{"id":12458,"date":"2016-03-02T04:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=12458"},"modified":"2016-03-02T04:00:01","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T10:00:01","slug":"world-war-two-history-10-things-you-never-knew-about-saving-private-ryan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/02\/world-war-two-history-10-things-you-never-knew-about-saving-private-ryan\/","title":{"rendered":"World War Two History: 10 Things You Never Knew about “Saving Private Ryan”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SPR\"<\/h2>\n

Here are some behind-the-scenes details about the legendary World War II movie \u201cSaving Private Ryan.\u201d<\/h2>\n
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What pops into your head when you think about \u201cSaving Private Ryan?\u201d<\/p>\n

For many people, it\u2019s the five Oscars, two Golden Globes, two BAFTAs, and an induction into the National Film Registry as a \u201cculturally, historically, or aesthetically significant film\u201d \u2014 accolades Steven Spielberg\u2019s World War II opus has earned since the film\u2019s 1998 release. The New York Times<\/a> film review called it \u201conly the finest war movie of our time,\u201d citing the film\u2019s frank, bloody, violent, unflinching portrayal of the Omaha Beach landing on D-Day as a major achievement. And the veteran community resoundly agreed, echoing the film\u2019s intense combat scenes as a therapeutic base from which to discuss, process, and understand their experiences at war.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 18 years since then, but those words are no less true.<\/p>\n

Here are 10 facts you probably never realized about \u201cSaving Private Ryan.\u201d<\/p>\n

1. Spielberg played favorites.<\/b><\/p>\n

All of the main actors were sent to boot camp<\/a>, except for Matt Damon, who played Private Ryan. This was done deliberately, so the actors would have real resentment against Damon to mirror the film\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n

2. Vanilla Ice has a link to the film.<\/b><\/p>\n

Cinematographer Janusz Kami\u0144ski was no stranger to World War II films, having also worked on Spielberg\u2019s \u201cSchindler\u2019s List.\u201d Some of Kami\u0144ski\u2019s other cinematography credits include \u201cJerry Maguire,\u201d \u201cAmistad,\u201d \u201cCatch Me If You Can,\u201d and, inexplicably, the Vanilla Ice movie \u201cCool As Ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. D-Day was all about the details.<\/b><\/p>\n

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This is the film\u2019s opening scene by the numbers<\/a>: With $12 million of the $70 million total budget, Spielberg used 40 barrels of stage blood, 1,500 extras, 30 amputees, zero storyboarding, and 27 minutes of runtime to recreate the Omaha Beach landing scene.<\/p>\n

4. World War II veterans were reliving D-Day.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Department of Veterans Affairs set up a hotline number<\/a> for traumatized veterans to call after seeing the film. The hotline received over 170 calls in the two weeks following the film\u2019s release date.<\/p>\n

5. Yes, it\u2019s supposed to look washed out.<\/b><\/p>\n

The film\u2019s coloring was purposefully desaturated<\/a> by stripping camera lenses of their protective coatings, followed by running the exposed film through a bleach process. The goal was to give the film\u2019s final look the effect of 1940s newsreel footage.<\/p>\n

6. Spielberg altered history in America\u2019s favor.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cSaving Private Ryan\u201d ignores other countries\u2019 contributions<\/a> to the D-Day landings, with the 2nd Rangers being accompanied by Coast Guard crews and the USS Jefferson, instead of the Royal Navy and British ships.<\/p>\n

7. \u201cSaving Private Ryan\u201d was predicted to win the Oscar for Best Picture.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cSaving Private Ryan\u201d is one of the few Oscar winners for Best Director<\/a> that did not also win its Best Picture nomination. The Best Picture award that year went to \u201cShakespeare In Love,\u201d which was a huge upset among Hollywood and the general public alike.<\/p>\n

8. The majority of costumes and props were custom made.<\/b><\/p>\n

Costume designer Joanna Johnson oversaw the creation of 3,500 costumes<\/a>, as well as 2,000 weapons just for the Omaha Beach landing scene. Five hundred of the 2,000 replica weapons could shoot blanks, while the rest were rubber.<\/p>\n

9. Tom Hanks wasn\u2019t automatically given the lead.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Both Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford were in the running for the role of Capt. John Miller, which ended up going to Tom Hanks.<\/p>\n

10. Gunfire was recorded with authentic period weapons.<\/b><\/p>\n

Special effects director Gary Rydstrom contacted Kevin Brittingham, owner of Advanced Armaments Corporation, for help with recording the appropriate gunfire<\/a>. Among Brittingham\u2019s collection were World War II-era guns such as the Browning automatic rifle, a Thompson machine gun, and a Solothurn S18-1000 20-millimeter anti-tank rifle.<\/p>\n

Read the Original Article at Task and Purpose<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here are some behind-the-scenes details about the legendary World War II movie \u201cSaving Private Ryan.\u201d What pops into your head when you think about \u201cSaving Private Ryan?\u201d For many people, it\u2019s the five Oscars, two Golden Globes, two BAFTAs, and an induction into the National Film Registry as a \u201cculturally, historically, or aesthetically significant film\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4693,4029,1899],"tags":[4998,949,1582,4999],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}