Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ most recent collaboration, Bridge of Spies, opens in theaters today and tells the story of a lawyer tasked with negotiating the return of an American pilot imprisoned by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. This marks the pair’s sixth time working together, either as director and actor or co-producers, on projects like Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, and Band of Brothers.
Hanks and Spielberg first collaborated on Saving Private Ryan. The film assembled an ensemble cast that included Matt Damon, Vin Diesel, Ed Burns, Tom Sizemore, and Barry Pepper, just to name a few. It tells the story of a group of World War II soldiers assigned to retrieve Private Ryan (Damon) back home after all three of his brothers had been killed in action.
While many have come to love the film over the years, there’s still plenty the casual fan doesn’t know. So, here’s a list of interesting facts about Saving Private Ryan.
France? Ireland? Same Thing
Omaha Beach, where the Allied Forces invaded Normandy, had pretty strict restrictions on filming. It wouldn’t be a historical monument if everyone could do whatever they wanted. Because of this, the Invasion of Normandy at the start of the film was actually shot on a beach in Ireland. According to the book, Battleground — The Making of Saving Private Ryan in Ireland, the specific location—Curracloe Beach—was selected after some trouble with scheduling, a pint to hash things out, and the suggestion that associate producer Kevin de la Noy spend the night and witness an Irish sunrise. Other machinations were obviously involved, but it’s nice to think that such simple things played some part.
Robin Williams Helped Cast Matt Damon As Private Ryan
Robin Williams touched many people’s lives throughout his career, including actions behind the scenes that many people don’t even know about. For example, he’s responsible for introducing Matt Damon to Spielberg in the first place. Spielberg originally thought Damon was too skinny for the role after watching his slimmed-down performance in Courage Under Fire, but his meet-up with the actor revealed Damon’s healthier frame.
It (Kind Of) Actually Happened
A mother losing three of her four sons in combat is tragic enough when it’s fictional. But when you learn that this occurred in real life with the Niland Family or Tonawanda, New York, it’s even more heartbreaking. Robert, Preston and Edward Niland were all presumed dead and their brother Fritz was sent back to the U.S. to save their loved ones the grief of losing all four brothers. Fortunately, Edward was later found to be alive, but was not-so-fortunately a prisoner of war for a year before being returned home.
Everyone Went To Boot Camp, Except For Matt Damon
To connect with their characters, the cast of Saving Private Ryan went through a 10-day long boot camp overseen by retired U.S. Marines before the film was shot. To go the extra mile – or do the exact opposite – Matt Damon was left out of boot camp so that the cast, much like their characters, could be legitimately pissed at him. The cast was required to simulate Nazi attacks, do push-ups whenever they made a mistake, and always remain in character.
It Was A Little Too Realistic
Saving Private Ryan is probably best known for its accurate depiction of what war was like between 1939 and 1945; especially in the first 27 minutes that depict the extreme violence that occurred on D-Day. It was so much that a lot of WWII veterans walked out of the theater because it brought back long-forgotten memories of what they experienced.
Staying On The Wagon
Tom Sizemore’s battle with addiction was well-known even back in 1998. Mindful of that battle, Spielberg made a deal with him: He could be a part of Saving Private Ryan as Sergeant Mike Horvath if he didn’t fail a single drug test. But if he ever tested positive, even on the last day of shooting, he’d kick him off the project and re-shoot all of his scenes with another actor. Luckily, Sizemore made it through the entire project and delivered one of the more memorable performances in the film.
An Impossible Shot
The accuracy of the shots that Bible-quoting Private Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper) made are awe-inspiring, specifically his ability to shoot an enemy sniper through his scope from about 400 yards away. But was that shot even possible? There has been some debate. An American sniper named Carlos Hatchcock, who was known as “White Feather,” shot an enemy (known as “The Cobra”) though the lens of his scope during the Vietnam War, and MythBusters confirmed that a sniper rifle from that era would be vulnerable to that kind of miraculous shot. Modern sniper rifles, though? Apparently, the glass would mess with the bullet’s path and render a scope shot little more than an impressive trick shot that would rob the target of their long-range sight, but not their life. And if a Vietnam-era rifle didn’t offer protection against that shot, it seems likely that a World War II rifle wouldn’t, either, making Private Jackson’s shot feasible.
