Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), on a mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) and bring him home safely after his three brothers have been killed in action. The cast also includes Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg and Jeremy Davies.
Saving Private Ryan
- Steven Spielberg
- Ian Bryce
- Mark Gordon
- Gary Levinsohn
- July 24, 1998
170 minutes
United States
English
$65–$70 million
$482.3 million[a]
Inspired by the books of Stephen E. Ambrose and accounts of multiple soldiers in a single family, such as the Niland brothers, being killed in action, Rodat drafted the script, and Paramount Pictures hired him to finish writing it. The project came to the attention of Hanks and Spielberg, whose involvement, due to their previous successes, secured the project's development. Spielberg wanted to make Saving Private Ryan as authentic as possible and hired Frank Darabont and Scott Frank to do uncredited rewrites based on research and interviews with veterans. The main cast went through a week-long boot camp to help them understand the soldier's experience. Filming took place from June to September 1997, on a $65–$70 million budget, almost entirely on location in England and Ireland. The opening Omaha Beach battle was the most demanding scene, costing $12 million to film over a four-week period, and using 1,500 background actors.
Saving Private Ryan became one of the year's most successful films, earning critical acclaim for its graphic portrayal of combat. WWII veterans described the combat scenes as the most realistic portrayal of their own experiences they had seen; some said they had been unable to watch it due to their traumatic memories. The film earned $481.8 million, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1998, and went on to win many accolades, including Golden Globe, Academy, BAFTA, and Saturn awards.
Considered one of the greatest films ever made, Saving Private Ryan's battle-scene filming techniques impacted many subsequent war, action, and superhero films, and numerous directors have cited Saving Private Ryan as an influence on them. The picture is credited with having helped to renew interest in WWII at the turn of the century, inspiring other films, television shows, and video games set during the war. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot[edit]
On June 6, 1944, the U.S. Army lands at Omaha Beach as part of the Normandy invasion, incurring major losses against the artillery and machine gun fire of the heavily fortified German forces. Initially dazed by the chaotic battle, 2nd Ranger Battalion Captain John H. Miller takes command of a surviving group and leads a successful infiltration behind German lines to secure victory.
The United States Department of War receives communication that three of four Ryan brothers have been killed in action; the last, James Francis Ryan of the 101st Airborne Division, is listed as missing. General George C. Marshall orders that Ryan be found and sent home, to spare his family the loss of all its sons. Miller is tasked with recovering Ryan and assembles a detachment of soldiers to accompany him: Mike Horvath, Richard Reiben, Adrian Caparzo, Stanley Mellish, Daniel Jackson, Irwin Wade, and interpreter Timothy Upham, who lacks any combat experience.
The group tracks Ryan to the town of Neuville-au-Plain, where Caparzo is killed by a German sniper while trying to rescue a young girl. Mourning their friend, the men grow resentful at being forced to risk their lives for one man. They later find James Frederick Ryan, but realize he is the wrong man with a similar name. That evening, the men rest in a chapel, where Miller tells Horvath that his hands began uncontrollably shaking after he joined the war. The men travel to a rallying point where the 101st Airborne might be after landing off course, where they find scores of wounded and displaced soldiers. Wade admonishes Reiben, Mellish, and Jackson for callously searching through a pile of deceased soldiers' dog tags in front of passing troops, hoping to find Ryan's among them and conclude their mission. Remorseful for ignoring their behavior, Miller shouts for anyone who knows Ryan; one deafened soldier tells him that Ryan was reassigned to defend a vital bridge in the town of Ramelle.
On the way, Miller decides to neutralize a German gun nest they discover, against the advice of his men, and although they are successful, Wade is killed. The men prepare to execute a surrendered German soldier in revenge, but Upham intervenes, arguing that they should follow the rules of war. Miller releases the soldier, nicknamed "Steamboat Willie", ordering that he surrender to the next Allied patrol. Discontented with the mission, Reiben threatens to desert, leading to a standoff between the men that Miller defuses by revealing his civilian background as a teacher and baseball coach, which he had always refused to disclose. Miller muses that people often guessed his career before he became a soldier, while his men could not, implying that war has changed him, and worries whether he is still the man he was or that his wife will recognize him.
In Ramelle, Miller's detachment finds Ryan and informs him of their mission, but Ryan refuses to abandon his post or his fellow soldiers, believing he does not deserve to go home more than anyone else. Horvath convinces Miller that saving Ryan might be the only truly decent thing they can accomplish during the war. Miller takes command of Ryan's group as the only officer present and prepares the soldiers for a German assault. Jackson and Horvath are killed, and Upham stands paralyzed with fear as Mellish is stabbed to death. Steamboat Willie returns and shoots Miller before reinforcements arrive to defeat the Germans. Upham confronts Willie, who attempts to surrender again, and kills him, before sending the other surrendering Germans away. Upham and Reiben observe as the mortally wounded Miller tells Ryan to earn the sacrifices made to send him home.
Decades later, an elderly Ryan and his family visit Miller's grave at the Normandy Cemetery. Ryan expresses that he remembers Miller's words every day, lived his life the best he could, and hopes he has earned their sacrifices.
The cast also includes Glenn Wrage as Doyle, Corey Johnson as a radioman, John Sharian as Corporal Loeb, and Rolf Saxon as Lieutenant Briggs—Allied soldiers at the Omaha beach landing.[8][9] Demetri Goritsas and Dylan Bruno portray Parker and Private First Class Toynbe, respectively, who aid in the battle of Ramelle.[8] Joerg Stadler appears as Steamboat Willie, a German prisoner.[5][9] Amanda Boxer portrays Ryan's mother, while Harrison Young and Kathleen Byron portray the elderly James Ryan and his wife, Margaret.[8][9] Technical advisor and Marine veteran Dale Dye appears as a War Department colonel.[8]
Production[edit]
Concept[edit]
Producer Mark Gordon was a fan of writer Robert Rodat's previous work on films such as Tall Tale (1995) and Fly Away Home (1996). The pair met in early 1995 to discuss potential projects and ideas. Within a few weeks, Rodat conceived of Saving Private Ryan.[10][11] He was inspired by a gift from his wife, the historical book D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (1994), by Stephen E. Ambrose, recounting the events of the Normandy landings. Rodat visited a monument in Keene, New Hampshire dedicated to American soldiers killed in combat; he noticed the losses included brothers. He said, "The idea of losing a son to war is painful beyond description ... the idea of losing more than one son is inconceivable".[10][11][12] The Ryan family was based on the four Niland brothers detailed in Ambrose's book, who were deployed during WWII; two were killed and a third presumed dead; per the Sole Survivor Policy, the fourth was returned from the war.[10][13][14]
Development[edit]
To develop Saving Private Ryan, Gordon founded the independent film studio Mutual Film Company, alongside producer Gary Levinsohn.[10] Gordon brought Rodat's draft to Paramount Pictures executives; they responded positively and hired Rodat who wrote the script over the following 12 months.[10][11][15] Michael Bay was hired as director, but left the project because he could not resolve how to approach the material.[16][17] Carin Sage, a junior agent representing Tom Hanks at the Creative Artists Agency, gave the script to Hanks, who was immediately interested and met with Gordon and Levinsohn.[10][11][15] Hanks shared the script with Steven Spielberg who agreed to direct because the pair had wanted to work together for some time.[10][15] Rodat thought that Paramount would cancel the project after the studio purchased two other WWII-era scripts, Combat and With Wings as Eagles, with popular actors Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached, respectively.[10] However, having secured the involvement of Hanks and Spielberg, two of the highest-paid and most successful actors and directors, Gordon suggested Paramount executives prioritize Saving Private Ryan.[10]
Describing what interested him about the project, Spielberg said, "So what you're doing is sending eight people out, all of whom have parents, to rescue one boy and send him back to his mom when any or all of these kids, along the mission route, could be killed. That was the central tug that made me want to tell the story".[18] Spielberg had a lifelong interest in WWII, having made war films as a teenager because "it was the seminal conversation inside my family. My parents talked about the Holocaust and they talked about combat and war. And I was born knowing this. My dad was a veteran ... he had many veterans over to the house, and I became absolutely obsessed ... based on my father's stories, recollections, and also based on all the WWII movies".[14][19][20] He described the project as a tribute to his father.[21]
With Spielberg on board, DreamWorks Pictures, which he co-founded, became involved as a financier, with his company Amblin Entertainment as a production company.[11][22][23] Spielberg's clout effectively removed Gordon and Levinsohn from the production, having no creative input, equity, or rights, but receiving a producer's credit and one-off payment. Levinsohn said, "You just know going in what the score is ... I guess it's unspoken that when you hire [Spielberg] you're not going to be on the set making decisions".[10] DreamWorks hired Ian Bryce to replace them. In April 1997, Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount's parent company Viacom, had Spielberg flip a coin to determine the film's distribution rights. Spielberg won the toss, giving DreamWorks the favored North American distribution rights and Paramount the international rights. Earnings were held collectively and split evenly between the studios. In exchange, Paramount received the North American distribution rights to DreamWorks' Deep Impact (1998).[b] To keep the budget low, Spielberg and Hanks took minimal upfront salaries in exchange for a guaranteed 17.5% of the gross profits, equivalent to 35 cents of every dollar earned.[10][15]
Thematic analysis[edit]
Patriotism[edit]
Leading into the early 21st century, there was renewed focus in America on glorifying the generation that had fought in WWII, depicted in films such as Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line, the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), books such as The Greatest Generation (1998), and construction of a World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.[w] Many publications believed this resurgence of interest in the war to be a response to decades of American cynicism toward the nation's failure in the Vietnam War (1955–1975), and anticlimactic victories in the Cold and Gulf Wars that resulted in little diplomatic success or celebration.[x]
Many films about the Vietnam War depicted its American combatants as self-hating, "deeply troubled, or even psychotic," offered little respect, and portrayed the conflict itself as one mired in dread, anxiety, and general negativity.[133][76][87][134] Literature professor Marzena Sokołowska-Paryż said the worship of WWII as "the last Good War" and its veterans as "the greatest generation" represented a "therapeutic [form of] patriotism" designed to rehabilitate the modern image of combatants as the enduring legacy of WWII soldiers and the core American national identity while forgetting any lingering guilt over the Vietnam War.[134][76] Film scholar Albert Auster described this reappraisal as a reversal of attitudes up to the early 1990s where historical wars, including WWII, were not beyond criticism and, particularly in response to the Vietnam War, literary critics aimed to undo the impression of WWII as the "Good War".[135] Saving Private Ryan is American-centric, beginning and ending with an image of the nation's flag fluttering in the wind, a desaturated image suggesting a nostalgic image of "the deep pride we once felt in our flag".[87][137][118] Stephen Holden described it as "a wholehearted celebration of American pluck and virtue and honor".[76]
Holden and Ebert disagreed with the view of some critics that Saving Private Ryan's "harrowing" and realistic combat scenes were a statement against war. They wrote that it accepts war as a necessity and portrays its main characters not as symbols, but as real people trying to kill the enemy without getting themselves killed.[76][18][28][138] The scenes of the elderly Ryan visiting Miller's grave with his family received some criticism.[76][137] Author John Biguenet queried how such a "savage and unsentimental film" could conclude with a scene so sentimentalized. Spielberg said in making the film he was meant to "wave the flag and be patriotic," but that the reality of his father's experiences made him want to also convey the harsh reality.[137] The Omaha Beach landing establishes the distance between the commanders safe at home who order Ryan be rescued, and the soldiers endangered in doing so.[58][139] It is a sentimental mission intended to spare one family the grief of losing all of its sons, but Miller refers to it as a public relations scheme designed to boost civilian morale.[28][137] General Marshall quotes a letter by Abraham Lincoln to a similarly affected family, but where Lincoln's letter expresses sentiment and patriotic sacrifice to the mother, it is not sentimental nor does it claim that her grief is greater than any other mother who lost her child at war.[140][137] Biguenet said Marshall, in comparison, confuses sentimentality for morality.[137]
Despite the patriotic American imagery, the characters of Saving Private Ryan do not discuss their home country or protecting democracy from fascism. The soldiers are only concerned with returning home to their loved ones. Miller's men openly state that they do not care about Ryan, but Miller says that he will go into metaphorical Hell to save him, if it means Miller can return to his wife. The soldiers actively fighting are not sentimental about their mission.[137]
Turan and Biguenet said Saving Private Ryan "feels like an official act of atonement" for modern generations failing to acknowledge the "courage and sacrifice" of WWII soldiers. When Miller tells Ryan to "earn this," he is effectively speaking about the debt owed to veterans who made "the ultimate sacrifice" for their country.[76][137][19][141] Biguenet called this a "terrible, impossible order", a moral burden that Ryan will carry until his own death because there is no way to compensate the high price paid by Miller's men. Spielberg suggested the answer was in the living paying homage to the fallen soldiers and the freedom for which they fought.[137] History professor John Bodnar described the image of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial as depicting a national unity with row after row of white grave markers, serving as a permanent reminder "to other nations of the sacrifices made by the United States".[139]
Morality and humanity[edit]
Unlike some older WWII films that portrayed the soldiers as infallible heroes, Saving Private Ryan presents battles fought by brave but frightened civilians, the majority of whom at Omaha Beach were not combat veterans.[137][28] Ebert believed much of the audience, including himself, would identify with Upham, someone completely unprepared for the realities of war but who must fight regardless.[58] Miller is the opposite: an experienced soldier who is scared and anxious because he knows exactly what to expect and is haunted by his responsibility for the lives of his men.[137][28][84][4] Although 94 men have died under his command, Miller rationalizes that he can prioritize his mission over his men because each sacrifice was responsible for saving many more lives. However, his mission to rescue Ryan demands he risk the lives of several men to save just one.[137] Turan said Miller's trembling hands were a sign that he is "dangerously close to coming apart".[84] Far Out magazine wrote that the focus on Miller's ailment acknowledges the side effects of war such as post-traumatic stress disorder, something he suppresses to fulfil his duty.[4]
Spielberg said the mission to rescue Ryan cannot be morally or patriotically justified, risking eight lives to save one. This theme is reinforced when they encounter the sole survivor of a glider crash caused by heavy steel shielding added to protect a single general on board, resulting in 22 deaths. No character claims that the mission of Miller and his men is heroic, and the men express the grief their own mothers will feel should they be killed on this endeavor. The "toughest" soldier, Horvath, gives it meaning when he tells Miller that saving Ryan could be the one decent thing they can accomplish in "this whole godawful, shitty mess". Biguenet said that Spielberg is explicitly condemning their mission as an immoral act to force upon soldiers.[137] Ebert considered the decision to deviate from the mission to attack the German gun nest on the way to Ramelle to be a deliberate rebellion against their orders. The action is not part of their mission and it is possible to avoid the situation entirely, but it grants the soldiers the opportunity to do what they came to Europe for; to fight a war.[58] Hanks said the decision to stay with Ryan and defend Ramelle was the characters "bringing meaning to a situation that until then had been absurd".[28]
While film critic Andrew Sarris found the German characters to match evil archetypes found in other WWII films, concluding with Upham's lesson that Steamboat Willie should have been killed earlier, Saving Private Ryan does not portray the Allied soldiers as unimpeachable heroes.[88][142][137] Following Omaha Beach, two Allied soldiers laugh as they execute two pleading German soldiers, but the soldiers are speaking Czech, indicating they are potentially from German-conquered Czechoslovakia, forcibly conscripted into the war effort.[142][137] Biguenet wrote that the Germans are not portrayed as any worse than the Americans, as they are similarly affected by the horrors of war and casually execute downed American soldiers. In Saving Private Ryan, allegiances do not matter, all men are equal, and rules only matter until they conflict with the mission objective.[143][144]
Upham's transformation from cowardly interpreter to Willie's executioner shows the transformative realities of combat.[137] Professor William J. Prior and Auster wrote that Upham represents respect for human life and moral decency when he interferes to prevent Steamboat Willie's execution, despite the fact that it would protect the mission. He offers the intellectual perspective of a civilian, but his lack of combat experience makes him unable to kill the prisoner, which results in the deaths of many of his allies.[143][144] Miller's experience means he is conscious of the risk involved in releasing Willie, but he is simultaneously struggling to cling to his own humanity and decency, believing that every time he kills he is moving "farther from home". Although Willie is the enemy, he is also a human with his own right to exist, and summarily executing him would further distance Miller from the self he and his wife knew.[145] His decision to spare Willie and reveal his civilian background, returns to him a semblance of his humanity.[144]