Saving Private Ryan Steven Spielberg

Concept

Producer Mark Gordon was a fan of writer Robert Rodat's previous work on films such as Tall Tale (1995) and Fly Away Home (1996). The pair met in early 1995 to discuss potential projects and ideas. Within a few weeks, Rodat conceived of Saving Private Ryan.[10][11] He was inspired by a gift from his wife, the historical book, D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (1994), by Stephen E. Ambrose, recounting the events of the Normandy landings. Rodat visited a monument in Keene, New Hampshire dedicated to American soldiers killed in combat; he noticed the losses included brothers. He said, "the idea of losing a son to war is painful beyond description ... the idea of losing more than one son is inconceivable".[10][11][12] The Ryan family was based on the four Niland brothers detailed in Ambrose's book, who were deployed during WWII; two were killed and a third presumed dead; per the Sole Survivor Policy, the fourth was returned from the war.[10][13][14]

Development

To develop Saving Private Ryan, Gordon founded the independent film studio, Mutual Film Company, alongside producer Gary Levinsohn.[10] Gordon brought Rodat's draft to Paramount Pictures executives; they responded positively and hired Rodat who wrote the script over the following 12 months.[10][11][15] Michael Bay was hired as director, but left the project because he could not resolve how to approach the material.[16][17] Carin Sage, a junior agent representing Tom Hanks at the Creative Artists Agency, gave the script to Hanks, who was immediately interested and met with Gordon and Levinsohn.[10][11][15] Hanks shared the script with Steven Spielberg who agreed to direct because the pair had wanted to work together for some time.[10][15] Rodat thought that Paramount would cancel the project after the studio purchased two other WWII-era scripts, Combat and With Wings as Eagles, with popular actors Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached, respectively.[10] However, having secured the involvement of Hanks and Spielberg, two of the highest-paid and most successful actors and directors, Gordon suggested Paramount executives prioritize Saving Private Ryan.[10]

Describing what interested him about the project, Spielberg said, "so what you're doing is sending eight people out, all of whom have parents, to rescue one boy and send him back to his mom when any or all of these kids, along the mission route, could be killed. That was the central tug that made me want to tell the story".[18] Spielberg had a lifelong interest in WWII, having made war films as a teenager because "it was the seminal conversation inside my family. My parents talked about the Holocaust and they talked about combat and war. And I was born knowing this. My dad was a veteran ... he had many veterans over to the house, and I became absolutely obsessed ... based on my father's stories, recollections, and also based on all the WWII movies".[14][19][20] He described the project as a tribute to his father.[21]

With Spielberg on board, DreamWorks Pictures, which he co-founded, became involved as a financier, and his company, Amblin Entertainment, as a production company.[11][22][23] Spielberg's clout effectively removed Gordon and Levinsohn from the production, having no creative input, equity, or rights, but receiving a producer's credit and one-off payment. Levinsohn said, "you just know going in what the score is ... I guess it's unspoken that when you hire [Spielberg] you're not going to be on the set making decisions".[10] DreamWorks hired Ian Bryce to replace them. In April 1997, Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount's parent company Viacom, had Spielberg flip a coin to determine the film's distribution rights. Spielberg won the toss, giving DreamWorks the favored North American distribution rights and Paramount the international rights. Earnings were held collectively and split evenly between the studios. In exchange, Paramount received the North American distribution rights to DreamWorks' Deep Impact (1998).[b] To keep the budget low, Spielberg and Hanks took minimal upfront salaries in exchange for a guaranteed 17.5% of the gross profits, equivalent to 35 cents of every dollar earned.[10][15]

Rewrite

Spielberg's initial concept for Saving Private Ryan was a Boys' Own-style adventure film in which the search for Ryan was a public relations effort by the war department. However, after interviewing WWII veterans for research he found this idea inappropriate, and decided to embed the story within a realistic portrayal of actual events, while portraying the conflicted morality of sending men into life-threatening situations to save one man.[c] He said, "I cannot tell you how many veterans came up to me ... and said: 'Please be honest about it. Please don't make another Hollywood movie about WWII. Please tell our stories ...'" The surviving Niland family was interviewed, and the story was further influenced by other substantial family war losses, including the five Sullivan brothers killed during WWII, and the Bixby brothers during the American Civil War; the resulting letter by Abraham Lincoln is quoted in the film.[14]

Spielberg described existing WWII films as "sanitized" and sentimentalized, focused on depicting honor and the glory of service in a manner that was "very safe and wholly untrue".[d] He wanted to present the courage of the soldiers in the face of "palpable terror, almost blind terror":[25]

I remember one of the [veterans] telling me the entire charge up the beach was a blur—not a blur to his memory, because he still remembered every single grain of sand when he had his face buried in it from that fusillade raining down on them from above. But he described how everything was not in focus for him. And he described the sounds, and he described the vibrations of every concussion of every 88 shell that hit the beach, which gave some of them bloody noses, rattled their ears. The ground would come up and slam into their faces from the concussions."[19][27]

Ambrose served as a historical consultant. He disliked glorified depictions of the Normandy landings that ignored the reality of soldiers slowly dying in mud and water, wanting "their mothers, they wanted morphine. It took a long time."[10][28][29] Spielberg believed the legacy of the Vietnam War had made his generation less interested in glorifying combat in film. Even so, he was influenced by early war films such as Battleground (1949), The Steel Helmet (1951), and Hell Is for Heroes (1962).[20]

Although Rodat's script came close to the ideal WWII project he had hoped for, he believed it had "a few problems".[30] He hired Frank Darabont and Scott Frank to perform uncredited script rewrites.[e] The scene begins as the second wave of soldiers arrive on Omaha beach (Darabont's suggestion),[26] so they would be walking into "Hell on Earth" instead of empty beaches.[34] Scott Frank performed rewrites based on transcriptions of Spielberg's recorded ideas and two folders of historical facts about the Normandy landings; these gave Frank ideas but he found it difficult to parse the reality of events into original ideas.[35]

The Normandy cemetery scene was based on Spielberg's own experience visiting the area as a youth; he witnessed a family accompanying a man who fell to his knees and began to cry at a grave marker.[14]

Casting

Spielberg wanted older actors for his main cast, claiming that young soldiers would look older than their age under the stresses of war.[18] Miller is the "adult in the story," intended to project a calmness and feeling of safety that is undermined by the character's uncontrollable hand shaking.[19] Spielberg wanted Hanks to play Miller because he was the only actor he thought of who would not "want to use his teeth to pull out a pin from a hand grenade".[18] Hanks formed Miller's character based on the history of the 2nd Ranger Battalion prior to Omaha beach, saying he believed Miller was "horribly afraid" of getting more of his men killed.[19] Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford were considered for the role.[36] Miller's detachment is a diverse group, including a Jew and Italian, reminiscent of earlier WWII films; this was not a deliberate choice, although Spielberg believed he had subconsciously drawn on conventional WWII films.[37] Burns described Reiben as a "wise guy" in the script, but the experience of filming the Omaha Beach landing inspired him to give the character a "much harder edge".[25] Sizemore was cast in The Thin Red Line (1998) when Spielberg offered him an alternative role as Horvath, Miller's friend and confidant.[19][37] The actor had a history of drug addiction, and Spielberg mandated that he pass regular drug tests to keep his part, or the role would be recast and his scenes re-shot.[38][13] Describing his character, Sizemore said, "he was a quiet man; he was taciturn; he followed orders, and he loved the captain ... if he had a tragic flaw, it was that he didn't know when he had had enough, when it was time to say, 'I can't do this anymore.'"[39]

Diesel was cast after Spielberg saw his self-starring directorial efforts, Multi-Facial (1995) and Strays (1997). The actor was working as a telemarketer at the time, having struggled to secure acting jobs.[19] Goldberg's role did not exist in the script until his casting.[19] Spielberg wanted a relatively unknown actor to portray private Ryan. Spielberg visited the set of Good Will Hunting (1997), and Robin Williams introduced him to Damon. Spielberg cast him shortly after, believing he possessed a "great American everyboy look," unaware that Good Will Hunting's success would significantly raise Damon's profile.[f] Neil Patrick Harris was considered for the role, and Edward Norton turned it down for American History X (1998).[36][40][41] Pete Postlethwaite, Tony Shalhoub, and Garth Brooks were considered for unspecified roles.[42][43][44]

At Hanks's and Dye's suggestion, Spielberg had the principal cast take part in a six-day boot camp, wanting them to experience cold, wet, and exhaustive conditions, like those of WWII soldiers.[g] Overseen by Dye and retired U.S. marines, the actors remained in character while simulating attacks, performing five-mile runs with full backpacks, weapons training, military exercises, and push-ups after making mistakes, on three hours of sleep per night in cold and rainy conditions.[12][13][18] The men wanted to quit, but Hanks convinced them otherwise, saying they would regret not following through and the experience would help them understand their characters and motivations.[25][28] Diesel said, "at that moment we got this huge respect for him in real life, we were all exhausted, we all wanted to leave and here was this guy who was a superstar, who doesn't have to be here, voting to stay".[34] Dye was present throughout filming to remind the actors of their training.[25] Spielberg kept Damon out of the boot camp, because he wanted the other actors to resent him and his character.[5][6]

Pre-production

The pre-production for Saving Private Ryan was truncated because Spielberg chose to film Amistad (1997) immediately after finishing work on The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński spent several weeks performing camera tests to define the film's visual aesthetic. The pair considered filming monochromatically as Spielberg had with his Holocaust film, Schindler's List (1993). However, they considered this would seem "pretentious," and were interested in emulating the colored WWII footage from their research. Kamiński let his interpretation of the narrative dictate how to light scenes and narrowed down visual styles by identifying which films he did not want Saving Private Ryan to emulate.[12] He and Spielberg were visually influenced by WWII documentaries, such as Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1941), The Battle of Midway (1942), Why We Fight (1942–1945), and the Nazi propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl. They also looked at various books, paintings, and photographs of the Omaha Beach invasion taken by famed war photographer Robert Capa.[20] Kamiński wanted it look like a major production "shot on [16 mm film] by a bunch of combat cameramen".[12]

A variety of camera techniques were used to emulate the experience of being on a battlefield: Kamiński removed the protective coating on some lenses, creating a "flatter", degraded image akin to WWII-era cameras, and mismatched lenses when using multiple cameras for an inconsistent result; alternating shutter angles and speeds; and desynchronizing the camera shutter which created a "streaking" effect. Kamiński considered this a risky option because if it failed there was no way to fix the image in post-production.[20][12][27] A Clairmont Camera Image Shaker vibrated the camera to emulate the effects of a nearby explosion or rolling tank.[12] Spielberg chose to film in 1.85:1 aspect ratio because he believed it was more lifelike and closer to "the way the human eye really sees," and found widescreen formats to be artificial.[20]

Three months were spent scouting for a location to portray the Normandy coast. The real location was too developed for their needs, and many other French beaches were restricted by military or wildlife use; Spielberg believed officials were difficult because they did not want him filming there.[12][13][25] Beaches researched in England and Scotland lacked either the aesthetics or amenities required, such as housing for the crew, and the filmmakers needed a specific depth for the cast to leap from the landing crafts into the water.[25] Associate producer, Kevin De La Noy's earlier work on Braveheart (1995) in Ireland had developed contacts with the Irish Army and knowledge of local beaches. One such location, the 11 km (6.8 mi) long Curracloe Beach, near Curracloe, County Wexford, offered the desired golden sands and sheer cliffs and nearby amenities.[h] Spielberg selected a 1 km (0.62 mi) segment of the beach, known as Ballinesker.[46][45][47] He said, "I was a bit disappointed that the beach we used wasn't as broad as the real Omaha Beach ... I tried to use certain wide-angle lenses to extend the length of the flats on the sandy beach before the soldiers reach the shingle. I used wider lenses for geography and tighter lenses for the compression of action.[20] A segment adjacent to Blackwater, also in Wexford, was considered, but the local nuns could not make the land available in time.[45] Service roads were built for vehicles to reach Ballinesker.[45][47] Production designer, Thomas E. Sanders, led construction of the concrete battlements, bunkers, Czech hedgehogs, and barbed wire, much of which was made by local metalworkers.[45][47][12] Over eleven weeks were spent preparing Ballinesker for filming.[47] A storm destroyed some of the props just before filming, but they were rebuilt overnight.[25] The main crew arrived on location on June 25, 1997.[45]

Filming in Ireland

Principal photography began on June 27, 1997.[48][49] Filming completed up to 50 shots per day. Spielberg wanted the actors to get little rest, "A war is fought fast, and I really wanted to keep all of the actors off-balance. I didn't want them to be able to read 75 pages of a novel ... I wanted to work fast enough so that they always felt as if they were in combat ... I had to keep them on the set, which meant shooting the film even faster than I normally do. War doesn't give you a break."[14][20] Saving Private Ryan was shot almost entirely in continuity order, although some of the crew found this "a mentally demoralizing experience" because the cast started together and left as their characters died.[18][14][20]

The Omaha Beach battle was filmed over three to four weeks, at a cost of $12 million.[i] The scene involved about 1,500 people including 400 crew, 1,000 volunteer reserve and Irish army soldiers, and dozens of extras and about 30 amputees and paraplegics fitted with prosthetic limbs to portray disfigured soldiers.[j] Their numbers were supplemented with over one thousand detailed mannequins.[47] The extras were divided into platoons with a designated leader, allowing Dye to control their action via four different radios with aid from three non-commissioned officers.[25] Costume designer Joanna Johnston contracted an American company responsible for making boots for soldiers during WWII to create about 2,000 pairs, using the last batch of dye from that period.[25][12] Soldiers in the ocean wore wet suits beneath their uniforms to minimize hypothermia.[47][46] Armorer Simon Atherton was responsible for supplying authentic weapons.[12]

Two Higgins Boats used in the landings were used in the scene; additional boats from the 1950s were brought from California, Donegal, and Southampton.[12][47] Hanks recalled:

The first day of shooting ... 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. The air literally went pink and the noise was deafening and there's bits and pieces of stuff falling all on top of you and it was horrifying."[28]

Soldiers vomiting from the boats was achieved using milk of magnesia.[36] A crane shot moving from beneath the ocean surface to above the battlefield was achieved by placing the crane on a flatbed trailer and reversing it into the sea.[47]

The Omaha Beach sequence was extensively choreographed by stunt coordinator Simon Crane, with squibs and explosives managed by Neil Corbould. The only serious accident resulted when an extra's foot was run over by a car.[12][25] Thousands of gallons of fake blood were used, mainly to turn the ocean and shoreline red.[47][38] Based on his interviews with veterans, Spielberg had dead fish strewn in the water and around the battlefield, as well as floating a Bible on the surface.[25] Bullet impacts were emulated using air pipes concealed beneath the sand and ocean surface.[46] Drums of diesel fuel were burned to create black smoke, while a series of pickup trucks carried systems to disperse white smoke.[12]

During filming, the weather was cold, rainy, and overcast; Kamiński said this matched the weather during the Normandy landings, enhancing the film's accuracy.[20][12] Artificial light was used sparingly apart from on the boats to highlight the actors' eyes under their helmets.[12] Spielberg had the camera stay close to the ground to appear as if it was the view of a soldier avoiding getting shot or a combat cameraman. He intended for the audience to feel like they were a part of the battle rather than watching.[14][18] Most of Saving Private Ryan was filmed with handheld cameras. This was physically demanding on camera operator Mitch Dubin and steadicam operator Chris Haarhoff due to both proximity to the ground and movement through exploding scenery. The camera was close enough that fake blood, water, and sand would stick to the camera lens, but the filmmakers believed this made the footage more authentic.[12][20]

Kamiński considered the extensive setup of explosives, smoke, and choreography of over a thousand characters to be demanding as it could take half a day to reset if something went wrong, but the majority of scenes in the sequence were captured in less than four takes, using up to three cameras simultaneously. Spielberg said, "I rarely walked away from a scene until I got what I wanted, and I'd say that I got what I wanted from those complex setups about 80 percent of the time."[12][20] He reviewed each day's footage nightly in a local parish hall.[7][47] The production crew remained after filming to restore the beach to its original state over the following month, per an ecological protection order.[45][47][12]

Filming in England and France

Filming relocated to the Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, England, at the end of August, for the remaining scenes and the battle of Ramelle.[k] French towns and rivers were scouted where a partial set could be built, but this was discarded over environmental concerns of filming contaminating the water. Instead, Sanders and his team built the fictional Ramelle on the grounds of the Aerodrome, based on five towns where fighting took place. Nearly three city blocks long, the set included fully built buildings, facades, and a custom built, 900 ft (270 m) long river. The river was lined because they "had to control the height of the water very carefully". Explosives were used to create bomb craters and damage around Ramelle.[l]

Though the battle involved fewer extras than the Omaha Beach scene, several weeks were spent developing the complex choreography based on a battle plan devised by Dye.[25] Spielberg did not storyboard Saving Private Ryan because he wanted to position the camera spontaneously in reaction to what was taking place in each scene and he often relied on Dye and other WWII consultants for advice on staging the combat scenes.[52][20] Dale also advised on technical aspects of weapons; where Spielberg wanted to use larger explosions typically found in Hollywood action films, Dye would generally advise him to "go half that size, they were never that big".[20] The production was estimated to have spent about £8 million in the local area.[50]

Spielberg's spontaneous approach carried into other aspects; about halfway through filming, he decided to depict the remainder of the film from Upham's perspective, believing he represented the audience's inexperience of war.[19] Goldberg's character was only going to be shot dead until Dye suggested a hand-to-hand combat sequence on the day of filming, leading Mellish to be stabbed through the heart.[19] A separate scene of Ryan talking about his brothers was ad-libbed by Damon.[36]

The German machine-gun nest and following ambush of a half-track vehicle were filmed on the grounds of Thame Park, Thame, in Oxfordshire; the chapel interior where Miller's men rest was filmed in the Thame Park chapel.[53] The Iowa cornfields where Ryan's mother lives in a house built for filming was set near West Kennet, Wiltshire.[54] The American war office was filmed in the Hatfield Aerodrome, Hertfordshire. Kamiński wanted scenes in America to be more colorful and a relief from the muted tones of the combat scenes, so he positioned very bright lighting outside the windows.[12][50][7] Scenes featuring the elderly Ryan were filmed at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, adjacent to Omaha beach.[55]

Filming concluded ahead of schedule on September 13, 1997, after 12 weeks, with the French church interior scenes.[m] The estimated total budget was $65–$70 million.[n][o]

Post-production

Kamiński chose to render his footage using Technicolor's proprietary ENR process (similar to a bleach bypass) which retained more silver in the film stock and produced deeper blacks. He used "70 percent ENR" for a desaturated image which added a blue hue. Concerned this change would make the fake blood appear inauthentic, the effects department mixed blue coloring into it, giving it a dark red appearance.[12] Visual-effects studio Industrial Light & Magic provided digital enhancements; many bullet wounds and blood splatter were computer-generated imagery.[26]

Michael Kahn edited the final 170-minute cut.[p] Spielberg said that Kahn's style was intended to defy audience expectations and not make every scene or transition clear.[20] Some scenes were cut because of their graphic imagery, such as Miller's unit encounter with burnt out tanks with charred bodies. Mellish's death was also trimmed, removing parts where the character screams in pain, after Spielberg's projectionist said "It's too painful to watch."[19][26]

Spielberg said his movie had to be "ugly", but was worried the violent content could be seen as exploitative and earn it a restrictive NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, restricting it to audiences over 17 years of age.[27] He anticipated that the "historical importance" of the content would be taken into consideration; it received an R rating, meaning children could watch when accompanied by an adult.[15][27]

Music

Long-time Spielberg collaborator, composer John Williams produced the score.[59][60] Spielberg chose little music accompaniment, wanting the sounds of battle and death to be prominent. Using a spotting process, he and Williams watched a rough cut of the film to agree on which scenes would feature music.[60][61] Williams deliberately avoided "anything grandiose or operatic".[60] Williams recorded the 55-minute score over three days at Symphony Hall in Boston, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and vocals by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.[61][60][62] The recording cost about $100,000 per hour.[60] Spielberg chose the Orchestra: "This is a movie about a company of soldiers, and it seemed appropriate to use an experienced company of musicians who are all virtuosos. Also we really wanted the sound of this room, Symphony Hall. On a soundstage you can get acoustically correct sound, but you don't hear the air. Here you get a rich, warm sound off the walls and ceiling, and you do hear the air; Symphony Hall is an instrument too."[60]