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Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Starring Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, and Matt Damon.  Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski.  Edited by Michael Kahn.  Produced by Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn, and Steven Spielberg.  Written by Robert Rodat. Directed by Steven Spielberg.

Shortly after the devastating attack on the beaches of Normandy, the status of four brothers is brought to the attention of the Army Chief of Staff.  Two brothers have been killed in the battle at Omaha Beach. A third brother has died in New Guinea fighting the Japanese in the Pacific Campaign.  The fourth brother, Private James Ryan (played by Matt Damon), has recently gone missing somewhere in French countryside.

It is decided that Private Ryan must be found and sent home to his heartbroken mother. Fresh from the D-Day invasion, Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) is asked to assemble a squad of seven men to locate Ryan and escort him back to safety. The journey is a difficult one and many deadly obstacles lay between these eight men and the one soldier destined to go home.

On November 13^th, 1942 the USS Juneau was hit by a Japanese torpedo and sunk off the coast of Guadalcanal. Five brothers from Waterloo, Iowa who served on the ship were killed in the attack.  The death of the Sullivan brothers helped reinforce the Navy’s polices about brothers serving on the same ships and influenced the other branches of the Armed Forces to do the same.

Later, in 1944, the four Niland brothers from Tonawanda, New York seemed to be headed for a similar fate.  Two of the brothers were killed in the invasion on Normandy just a month after the third went M.I.A. and was presumed dead. Sergeant Fritz Niland was sent home to his family where he served the balance of the war as an MP. These two stories, along with the approaching fiftieth anniversary of D-Day, served as an inspiration for screenwriter Robert Rodat to develop his incredible World War II epic. With the support of Mutual Film Company’s Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn, Rodat spent the next year assembling what would become Saving Private Ryan.

The script quickly found its way into the hands of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks who had been looking for a project to work together on. Each man has had a lifelong fascination with the Second World War and Saving Private Ryan seemed a perfect fit for their first collaboration. But before production Spielberg asked his friend Frank Darabont to touch up the screenplay a bit.

Upon Spielberg’s request, Darabont helped develop the brief, eight page opening D-Day sequence into what Stephen Ambrose, one of the most highly respected WWII historians, has called “the most accurate and realistic depiction of war on screen that I have ever seen”. The film’s unique story, and Spielberg’s expertise in telling it, helped make Saving Private Ryan one of the most honored and respected films of the decade.  Audiences appropriately rewarded it and gave it a spot on the list of the highest grossing films of all time.

Budget: $70,000,000

Total US Gross: $216,335,085

Genre: War

Runtime: 170 Minutes

US Release Date: 7/24/98

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Awards:

Academy Awards: 
Won for best cinematography, sound effects, editing, sound, and director. 
Nominated for best art direction/set decoration, makeup, original score, actor, original screenplay, and picture.

Golden Globes: 
Won for best director and best dramatic picture.
Nominated for best original score, actor in a dramatic role, and screenplay.

Directors Guild of America: 
Won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. 

Writers Guild of America: 
Nominated for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

American Film Institute’s Top 100 Lists:
100 Years… 100 Thrills (#45)
100 Years… 100 Cheers (#10).

Tagline: The Mission Is A Man.

Quote: “You want to explain the math of this to me? I mean, where's the sense in risking the lives of the eight of us to save one guy?”