“Saving Private Ryan,” a terrifying account of the physical, mental and moral trauma suffered by American GIs during World War II, debuted in theaters on this day in history, July 24, 1998.
“Saving Private Ryan,” writes the website CinemaScholars.com, “makes the claim as being the greatest war film of all time.”
Steven Spielberg directed the movie, which starred peak-of-his-powers actor Tom Hanks in the leading role as Capt. John Miller.
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The introspective Army officer, suffering shell shock in the hours after surviving the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, in 1944, is ordered to lead a dubious (fictionalized) mission to find an American paratrooper behind enemy lines.
The war epic was a commercial and critical success. It earned $482 million at the box office and took home five Academy Awards, including a Best Directing Oscar for Spielberg.
“Saving Private Ryan,” directed by Steven Spielberg, was released in July 1998. Seen here from left, Tom Hanks (as Cptn. John Miller), Edward Burns (as Private Reiben, in background), and Matt Damon (as Private James Francis Ryan). Screen capture; a Paramount Picture. (CBS via Getty Images)
More impactful for the nation, “Saving Private Ryan” shocked Americans into confronting the horror, largely untold for five decades, that their parents and grandparents — the Greatest Generation — experienced in the fight to end tyranny overseas during World War II.
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Moviegoers wept openly at the carnage displayed on the screen — some crying through the 2-hour, 49-minute drama.
“‘Saving Private Ryan’ makes the claim as being the greatest war film of all time.”
“The true cultural impact of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is best measured not in dollars or book sales but in conversations,” The Los Angeles Times reported two weeks after the movie debut.
“And they’re breaking out all over.”
The film was released when millions of World War II veterans were in their 70s and just beginning to share their traumatic wartime experiences for the first time.
Tom Hanks, as Captain John Miller, amid the chaos on the beach at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in “Saving Private Ryan.” ( Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
Americans, and global moviegoers, proved eager to learn more about World War II, and the quiet heroes who fought it, after emerging from theaters stunned into silence.
“Saving Private Ryan” marked in many ways the American cultural apogee.
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It was released during a glorious Pax Americana, the “end of history” decade between victory in the Cold War in 1991 and the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when even Hollywood was united behind a heroic version of the triumphant U.S. narrative.
“Saving Private Ryan” showed terrified and seasick boys vomiting on landing craft before the ocean water washes red with their blood.
Soldiers drown in anguish before reaching the beach, while others scream in fear on land as the bodies of their buddies are torn to shreds by enemy fire.
American soldiers and matériel land and establish a secure foothold at Normandy on June 1944, as seen in the movie “Saving Private Ryan.” Screen capture; a Paramount Picture. (CBS via Getty Images)
“Spielberg’s camera makes no sense of the action,” late famed film critic Roger Ebert wrote in his contemporary review of the movie.
“That is the purpose of his style. For the individual soldier on the beach, the landing was a chaos of noise, mud, blood, vomit and death.”
In one memorable early moment, a soldier’s arm is ripped from his body at the shoulder by shrapnel on Omaha Beach.
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The young GI turns around in a daze to pick the severed limb off the sand with his other arm — and keeps marching forward under fire.
“For the individual soldier on the beach, the landing was a chaos of noise, mud, blood, vomit and death.”
So powerful was the movie, especially the opening and closing battle scenes, that many veterans reported a relapse of PTSD after watching the film.
Matt Damon played Iowa paratrooper Pvt. James F. Ryan.
He was unknown when cast in the title role, but emerged as a star after winning an Oscar for “Good Will Hunting” only four months before the release of “Saving Private Ryan.”
Barry Pepper (as Private Jackson) in the film “Saving Private Ryan.” (CBS via Getty Images)
Private Ryan becomes the target of a morally confusing mission after top brass in Washington learn that his three brothers had been killed in combat.
“If the boy’s alive we are gonna send somebody to find him — and we are gonna get him the hell out of there,” Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall (played by Harve Presnell) tells his commanders after reading to them by memory Abraham Lincoln’s famous real-life “Bixby Letter.”
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The letter was written by President Lincoln in 1864 to Boston mother Lydia Bixby, thought to have lost five sons in combat in the Civil War.
An ensemble cast of Hollywood heavyweights were charged with saving Pvt. Ryan.
The Hanks character Capt. Miller was joined by Tom Sizemore as loyal non-com Sgt. Horvath; by Edward Burns (Pvt. Reiben), Vin Diesel (Pvt. Caparzo) and Adam Goldberg (Pvt. Mellish) as dubious but dutiful GIs who question the mission but bow to their brothers in arms; and by Barry Pepper as fire-and-brimstone Christian sniper Pvt. Jackson.
The Iron Mike Memorial outside Sainte-Mere-Eglise in Normandy. It marks the site of a heroic fight by outnumbered American paratroopers to hold the bridgehead at La Fiere and prevent amphibious landing forces from being slaughtered on Utah Beach. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
Ted Danson, Dennis Farina and Paul Giamatti have cameos.
Spielberg took poetic license with battlefield geography in “Saving Private Ryan.”
The movie, most notably, combines two of the most heroic but distant stories to emerge from D-Day.
Miller’s unit lands at Omaha Beach for dramatic purposes: to display the horrific human carnage of the deadliest of the invasion sectors.
“After they’ve seen [the film] they’ll know why I came home after the war and insisted we buy a farm – for peace and quiet.” — Maj. Dick Winters
American paratroopers, however, such as those represented by Pvt. Ryan, landed hours earlier alone in the darkness inside Utah Beach, about 30 miles to the northwest.
In a real-life scenario, commanders simply would have tasked the rescue mission to GIs who landed that same morning, under much less resistance, at Utah Beach, a short distance from the paratrooper drop zones.
Tom Hanks (as Captain John Miller) takes a moment alone after nearly suffering a mutiny under his command in “Saving Private Ryan.” (CBS via Getty Images)
The rescuers find Pvt. Ryan in the fictional bridge-crossing town of Ramelle, where a climactic battle against the Germans take place.
It’s as gut-wrenching as the early scenes from Omaha Beach.
The battle at Ramelle is loosely based on the fierce real-life resistance mounted by outnumbered American paratroopers against German counterattack at the bridge at La Fiere in the hours after D-Day.
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A statue to American paratroopers stands by the bridge today near the famous D-Day town of Sainte Mere Eglise.
Despite some discrepancies with the real events, World War II veterans almost universally proclaimed “Saving Private Ryan” the most realistic war movie ever made.
Major Dick Winters, who was portrayed by actor Damian Lewis in the miniseries “Band of Brothers,” and executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, left, accept the award for Best Miniseries during the 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. (Michael Caulfield/WireImage)
It ignited renewed determination by entertainers, authors and ordinary Americans to capture the stories of the Greatest Generation.
Among the most notable efforts, Hanks and Spielberg teamed up produce the 10-part HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” released in 2001.
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The production was based on historian Stephen Ambrose’s 1992 book of the same name.
“Band of Brothers” made a long-overdue national hero of 101st Airborne officer Major Dick Winters. It also cemented the legacy of the Greatest Generation for future Americans.
Tom Hanks, left, as Captain John Miller, and Matt Damon, as Private James Ryan, in the World War II epic “Saving Private Ryan.” (Getty Images)
Winters emerged as a spokesman for World War II veterans following the success of “Saving Private Ryan.”
He encouraged hundreds of friends, family members and acquaintances to see the movie.
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Said Winters soon after the movie release, “After they’ve seen it, they’ll know why I came home after the war and insisted we buy a farm – for peace and quiet.”
