3 Synopsis

The general plot of the film, as the title suggests, is a humanitarian rescue mission led by John Miller, an army captain, played by Tom Hanks to return the last surviving Ryan brother from the Normandy front line to his mother. Many critics commented that the film seemed marred somewhat by Spielberg's propensity for sentimentalism .

Miller, as played by Hanks, conceals his erstwhile profession of schoolteacher and his background from the troops under his command; the uncovering of Miller's background becomes a sub-plot of the film in as much as the men have a pool on his origins, which he steadfastly refuses to reveal. Under intensely difficult circumstances, Miller displays a decisive and courageous manner to his soldiers - his suppressed nervousness is communicated only by his unsteady hands.

The bond between Miller and his men is forged in the beachhead assault on a German bunker, where his decisive action saved the day.

As the position consolidates, Miller is given his new assigment, to find Private Ryan, who had been parachuted in as a member of the 101st Airborne, which, as the film historically correctly asserts, was scattered widely across Normandy. Ryan is the sole surviving member of four brothers, the other three having been killed in action. The American command takes the decision to bring him back for his mother's sake.

Eventually, at the expense of a number of members of their unit, Miller and his men catch up with Ryan. They break the news of his brothers' deaths to him and tell him that he is going home. Ryan is torn in his decision but elects not to desert his strategically important post. Miller and his men protect him, and all but a few are killed in a ferocious German tank assault on the bridge over the Merderet River in the (fictional) village of Ramelle, which they are defending. Ryan survives, but Miller is killed in the assault.

4 Historical background

The real "Ryan" was Sgt. Frederick (Fritz) Niland who, with some other members of the 101st, was inadvertently dropped too far inland. They eventually made their own way back to their unit at Carentan, where the Chaplain, Lt. Col. Father Francis Sampson, told Niland about the death of his three brothers, two at Normandy and one in the Far East. Under the US War Department's Sole Survivor Policy, brought about following the death of five Sullivan brothers serving on the same ship, Fr. Sampson arranged passage back to Britain and thereafter to his parents, Augusta and Michael Niland, in Tonawanda. There was no behind-the-lines Ranger rescue mission, Niland was not a simple private, his mother was not a widow, nor is she believed to have received all three telegrams together. Additionally, the brother believed killed in the Far East turned out to have been captured and later returned home. Fr. Francis Sampson wrote about Niland and the story of the 101st, in his 1958 book, Look Out Below! (BooksEnthsiast.com).

5 Cast

The following is a partial cast list:

6 Filming locations

Locations for the film include:

• World War II Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial: first and last scenes of the movie
• Hatfield, Hertfordshire

7 2004 broadcast controversy

The film was the focus of some controversy leading up to a Veterans Day 2004 broadcast of the film by ABC. A significant number of ABC affiliates decided to preempt the network's broadcast due to concerns of repercussions from the FCC due to the film's depiction of violence and profanity. Although the film had been broadcast by all ABC affiliates in two prior years, the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy and the subsequent FCC response led at least 30 stations to choose not to broadcast it, including:

• WOI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa
• WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia
• KITV-TV in Honolulu, Hawaii
• WHAS-TV of Louisville, Kentucky
• WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina
• WGNO-TV of New Orleans, Louisiana
• WCPO-TV of Cincinnati, Ohio
• KVUE-TV of Austin, Texas
• WMUR-TV of Manchester, New Hampshire
• WTEN-TV of Albany, New York
• WCDC-TV of Adams, Massachusetts
• WRIC-TV of Richmond, Virginia
• All ABC affiliates owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group

The affiliates which chose not to broadcast the film represented over a third of the network's potential viewing audience; besides Sinclair, ABC stations owned by Cox Television, Belo, Hearst-Argyle, McGraw-Hill, and EW Scripps all chose to preempt the film.

8 See also

• FUBAR
• The Thin Red Line (1998 movie), a close contemporary of Spielberg's film, directed by Terrence Malick

9 External links and references

• Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia
• Alex Kershaw. The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice. Da Capo Press, 2003. BooksEnthsiast.com.
• Saving Private Ryan at the Internet Movie Database

1998 films AFI 100 Thrills Spielberg films World War II films

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