Taglines: There was only one man left in the family, and the mission was to save him.
Saving Private Ryan movie storyline. Steven Spielberg directed this powerful, realistic re-creation of WWII’s D-day invasion and the immediate aftermath. The story opens with a prologue in which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a flashback then joins Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft making the June 6, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German artillery fire.
This mass slaughter of American soldiers is depicted in a compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller’s men slowly move forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies is one with the name “Ryan” stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests that the surviving brother, Pvt. James Ryan (Matt Damon), be located and brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and he chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore), plus privates Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), cynical Reiben (Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian-American Caparzo (Vin Diesel), and religious Southerner Jackson (Barry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who calls on the Lord while taking aim.
Having previously experienced action in Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village, some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a single soldier. The film’s historical consultant is Stephen E. Ambrose, and the incident is based on a true occurance in Ambrose’s 1994 bestseller D-Day: June 6, 1944.
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war drama film set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II. Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, the film is notable for its graphic portrayal of war, and for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which includes a depiction of the Omaha Beach assault during the Normandy landings. It follows United States Army Rangers Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and a 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), who is the last-surviving brother of four servicemen.
Saving Private Ryan was a critical and commercial success and is credited with contributing to a resurgence in America’s interest in World War II. Old and new films, video games, and novels about the war enjoyed renewed popularity after its release. The film’s use of desaturated colors, hand-held cameras, and tight angles has profoundly influenced subsequent films and video games.
Saving Private Ryan was released in 2,463 theaters on July 24, 1998, and grossed $30.5 million on its opening weekend. The film grossed $216.5 million in the US and Canada. and $265.3 million in other territories, bringing its worldwide total to $481.8 million and making it the highest-grossing US film of the year.[1] Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 45.74 million tickets in the United States and Canada.
The film received critical acclaim, winning several awards for film, cast, and crew, as well as earning significant returns at the box office. The film grossed US$481.8 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of the year. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards; Spielberg’s direction won his second Academy Award for Best Director, with four more awards going to the film. Saving Private Ryan was released on home video in May 1999, earning another $44 million from sales. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
The D-Day scenes were shot in Ballinesker Beach, Curracloe Strand, Ballinesker, just east of Curracloe, County Wexford, Ireland. 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. In my head, of course, I knew it was special effects, but I still wasn’t prepared for how tactile it was.”
Filming began June 27, 1997, and lasted for two months. Some shooting was done in Normandy, for the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer and Calvados. Other scenes were filmed in England, such as a former British Aerospace factory in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Thame Park, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. Production was due to also take place in Seaham, County Durham, but government restrictions disallowed this.
Saving Private Ryan movie trailer.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Paul Giamatti, Giovanni Ribisi, Dennis Farina
Screenplay by: Robert Rodat
Production Design by: Thomas E. Sanders, Phill Zagajewski
Cinematography by: Janusz Kaminski
Film Editing by: Michael Kahn
Costume Design by: Joanna Johnston
Set Decoration by: Lisa Dean
Art Direction by: Tom Brown, Daniel T. Dorrance, Ricky Eyres, Chris Seagers, Alan Tomkins, Mark Tanner
Music by: John Williams
MPAA Rating: R for intense prolonged realistically graphic sequences of war violence, and for language.
Distributed by: DreamWorks Pictures (United States), Paramount Pictures (International)
Release Date: July 24, 1998
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