Saving Private Ryan - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[jesus]

The beach in which the Omaha scene is shot is in the south of Ireland, called Curracloe.

[jamie]

Aside from all the intensive exercises, the actors' boot camp involved camping in soaking wet conditions, only being allowed to call each other by their characters' names and boot camp supervisor Dale Dye referring to them all as "turds".

[leo]

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.

[kyle]

The input of Industrial Light & Magic was significantly downplayed so as not to make the film appear to be a visual 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.

[bernice]

Giovanni Ribisi and Adam Goldberg both played secondary characters in the sitcom 'Friends'. Ribisi played Phoebes younger brother Frank Jr and Goldberg played Chandlers unstable roommate Eddie.

[kristina]

The Battle of Ramelle at the end of the film was based on a battle that actually took place 3 days after the Normandy Invasion on June 9th, 1944. The intense battle between the 82nd and 101st US Airborne Divisions and 1057th Panzergrenadier Regiment of the German 91st Division approaching from the west happened at the La Fiere Causeway (Bridge in the film). Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) was based off of Captain John Sauls who led the American troops. Confronted by a line of French-built Renault light tanks and a large number of heavily armed infantrymen, the Americans wasted no time going into action. Using any weapon available-bazooka, machine gun or hand grenade Saul's men disabled one tank after another, sometimes from only a few yards away. At last out of ammunition, the men regrouped and retreated toward the orchard where the remaining American soldiers would spend the next crucial 48 hours cut off from the causeway battle. The Germans now held the western end of the causeway in force. A heavy German counterattack threatened to push the still disorganized Americans back across the river the next day, but the assault was repulsed by the US Airforce. By mid-afternoon, a linkup was finally achieved with Timmes men, who were still defending their orchard. Thus ended the fight for the causeway at La Fiére.

[wesley]

This film was pitted against The Thin Red Line (1998) at the Oscars and amongst war movie buffs. This was more a function of marketing than anything else as The Thin Red Line was significantly slower paced and more philosophical as compared to Saving Private Ryan's traditional war movie feel. (Not to mention one is about the Pacific War, the other the European theater).