unaccounted for somewhere in France. General George Marshall orders that he be found and sent home immediately.

Template:Spoiler The scene changes back to Europe, where Miller assembles a group of eight men to carry out the order of finding Ryan and returning him safely to the rear. One of the men, Upham, is a map maker and budding novelist who is included in the squad as a French and German interpreter. He is shunned by the others, who see him as an outsider and a liability to the squad; he clearly lacks the physical qualities of a soldier. They scoff at his plans to write a book about the bonds of brotherhood that develop between soldiers in combat. Upham also discovers from the others that they have a cash pool going to determine Miller’s home town and his peace time occupation.

Possessing virtually no information as to Ryan’s whereabouts or the location where his unit parachuted into France, Miller and his men must move from town to town and among other American units to find him. Shortly after the unit arrives in a small village under heavy counter-attack by German forces, Caparzo is killed by a sniper. They hear Ryan may be with a unit of Airborne troops fighting for control of the village. Unfortunately, he turns out to be an entirely different man, James "Frederick" Ryan.

Growing increasingly frustrated, Miller’s squad pushes ahead and comes across a field where wounded soldiers have gathered. A glider pilot has collected the dog tags of dead men and Miller’s men search through them. Ryan’s name is not among them, and, in desperation, Miller begins asking passing soldiers at random if they have seen or know him. Miller gets lucky and finds a friend of Ryan’s (the man has lost his hearing from a close grenade explosion and yells all his answers, in a rare moment of humor in the film). He tells them that Ryan has joined a mixed unit and is defending a bridge in the nearby town of Ramelle.

File:Saving private ryan il faut sauver soldat ryan tom hanks.jpg

Tom Hanks as Captain Miller

Before arriving in Ramelle, the squad finds an abandoned radar outpost guarded by three German soldiers armed with an MG42 machine gun. The discovery of a squad of dead GIs, apparently ambushed by the gunners, leads to Miller's decision to attack the position despite the objections of his men. During the ensuing action, Wade (the squad's medic) is fatally wounded. The unit takes its anger out upon the only surviving German soldier, first beating him and then ordering him to dig graves for Wade and the other dead Americans. Miller takes a moment for himself, quietly weeping over the loss of Wade and Caparzo, and the stress of the situation he and his squad find themselves in. Upham develops a rapport with the German soldier (referred to as 'Steamboat Willie' in the credits, due to part of their conversation), and over the protests of the squad, who want to execute the soldier, Miller orders the man blindfolded and released. Hot-headed Brooklynite Reiben is pushed to mutiny by this action and threatens to desert the squad. The ensuing argument climaxes when Horvath points his pistol at Reiben and threatens that if he does not rejoin the squad, he'll be shot. Miller defuses the situation by revealing his civilian vocation (an English teacher) and his quietly emotional speech about duty and responsibility convinces Reiben to stay.

As they approach Ramelle, the squad encounters a German half-track personnel carrier and hide, puzzled when it is heavily damaged by an unexpected explosion. After a brief firefight, the squad makes contact with a small Airborne patrol armed with a bazooka, one of the soldiers by chance is Ryan.

The squad joins the remainder of Ryan’s Airborne unit holding the bridge in Ramelle; situated in a strategic location, it is essential to either army in crossing the Merderet River. Miller tells Ryan about the deaths of his brothers, but Ryan refuses to leave his unit, even under Miller's direct orders. Unable to complete their original mission as planned, Miller and Horvath decide that the squad will stay to defend the bridge from German attacks.

Soon after, Ramelle comes under attack by Waffen SS tanks and infantry who outnumber and outgun the Americans: a force consisting of at least 50 men accompanied by self-propelled guns and Tiger tanks. The Americans fight fiercely, but running out of ammunition and anti-tank weapons they are pushed back by the superior numbers and firepower. Jackson takes up a sniper's post in a bell tower and shoots German soldiers until he is killed when the tower is destroyed by a shell from a German Wespe. Mellish holds a machine gun nest in the window of a house but his position is overrun by German soldiers after he runs out of ammunition. A member of the Waffen SS who is often mistaken for "Steamboat Willie", kills him with a knife after a short but brutal hand-to-hand struggle. Upham, who was supposed to be resupplying Mellish, sits paralyzed with fear on the stairs as the German leaves the room and passes him without a word.

Miller retreats across the bridge with Reiben, Ryan, and a badly wounded Horvath, who collapses and dies soon after. They prepare to destroy the bridge, but a near miss from one of the German tanks knocks Miller off his feet and sends the detonator flying. He attempts to venture back onto the bridge into heavy enemy fire to retrieve it, but is shot (though not killed outright) by 'Steamboat Willie'. Dazed and dying, Miller vainly fires his service pistol at the Tiger tank advancing across the bridge, when it impossibly explodes. Moments later, a pair of P-51 Mustangs fly over, having arrived as air support and bombed the tank. Upham emerges suddenly from his hiding spot and takes several remaining Germans prisoner, including 'Steamboat Willie', who tries to talk to Upham, but, having witnessed Miller's shooting, Upham deliberately shoots him and tersely orders the others to leave.

Miller is tended to in vain by Reiben. His final words to Ryan are: "Earn this." Ryan’s face morphs into that of an old man, standing near Miller’s grave at Colleville-sur-Mer, where the film opens. Before saluting the grave, an emotional Ryan expresses his hope that Miller will regard the life Ryan has tried to lead as a 'good man' as enough to repay the debt he owes Miller and his squad for their sacrifice.

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for a total of 11 Academy Awards.

Wins

• Best Director (Steven Spielberg)
• Best Film Editing (Michael Kahn)
• Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski)
• Best Sound
• Best Sound Effects Editing

Nominations

• Best Actor (Tom Hanks)
• Best Art Direction
• Best Makeup
• Best Music, Original Dramatic Score
• Best Picture
• Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Robert Rodat)

Historical background

Main article: Niland Brothers

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, Lieutenant Colonel 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. Additionally, the brother believed to be killed in the Far East turned out to have been captured and later returned home.

In the film, the decision to order the safe return of Private Ryan is inspired in part by the General's reading of the Letter to Mrs. Bixby, written by Abraham Lincoln to console the mother of five sons then believed to have been killed in the American Civil War.

Main cast

• Tom Hanks - Captain John H. Miller.
• Tom Sizemore - Technical Sergeant Michael Horvath,
• Edward Burns- Private First Class Richard Reiben BAR Gunner.
• Barry Pepper - Private Daniel Jackson, a sharpshooter.
• Adam Goldberg - Private Stanley Mellish, a Jewish rifleman.
• Vin Diesel - Private First Class Adrian Caparzo, rifleman.
• Giovanni Ribisi - Technician 4th Class Irwin Wade, a medic.
• Jeremy Davies - Technician 5th Class Timothy E. Upham, a clerk and interpreter.

• Matt Damon - Private First Class James Francis Ryan, a paratrooper.
• Ted Danson - Captain Fred Hamill, a pathfinder.
• Paul Giamatti - Staff Sergeant William Hill, a paratrooper.
• Dennis Farina - Lieutenant Colonel Walter Anderson, Miller's CO.
• Joreg Stadler - "Steamboat Willie" (unnamed German soldier)
• Maximilian Martini - Corporal Henderson, Ryan's CNCO.
• Harve Presnell - General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, US Army.

Filming locations

Locations for the film include:

• France: World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, first and last scenes of the movie; Calvados
• England: Hatfield, Hertfordshire; Former British Aerospace factory, Hatfield; London; Thame Park, Oxfordshire
• Ireland: Curracloe, Wexford, Ireland: D-Day scene

Influence

Film

While researching the film, director Steven Spielberg met the military historian Stephen 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 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.

Other production notes

• 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.

• Several of the film's stars, including Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel and Giovanni Ribisi as well as Tom 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 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 two 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

Saving Private Ryan has been noted for its realistic portrayal of WWII combat; however some historical license was taken by the filmmakers for the sake of drama. Some of the movie's more notable historical inaccuracies (as opposed to simple goofs, mistakes or continuity errors) are:

• Tiger tanks of the Waffen SS did not serve in Normandy during the timeframe portrayed by this movie.
• The movie depicts the 2nd SS Division Das Reich which historically was not engaged in Normandy until July, and at Caen, a hundred miles east.
• 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 fringe, which were then slicked back with pomade. In fact, shaving the head was and is forbidden in the German army
• The challenge and response 'Thunder - Flash' is backwards. Flash was the challenge and Thunder the response. Furthermore, Flash-Thunder was only used by American forces on D-Day itself, each day thereafter had a different challenge and response which was learned before leaving for the assault.
• The use of P-51 Mustang fighters as 'tank-busters' in the climatic battle scene of the movie as opposed to British Typhoons or American P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft was due to the lack of flyable P-47's and Typhoons. During WWII, the P-51 was used most often as a bomber escort rather than a ground-attack aircraft. The P-51 was used in a ground-attack role in the Pacific theater.

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 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

• Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia
• Alex Kershaw. The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice. Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81355-6.
• Real Images and Videos of the War on Omaha Beach
• Saving Private Ryan at IMDb