Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set during the Battle of Normandy in World War II, the film is known for its graphic portrayal of war, especially its depiction of the Omaha Beach assault during the Normandy landings. The film follows United States Army Rangers Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and his squad (Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies) as they search for a paratrooper, Private first class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), the last surviving brother of four, the three other brothers having been killed in action. The film was a co-production between DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, and Mutual Film Company. DreamWorks distributed the film in North America while Paramount released the film internationally.
In 1996, producer Mark Gordon pitched Rodat’s idea, which was inspired by the Niland brothers, to Paramount, which eventually began development on the project.
Spielberg, who at the time was forming DreamWorks, came on board to direct the project, and Hanks joined the cast. After the cast went through training supervised by Marine veteran Dale Dye, the film’s principal photography started in June 1997 and lasted two months. The film’s D-Day scenes were shot in Ballinesker Beach, Curracloe Strand, Ballinesker, just east of Curracloe, County Wexford, Ireland, and used members of the Irish Army reserve as extras to portray infantry for the D-Day landing.
Released on July 24, 1998, Saving Private Ryan received acclaim from critics and audiences for its performances, realism, Janusz Kamiński’s cinematography, score, screenplay, and Spielberg’s direction, and was placed on many film critics’ 1998 top ten lists. It was also a box office success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1998 in the United States with $216.8 million domestically and the second-highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide with $485 million worldwide. Additionally, it grossed $44 million from its release on home video in May 1999.
Plot.
An elderly veteran visits the Normandy Cemetery with his family. At a specific grave, he is overcome with emotion and begins to recall his time as a soldier. On the morning of June 6, 1944, the U.S. Army lands at Omaha Beach as part of the Normandy invasion. Captain John H. Miller leads his command, Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion in a breakout from the beach. The staff at the United States Department of War learns that James Francis Ryan of the 101st Airborne Division is missing and presumed to be the last survivor of four brothers who are all in the military. General George C. Marshall orders Ryan to be found and sent home so that his family will not lose all its sons. Miller is ordered to lead a detachment in finding Ryan. As they arrive in the contested town of Neuville between German defenders and the 101st Airborne, Caparzo is killed by a German sniper. Miller and his men find a paratrooper named Ryan but he is not the one for whom they are searching, and they are directed to a rally point where James Francis Ryan’s unit should be.RELATED:
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Miller learns that Ryan is defending a key bridge in the town of Ramelle. En route, Miller decides against the judgment of his soldiers to neutralize a German machine gun nest, which results in Wade’s death. A surviving German soldier is spared by the intervention of Upham, the detachment’s interpreter, who is unused to the horrors of combat. Miller blindfolds the soldier, who has been nicknamed “Steamboat Willie”, and orders him to surrender to the next Allied patrol. When Reiben threatens to desert, Miller defuses the situation by calmly telling a story that reveals his civilian background as a teacher and baseball coach, which he has not previously spoken of, and which has been the subject of much speculation among his men.
Development.
In 1994, Robert Rodat’s wife gave him the bestseller D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II by historian Stephen Ambrose. While reading the book during an early morning walk in a small New Hampshire village, Rodat was “struck by a monument dedicated to those who had died in various wars, particularly because of the repeated last names of brothers who were killed in action”. He was inspired by an actual family in Ambrose’s book named the Nilands, which had lost two sons in the war and was thought to have lost a third, whose fourth son was “snatched” out of Normandy by the War Department. Rodat proposed the pitch to producer Mark Gordon. Gordon then pitched Rodat’s idea to Paramount Pictures, whose executives liked the idea and commissioned Rodat to write the script. Michael Bay was approached by the producers to direct the film, but he declined the offer. He eventually went on to direct the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, which depicted the events of the Pearl Harbor attacks.
Filming.
Filming began June 27, 1997, and lasted for two months. Spielberg wanted an almost exact replica of the Omaha Beach landscape for the movie, including sand and a bluff similar to the one where German forces were stationed and a near match was found in Ballinesker Beach, Curracloe Strand, Ballinesker, just east of Curracloe, County Wexford, Ireland. Production of the sequence depicting the Omaha Beach landings cost US$12 million and involved up to 1,500 extras, some of whom were members of the Irish Reserve Defence Forces. Members of local reenactment groups such as the Second Battle Group were cast as extras to play German soldiers. In addition, twenty to thirty actual amputees were used to portray American soldiers maimed during the landing. Spielberg did not storyboard the sequence, as he wanted spontaneous reactions and for “the action to inspire me as to where to put the camera.” Hanks recalled to Roger Ebert that although he realized it was a movie, the experience still hit him hard, stating, “The first day of shooting the D-Day sequences, I was in the back of the landing craft, and that ramp went down and I saw the first 1-2-3-4 rows of guys just getting blown to bits.
Cinematography.
To achieve a tone and quality that were true to the story as well as reflected the period in which it is set, Spielberg once again collaborated with cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, saying, “Early on, we both knew that we did not want this to look like a Technicolor extravaganza about World War II, but more like color newsreel footage from the 1940s, which is very desaturated and low-tech.” Kamiński had the protective coating stripped from the camera lenses, making them closer to those used in the 1940s. He explains that “without the protective coating, the light goes in and starts bouncing around, which makes it slightly more diffused and a bit softer without being out of focus.” The cinematographer completed the overall effect by putting the negative through bleach bypass, a process that reduces brightness and color saturation. The shutter timing was set to 90 or 45 degrees for many of the battle sequences, as opposed to the standard of 180-degree timing. Kamiński clarifies, “In this way, we attained a certain staccato in the actors’ movements and a certain crispness in the explosions, which makes them slightly more realistic.”
Box office.
Saving Private Ryan was released in 2,463 theaters on July 24, 1998, and grossed $30.5 million on its opening weekend, opening to number one and remained at the top for four weeks until Blade topped the film in its fifth week of release. It also became the third R-rated film to reach $200 million at the domestic box office, following Beverly Hills Cop and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The film grossed $216.5 million in the US and Canada and $268.7 million in other territories, bringing its worldwide total to $485 million. It was the second-highest-grossing film of 1998 worldwide, finishing behind Armageddon. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 45.74 million tickets in the United States and Canada.RELATED:
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