Saving Private Ryanhas often been praised for its historical accuracy, with some experts, historians and veterans marveling at the realistic combat. Steven Spielberg’sSaving Private Ryanis one of thebest war movies ever made, as well as one of the most authentic. Many war movies are judged based on how accurately they can recreate their chosen conflicts, meaning that each scene will be picked apart by historians and veterans who were actually there on the battlefield. Too many erroneous details can ruin a war movie, butSaving Private Ryanconsistently scores high marks for accuracy.
Saving Private Ryantakes place during the Second World War, as a group of Americans are sent on a mission to rescue a fellow soldier from behind enemy lines.Saving Private Ryanhas a great cast, with Tom Hanks in fine form as he leads an ensemble that includes many young stars who went on to achieve great things. The cast and the tightly-written script mean thatSaving Private Ryancan tell a fascinating story in its more quiet moments, but it will always be most famous for its explosive battle scenes, as Steven Spielberg showcased his mastery of cinematic spectacle once again.
Saving Private Ryan’s Combat Is Painstakingly Accurate To Real History
Spielberg And The Crew Paid Attention To Every Detail
Saving Private Ryan’s combat scenes have been praisedby many historians. Spielberg and his team went to great lengths to ensure they were presenting the key battles in the movie as accurately as possible, focusing on period-appropriate uniforms, gear, formations, tactics and more.Saving Private Ryanalso understands the psychology of war better than most other movies, and it demythologizes the soldiers to show that they were just ordinary people required to do extraordinary things, not badass superhuman heroes like some other Hollywood movies suggest.
Saving Private Ryanwon five Oscars, but it surprisingly lost Best Picture toShakespeare in Love.
One scene that illustrates the way that Spielberg places his audience on the battlefield is the famous D-Day landing sequence.Spielberg uses lots of handheld camera angles and close-ups, refusing to pull too far back to show the scale of the battle. Instead, the director takes his audience on a steady crawl up the beach toward the German artillery, while violent chaos erupts all around. There are many harrowing moments, like when Captain Miller stumbles and experiences acoustic trauma, or when he witnesses a man picking his own severed arm up off of the sand. These jaw-dropping moments are drawn from real life.
Saving Private Ryan’s battles are so immersive and lifelike that some veterans had PTSD flashbacks when watching it in theaters. (viaWar History Online) The Departmen of Veteran Affairs had to increase staffing on its telephone counseling helplines in the first few weeks of the movie’s release, since there was a sharp uptick in the number of calls they were receiving.101st Airborne Division member Dick Winters wrote in the LA Times that he urged as many people as possible to see the movie, because it was the best way to understand what he and his fellow soldiers went through.
Saving Private Ryan Wouldn’t Work As A Movie If It Wasn’t Authentic To Reality
Saving Private Ryan’s Realism Makes It A Classic
Spielberg and Hanks continued to explore the Second World War with their TV shows,Band of Brothers, The PacificandMasters of the Air.Just like withSaving Private Ryan,historical accuracy is key to these projects. These series wouldn’t be so compelling if they weren’t so authentic, and neither wouldSaving Private Ryan.It’s gone down in history as a war classic because it offers audiences a chance to peer back through historyand witness the astonishing conditions of the conflict like never before.
Spielberg has always been a master of big-screen fireworks, with blockbusters likeJaws, Raiders of the Lost ArkandJurassic Parkshowing that he’s one of Hollywood’s great entertainers. But movies about the Second World War should aspire to more than simple entertainment. Spieberg showed that he took this responsibility seriously withSchindler’s List,andSaving Private Ryanis just as meticulously researched. It remains one of the most powerful war movies of all time, and a fitting tribute to the people who sacrificed everything in World War II.
