Saving Private Ryan Trivia

[Fogdude]

I ran across a link posted on FaceBook this morning that seemed quite interesting. I know the movie is old, but it was a serious blockbuster in its day & is still the predominantly iconic movie of its genre.

The original article is Here. The title starts with "30 Unbelievable..."... well, I don't know how unbelievable they are, but they were interesting, so I've included their text below: (my comments in green)

1/30) Matt Damon was the only actor who didn't have to go through the grueling army training before filming. Damon was spared so that the other actors would resent him and show it in their performances.

I really don't see mature, professional actors becoming resentful over this, but what do I know?

2/30) For the opening scene on Omaha beach, they had to use over 40 barrels of fake blood to create the gruesome battle.

3/30) One of the actors in the German-dubbed version of the movie was actually a German veteran from the invasion of Normandy. He had to drop out because of the emotional realism of the movie.

4/30) Neil Patrick Harris was considered for the role of Private Ryan.

Any actor with a boyish face would have sufficed.

5/30) Before Tom Hanks was cast as Captain John Miller, Spielberg considered Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford for the lead role.

Any of these guys would have been fine in this role.

6/30) Tom Sizemore was battling a drug addiction during the filming of the movie. Spielberg gave him an ultimatum where he would be blood tested every single day and if he failed it even once, he would be re-cast and his scenes would be reshot, even if they were as far as the end of the production.

It's never been a secret that Tom Sizemore is a junkie & an alky. What's surprising is that Spielberg even gave him the chance, but even more amazing is that Sizemore actually summoned up the fortitude to hold up his part of the bargain.

7/30) When Matt Damon was cast as Private Ryan, it was because Spielberg wanted a relatively unknown actor at the time. This backfired when Good Will Hunting made Damon an overnight star shortly before this movie was released.

8/30) Movie theaters were specifically instructed to raise the volume when showing the movie, as sound effects played a crucial aspect to the experience of the movie.

An old trick.

9/30) Billy Bob Thornton was offered the role of Sergeant Horvath, but declined because he didn't want to film the Omaha beach scenes since he has a big phobia of water.

Never knew this about Billy Bob.

10/30) Gunfire sound effects heard in the film were recorded from actual gunfire with live ammunition fired from authentic period weapons, recorded at a live fire machine gun range.

I remember being especially impressed at the authentic sound of the gunfire. I assumed they simply used stock audio, but this worked well.

11/30) In anticipation of the hundreds of former soldiers who might be traumatized after viewing the movie, The Department of Veterans Affairs set up a special 800 number to offer support.

I'll bet that worked out well.

12/30) Edward Norton was offered the role of Private Ryan, but opted to star in American History X instead.

Not a good choice, if you ask me. Good thing he went with X.

13/30) On top of the incredibly tough exercises, the actors' boot camp involved camping in soaking wet conditions, only being allowed to call each other by their characters' names, and having the boot camp supervisor constantly refer to them as 'turds'.

I hope it was a good, long boot camp.

14/30) The Omaha Beach battle was filmed in sequence over a four-week period, moving the action up the beach shot by shot and day by day. Steven Spielberg claims that none of it was storyboarded in advance.

That's a surprise. It was certainly effective.

15/30) On top of being the highest grossing movie of 1998, it was last R-Rated movie to lead the annual box office charts until the release of American Sniper in 2014.

16/30) When Tom Hanks' character, John Miller, tells the rest of the unit what he does for a living back home, Hanks' speech was actually much longer in the original script. But Hanks felt that his character wouldn't have said so much about himself, and he told Steven Spielberg so. Spielberg agreed, and the speech was shortened.

Good decision. I thought it was just right.

17/30) The Omaha Beach scene cost $11 million to shoot and involved up to 1,000 extras, some of whom were members of the Irish Army Reserve. Of those extras, 20-30 of them were amputees issued with prosthetic limbs to simulate soldiers having their limbs blown off.

When seeing these scenes, I had assumed amputees were doing those sequences. How else you gonna explain it?

18/30) When the camera shakes during explosions, it was because Steven Spielberg used drills attached to the side of the camera, which were turned on when shaking was required. While shooting with this effect, the crew's photographer let Spielberg know that there was a shaker lens for cameras. Spielberg said in an interview that he was bummed, and thought he had invented a great new technique at first.

Just goes to show that while directors are convinced they know everything... they don't.

19/30) Two of the landing craft used in the Omaha Beach scenes were actually in use in World War II.

No great surprise here. The US is still flying 50+ year old aircraft they have to cannibalize parts of others from to keep repaired.

20/30) For the initial battle scenes in the sea, spare ammunition carried by the actors was made from wood, as metal was too heavy.

Now, that's just cheating. If they'd really wanted authenticity, the actors should have been loaded the way the soldiers were. Frankly, I was surprised at how much ammo they seemed to have been issued.

21/30) Military historian and author Stephen Ambrose, at a special screening of the film for him, had to ask for the screening to be halted 20 minutes in, as he couldn't handle the intensity of the opening. After composing himself outside for a few minutes, he was able to return to the screening room and watch the film to its conclusion.

22/30) Spielberg requested that nobody be allowed entrance into the movie after it had already begun showing.

23/30) Steven Spielberg claimed that he considered the film as a gift to his aging father, a WWII veteran. He said he didn't think a World War II movie with lots of graphic violence could be a smash hit, and was surprised when it became a blockbuster.

24/30) Interestingly enough, Paul Giamatti says "The streets have been quiet for about 45 minutes" around the 45-minute mark in the movie.

25/30) Some people complained that the scene where the Rangers are throwing mortar rounds by hand at the German soldiers was unrealistic. It was then revealed that Charles Kelly, who received the Medal of Honor, actually did this during a battle in Italy in 1943.

I thought this was ingenious & didn't see it as unrealistic at all.

26/30) Spielberg received praise for the movie's authenticity. Actor James Doohan, who appeared in Star Trek, was especially kind. Doohan lost the middle finger of his right hand and was wounded in the leg during the war. Also, he participated in the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, at Juno Beach, where the 3rd Canadian infantry division led the attack. He commended Spielberg for not leaving out any gory details.

I had no idea Doohan was that old. I also never once noticed he had a missing finger after all those years of watching Star Trek.

27/30) In India, the film was blocked by the Censor Board of India for too much violence. They demanded cuts that Steven Spielberg declined to make and instead, he decided not to release the movie in India at all. The Home Minister of India saw the movie himself and, impressed, ordered it to be released uncut.

Better late than never.

28/30) The two "German" soldiers who are shot trying to surrender were speaking Czech. They were saying, "Please don't shoot me, I am not German, I am Czech, I didn't kill anyone, I am Czech!". Many Czech and Polish citizens were forced into the German military when their countries were taken over.

I had noticed this & it never confused me at all.

29/30) When using the field radio on the beach, Capt. Miller keeps saying 'CATF' into the radio, meaning he is calling the Commander: Amphibious Task Force.

30/30) Matt Damon ad-libbed the story he tells, towards the end of the film, about spying on his brother in the barn with the ugly girl. The speech was rambling and not particularly funny or interesting, but the crew decided that's why it worked; it was true to an unformed kid like Ryan, fated to be at the center of this incredible operation. Steven Spielberg liked it so much he decided to leave it in the film.

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[chouette]

Very interesting post Fog! I've seen the movie way back then, but remember very little of it. The cast was certainly amazing to say the least! When I saw the title, I immediately thought of Tom Hanks, but the rest of the cast was pretty impressive also.

Thanks for those comments, they amused me...

[VincentLupo]

It was a good movie but not that memorable.

[Fogdude]

It was a good movie but not that memorable.

I have to go out on a limb & guess you weren't a military man? No offense intended.

[VincentLupo]

Nope. Not a military man. I do, for the most part, like military movies though. There really are not very many films that do stick with me. I seem to just watch them and then that's it. They just don't sink in enough for me to remember dialogue or to even try and tell the story to someone else. All I get is weather or not I liked it. I remember Private Ryan being good but I don't remember any of the things in this trivia. That was all I was trying to say.

[Fogdude]

I understand. I wasn't criticizing. It just seemed you didn't have much interest because you hadn't ever been personally involved at that level. Even those who never see action still have a deeper appreciation for those who have. Even if the only gunfire you've ever experienced is the stuff they fired over your head as you scrambled beneath barbed wire in mud & sand, as part of your basic training, the sound of it sticks in your mind. The grenades being set off, just as you crawl past the buried 50 gallon drum, that raise your whole body 3 inches off the ground, make a lasting impression. When you see the kind of realism portrayed in this film & compare it to most others that simply show a little blood spatter, you get a deeper feeling for what the men on those beaches went through.

The opening sequences of this film are the most realistic I have ever seen in any war movie. They made an impression on me.

[chouette]

Ah Vince, finally someone like me. I can totally relate to what you wrote, I'm the very same. It doesn't matter how much I like or hate a movie, give me a few months and I won't remember most of what happened in it. But... I will always remember who played in it.

And that ladies and gentlemen is why I suck at "Name that Movie" without cheating because if I forgot what happened, there is very little chance I will remember anything specific that was said in it.

[Pip]

A couple more for you.

In 2006 Tom Hanks was inducted into the US Army's Ranger Hall of Fame as an honorary member, largely thanks to his portrayal of Capt. John Miller.

The actors all had to undergo an intensive pre-shoot six-day boot camp during which all but one of them voted to quit, as they found it too arduous. The one dissenting voice was Tom Hanks, who thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Naturally, his vote counted the most, so the rest of the actors were obligated to complete their training.
Tom Hanks, who had previously been trained by Dye for the Vietnam war scenes in Forrest Gump (1994), was the only one of them who knew it would be a hard and uncompromising experience: "The other guys, I think, were expecting something like camping in the woods, and maybe learning things while sitting around the campfire."

This is the last film edited on a non-digital editing system to win an Academy Award for editing.

Cap. Dale Dye (USMC Ret.), the film's military advisor, makes an appearance as a War Department colonel in the scene with Gen. George C. Marshall. He is the white-haired officer advising Marshall against sending a rescue party after Ryan.

The role of Caparzo was written just for Vin Diesel after director Steven Spielberg saw Diesel's independent film Strays (1997), which was also his directorial, writing, producing and lead acting debut.

Although Steven Spielberg reduced the color saturation of the movie by 60% for artistic reasons, both major American satellite providers (DirecTV and Dish Newtork) and numerous cable TV providers turned up the chroma gain to re-enhance the color saturation to normal-looking levels when broadcasting the movie. They did this because on the first day or two of the movie's broadcast run, their customer service centers were swamped with calls from viewers complaining that something was wrong with the color.

Inspired by the true story of the Niland brothers. Sgt. Frederick "Fritz" Niland was in the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. Band of Brothers (2001), produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, told the story of another 101st Airborne unit, Easy Company of the 506th PIR, whose member Sgt. Warren "Skip" Muck was best friends with Niland back home in Tonawanda, New York.

The input of Industrial Light & Magic was significantly downplayed so as not to make the film appear to be a special effects movie. ILM's contribution, however, was subtle but highly necessary, as most of the bullet hits in the Omaha Beach attack were digitally created.

The scene with Tom Sizemore collecting dirt is based on fact. Many WWII soldiers would do this as a way to show where they served in combat from North Africa to Kadina. Today, troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan are specifically told not to collect dirt on account that they could bring back foreign species.

The names Rieben reads off the dog tags are all friends of actor Edward Burns.

The siege in the village of Ramelle was filmed on a set created on a disused airfield in Hatfield, England. The bridge so valiantly defended actually crosses a three foot deep canal created for the movie. Earlier scenes in the village of Neuville-au-Plain used the same set carefully shot from different angles.

Originally, Steven Spielberg envisaged the film as being like a Boy's Own adventure. However, after he started interviewing WWII vets, he realized that such a treatment would be wholly inappropriate.

Steven Spielberg personally held and operated the camera for many shots during the Omaha beach battle.

Writer Robert Rodat first came up with the film's story in 1994, when he saw a monument dedicated to four sons of Agnes Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania. The brothers were killed in the American Civil War. Rodat decided to write a similar story set during World War II. The script was submitted to producer Mark Gordon, who then handed it to Tom Hanks. It was finally given to Steven Spielberg, who decided to direct. The film's premise is very loosely based on the real-life case of the Niland brothers.

The first DreamWorks film to cross the $100-million mark.

Upham's shoulder patch, a blue and grey "yin yang" symbol, identifies him as a member of the 29th US infantry division. It symbolizes the fact that the division was composed of units from Virginia and Maryland, who fought on both sides of the American Civil War.

Just after the scene where Capt. Miller "recruits" Upham for the mission, there is a short scene that shows the motor pool. For a few brief seconds, a jeep with a small trailer rolls by. If you look carefully, you can see that the jeep and trailer contain Miller and his men. The next scene shows Miller and the others walking through a meadow on foot with no vehicle in sight. This is due to the fact that the scene which shows how Miller and the men lose the jeep was deleted from the final cut. Later in the film, Miller mentions something about losing "most of their ammo." This occurred when they lost the jeep.

There is a close-up of a map in a scene where Capt. Miller's hand is holding a compass and shaking. The map used as a prop is an actual map issued to members of the 82nd Airborne, and possibly other units. It is identified as "SHEET6E/5," identical to a map handed down by a survivor of the invasion.

[Fogdude]

Thanks for those additions, Pip. They're great & better than what I used to start this topic. I hope we'll see even more. Though some weren't impressed by it, I've always seen it as iconic of it's genre. Not to belittle the many others that contributed to the mix, too numerous to name.

[Pip]

Actually all mine and yours are from IMDB. I think whoever made the Facebook list sourced IMDB for it.

[ctaulbee]

I'm not exactly like Vince lol, I generally remember quite a bit of the details in films whether I like them or not both make impressions lmao.

That said I find most of what many consider a "bonus" the special features on DVD & Blu-rays to be a complete waste of time and space, even on films I really like and have seen many times, I can still count the number of SF discs I have ever put in a player on one hand, it really has no appeal whatsoever to me, I do however like to view the deleted scenes on films, ones I'm really I'm fond of, just to see what was left out but other than that I really have no interest in the interviews, making of or god forbid the damn commentaries throughout the entire film.

So as rule "movie trivia" is in the same category as SF's or Bonus Extras for me... not to say I'm trivia immune obviously not I just mean as far as visiting trivia sites or sites that specialize in "lists" for the exact purpose of absorbing more of it, I have to say NO interest lol, I do pickup things from reviews and other sources like that, incidental trivia if you will.

[bankska22]

Fantastic film. However, I'm a Navy guy. I respect the other branches but would like to see a Naval story. Perhaps a Midway story. Would be nice. Lots of heroes on the water 2!!!