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SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
FAQ
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
This FAQ
was written by Jack Macpherson in response
to many repeated questions on the ALT.MOVIES.SPIELBERG Usenet
group. It has been reorganized, and posted with his permission
to Countdown to Saving Private Ryan to help answer common
questions. If you have an comments about the content of the
FAQ, please send them to Mr. Macpherson.
Note from the author:
Thanks to all the folks that sent suggestions and inputs.
While no means definitive, this should anser most folks questions
about the film. It's almost become a "Dummies Guide to
D-Day." The questions keep pouring in, keeping the one-man
research department busy. Thanks to all the folks (too numerous
to name) for providing so many of the answers.
Plot - Production - History - Miscellaneous
Plot
Q:
Is the German soldier captured at the Radar Site and
then released by Captain Miller the same one who stabbed Private
Mellish to death?
A:
No. The German POW, Steamboat Willie, did not kill Mellish.
Mellish’s killer was a member of the Waffen SS. Steamboat
Willie was an ordinary German infantryman. When Mellish and
the SS trooper fight, notice the SS collar insignia on the
German and his SS camouflaged smock.
Q:
Why did Miller have Wade accompany the squad on the
assault on the machine-gun nest?
A:
Probably an oversight of the film. One would have to assume
that Miller directed Wade to remain behind with Upham but
that Wade disobeyed in order to remain close to his comrades.
That would not have been unusual behavior for a combat medic.
Q:
Is there a clue in the opening scene as to the identity
of the old man at the cemetery?
A:
Yes. He’s wearing the division pin of the 101st Airborne
Division. Who is the featured character who belongs to the
Screaming Eagles? Private Ryan.
Q:
What does Captain Miller say to Ryan on the bridge?
A:
“James . . . earn this,” and then “Earn it,”
obviously telling him to live a life worthy of the lives sacrificed
to rescue him.
Q:
What did Upham say when he captured the German soldiers
at the end of the film?
A:
Upham (stopping the running group): "Drop your
guns--all of you, drop them!" Steamboat Willie
then said, "I know this soldier. I know this man
. . . Upham." After Upham shot Steamboat Willie,
he then said to the rest of the enemy soldiers, "take
a hike . . . run!"
Q:
What did Mellish’s killer say to him?
A:
"Give in . . . you have no other choice . . . make it
easier for both of us . . . . shhhhhh."
Q:
What did Fish (Mellish) say to Caparzo when he handed
him the Hitler Youth knife?
A:
"Now it's a Shabbat challah cutter." (bread knife).
Q:
What was Caparzo trying to give to Fish after he’d
been shot?
A:
A V-mail letter to his father. He wanted it recopied so his
father wouldn't see all the blood on the letter. V-mail was
free mail home for the GIs. Caparzo's father wouldn't have
received the original bloodstained letter in any case. To
save valuable cargo space, the V-mail letters were microfilmed
and then reproduced back in the States.
Q:
Why didn’t Mellish keep all the ammunition with
him instead of leaving it with Upham?
A:
The defense plan called for Mellish and Henderson to fire
and displace or “shoot and scoot.” Mellish mentioned
to Upham that they would be fallin back like crazy. Despite
its name, a light machine gun and all its accessories isn’t
all that light. The last thing Mellish and Henderson wanted
to be burdened with while they’re bugging out is extra
ammunition. It made sense to keep it at a rearward location
and have Upham distribute it as needed.
Q:
What was causing Captain Miller's hand to shake?
A:
A reaction to the stress of combat undoubtedly. His character
had been in combat for two years, as revealed by the discussions
between him and Sergeant Horvath. He'd seen combat in such
places as Kasserine Pass in North Africa and Anzio in Italy.
As an infantry officer, Miller has beaten the odds so far
just by still being alive. The First Ranger Battalion had
been decimated in Anzio and removed from the U.S. Army's order
of battle. In other words, Captain Miller has been under intense
pressure for two years. He also suffers intensely from the
deaths of each one of his men and he has lost many.
Q:
Early in the film, Captain Miller reports to Lt. Col
Anderson (Dennis Farina), his battalion commander, and gets
his assignment to "Save Private Ryan." (In reality,
the 2nd Ranger C.O. was Lt. Col Rudder.) Miller first briefs
Anderson on what he's been doing and points to an area on
the map where he took out German towed 88MM artillery. But
later in the film, when the squad is debating whether to attack
the machine gun nest at the radar site, Pvt. Jackson says
"we left them 88s," and Miller says "yeah,
for the Air Force." Did they attack the 88s or not? Is
that an error?
A:
No, just a result of editing. Jackson is talking about different
88s. When Miller and his merry men set off from Omaha Beach,
they're in a jeep. Next we see them on foot. What was in the
script but omitted from the finished product was when their
jeep came under fire from German 88s and was destroyed, along
with most of their ammunition. (Remember when Capt Miller
tells Capt Hamill in Neuville that they lost most of their
ammunition?) Those are the 88s Jackson is talking about. Spielberg
had to edit out about 20 minutes of the film so it wouldn't
be rated NC-17.
Q:
Did Upham really shoot Steamboat Willie? His body
doesn't appear visible when Upham tells the other Germans
to bug out.
A:
Yes, he shot him. The screen shot is so tight that you can
only just make out Steamboat Willie's boot. But Upham is looking
down at the body. Besides, the script says he did.
Q:
Where is Pvt Jackson supposed to be from?
A:
Tennessee
Q:
How old is Captain Miller?
A:
Let's apply some reverse engineering. He's been in the Rangers
since the North Africa campaign. That's means he probably
joined the Army shortly after Pearl Harbor. Let's say he's
been in nearly three years. Then he said he taught high school
for eleven years. He might have taught somewhere else before
then, but let's just leave his teaching career at eleven.
He was probably no younger than 22 when he finished college.
That makes him about 36 at the youngest. By way of contrast,
James Gavin, who was the assistant division commander of the
82nd Airborne at Normandy, was a Lieutenant General at age
36.
Q:
Why didn't the Tiger tanks use their bow machine gun?
They could have easily wiped out many of the Americans with
it.
A:
Excellent question and one we've wondered about also.
We've come up with three possible solutions:
- The tanks were out of machine gun ammo.
- The machine guns were not operable.
- The machine gun ammo came from Oskar Schindler's factory
in Czechoslovakia.
Production
Q:
Where was the movie filmed?
A:
The D-Day invasion scene was filmed at Wexford, Ireland. The
remainder of the movie was filmed in England. The village
of Ramelle was created at a former British Aerospace factory.
Q:
Where were the opening and closing scenes filmed?
A:
At the U.S. Military Cemetery at Ste. Laurent-sur-Mer, France,
which is on the bluffs above Omaha Beach.
History
Q:
Is the film based upon a true story?
A:
Yes but rather loosely. The real Private Ryan was Private
Fritz Niland of the 101st Airborne Division. Two of his brothers
were killed at Normandy and a third was reported missing and
presumed dead in Burma. The Army issued an order to bring
Private Niland home but nobody was sent looking for him because
nobody knew where he was. He was found two weeks later, unaware
of what had transpired. His brother in Burma later turned
up alive.
Q:
Why were no Allied soldiers portrayed in the film?
A:
According to Steven Spielberg, this was a film about an American
squad looking for an American soldier in the American sector.
It was not a documentary about the Normandy battle. That was
done in "The Longest Day." The Allied divisions
that landed at Normandy had strict boundary lines, with the
American troops on the right or West flank. The direction
that Captain Miller's squad took to look for Private Ryan
took them northwest, even further away from the British and
Canadian sectors. If it will make the Allied faithful any
happier, Barry Pepper, who portrayed Pvt. Jackson, is a Canadian.
Q:
Why were no black soldiers depicted in the film?
A:
The U.S. Army was segregated during World War II. Although
black units did see combat during the war, no black combat
units landed on D-Day.
Q:
What is the meaning of that Blue and Gray yin-and-yang
symbol worn by Corporal Upham?
A:
That is the division patch of the 29th Infantry Division,
a National Guard Division with troops from Virginia, Maryland,
and DC It was known as the Blue-Gray Division, because it
had regiments with ties to both the Confederate and Union
Armies. All U.S. soldiers wore their division patch on their
left shoulder.
Q:
Plastic bags didn’t exist in 1944. How come the
soldiers landing on Omaha Beach are shown with weapons enclosed
in plastic bags?
A:
Those weren’t plastic bags but bags made from a substance
known as PLIOFILM. American soldiers at Normandy used such
bags.
Q:
What were the metal obstacles the American troops
sheltered behind on Omaha Beach?
A:
Those obstacles were part of the German defenses and were
intended to rip out the bottom of Allied landing craft. Rommel
and his staff assumed the Allies would attempt to land at
high tide, reducing the amount of open beach the Allied troops
would have to cover. If the Allies had landed at high tide,
those metal obstacles would have been effective. However,
Allied planners elected to land at low tide to expose the
obstacles.
Q:
Why did so many of the German soldiers at the battle
of Ramelle have such short haircuts?
A:
Because many of the extras in the film were active duty soldiers
and had short haircuts.
Q:
What were those tanks the Germans had at Ramelle?
Were they realistic?
A:
Two Tiger tanks and two Marder tanks. The Marders were actually
open-turret tank destroyers, and yes, the tanks were about
as realistic as is possible for a film made 50 years after
the end of World War II. When Jackson signaled from the bell
tower, he referred to the Marders as Panzers, which was probably
generic shorthand for an unknown type of enemy armor.
Q:
Did Americans really shoot prisoners?
A:
Unfortunately, yes, on occasion. This happened on all sides
and isn’t all that unusual for soldiers that have been
in deadly combat and have seen their best friends killed.
Miller’s squad would have been especially enraged at
Steamboat Willie because their medic had been shot. Medics
were classified as non-combatants and were not supposed to
be fired upon.
Q:
The standoff in Neuville between the American and
German soldiers seems farfetched.
A:
Truth is stranger than fiction. The history of D-Day is replete
with stories that seem even more farfetched than the Neuville
standoff but they actually happened.
Q:
How accurate is the opening scene at Omaha Beach?
A:
In the words of most veterans who have seen it, too bloody
accurate. For instance, what happened in the film when the
ramp goes down on that first landing craft is almost exactly
what happened to Company A, 116th Regiment of the 29th Infantry
Division. Ninety percent of its soldier were killed in the
first minute of the landing.
Q:
Why were the German tank commanders wearing black
uniforms? Was that a Hollywood device having the bad guys
wear black?
A:
Nothing of the sort. German tank crews wore black uniforms.
The film was meticulously accurate as to uniforms, weapons,
tactics, and jargon.
Q:
When Miller’s squad finally found their man,
Ryan introduced himself as “Ryan, first of the 506th.”
His buddy said “Third of the 506th.” What does this
mean?
A:
It’s typical of the way GIs introduce themselves, even
to this day. It’ s their address, if you will. First
of the 506th meant he was from the First Battalion of the
506th Regiment. Third of the 506th meant Third Battalion.
Q:
Why weren’t the German defenses at Omaha Beach
knocked out by airpower and the naval bombardment?
A:
Because of concern about hitting Allied troops, Allied bombers
were ordered to delay their drop point a couple of seconds
inland. Consequently all their bombs fell well behind the
German defenses. The naval bombardment was curtailed in attempt
to preserve the element of surprise. However, a key element
to the U.S. troops getting off the beach at Omaha were the
U.S. Navy destroyers that closed on the shore until there
were literally only a couple of inches of water beneath their
keel. At point blank range they dueled with the German gun
emplacements and cleared exits from the beach.
Q:
Why was the water so deep when the troops got off
the landing craft?
A:
The coxswains unloading their troops too far out caused some
of this. In many cases, however, there were deep pools of
water caused by exploding naval shells that had fallen short.
These deep holes couldn’t be seen from the landing craft
and so troops who thought they were unloading into shallow
water stepped off into water that was 30-feet deep in some
cases.
Q:
Did it only take 30 minutes to get off the beach at
Omaha?
A:
No, it took more than half a day and cost thousands of casualties,
even more than depicted in the film. But nobody would want
to sit through four or five hours of carnage waiting for Captain
Miller and his men to get off the beach.
Q:
How accurate is the geography of the film?
A:
Well, Normandy really does exist, as did Omaha Beach. Neuville
also is a real village. The Merderet River is real. Other
towns mentioned in the film, Caen, Vierville, St. Lo, Volognes,
and Cherbourg are also real. But Ramelle is fictitious.
Q:
Were the Allied paratroopers really scattered all
over the place?
A:
Yes. Of the six regiments of American paratroopers launched
into Normandy, only two got their men to the right drop zones.
Ironically, one of those regiments was the 506th, which in
the film was Private Ryan’s regiment.
Q:
At Omaha Beach, Captain Miller says no DD Tanks are
getting ashore. What are DD tanks?
A:
They were M-4 Sherman tanks designed to float in to the beach.
The DD means duplex drive, meaning they had a drive mechanism
to propel them through the water as well as on land. The tanks
were also equipped with an inflatable skirt to provide buoyancy.
These floating tanks had a very low freeboard, however, and
could swamp easily in rough seas. That's exactly what happened
at D-Day. Most of the DD Shermans went straight to the bottom
when launched, drowning their crews. One battalion, on orders
from Rear Admiral Kirk, rode their LCTs right to the beach
and unloaded without any difficulty. Of the 29 launched 5000
meters offshore, only two made it to the beach.
Q:
What was the meaning of Dog Green Sector at the beginning
of the film? That sounds like a goofy name.
A:
The Allies arbitrarily divided the beaches into sectors and
assigned letters of the phonetic alphabet to them. In the
alphabet of the time, A was Able, B was Baker, C was Charlie,
D was Dog, E was Easy, and so on. Omaha sectors were Able
through George while Utah Beach had Peter through William.
Each sector was further subdivided into three colors, Green,
White, and Red (West to East). Not all the sectors would be
used. Omaha, for instance, was only going to use Charlie through
Fox. Easy Sector on Omaha was only divided into Red and Green.
The 29th Infantry Division, 5th Rangers and Charlie Company,
2nd Rangers were to land on Dog Green. The 1st Infantry Division
landed at Easy Red and Green.
Q:
What was the significance of the horizontal and vertical
white stripes on the back of some of the Americans’ helmets?
A:
Officers had a vertical white stripe. Non-commissioned officers
(such as Sergeant Horvath and Corporal Upham) had a white
horizontal stripe on the back of the helmet. It was to identify
the leadership to the men following.
Q:
What are the Rangers? Are they Marines?
A:
The Rangers are elite infantry of the U.S. Army. The
U.S. Marines did not fight in Europe during World War II.
The Rangers were hand-picked volunteers from other U.S. infantry
divisions and were modeled upon the British commandos.
Their motto, "Rangers Lead the Way" was earned on
Omaha Beach. The name Rangers was taken from Rodger's
Rangers, the special American scouting force that served the
British Army during the French-and-Indians War. Their
job was to "range" ahead of the main army and locate
the enemy. Kenneth Roberts' book "Northwest Passage"
was about the Rodger's Rangers.
Q:
The soldiers in the film didn't use much profanity.
That couldn't have been accurate, could it?
A:
George Patton notwithstanding, one must realize that these
soldiers were the products of a different generation.
Americans on average did not often resort to profanity nor
generally tolerate those who did. These "Citizen
Soldiers" were from that society. Many veterans
interviewed about the film have stated that even in combat
the use of profanity wasn't all that common and when it was
used, it really got their attention. Would "Saving
Private Ryan" have been a more powerful film if the characters
had been speaking like they were in a Quentin Tarantino film?
Doubtful.
Q:
Sergeant Horvath hauling around souvenir dirt seems
farfetched. And the lids of his dirt containers look
like they were labeled with a magic marker. They didn't have
those back then, did they?
A:
It's a movie, remember? With that one simple little
scene, the audience realizes that Sergeant Horvath is a long-time
veteran. We don't have to waste a whole bunch of dialog
delving into his background. We know he's seen a lot
of combat. If he'd really had such a souvenir collection,
he wouldn't have lugged it ashore at Omaha Beach, but so what?
Just imagine the containers were smaller and he'd labeled
the tops with blue paint. There's lots of paint available
on ships.
Q:
What are some of the possible errors in the film (as
noted by Normandy veterans and keen-eyed observers of the
movie)?
- 1. When were the Ryan brothers last together? When Mrs.
Ryan gets the telegram there is a photograph on a table
by her front door of four men together in uniform. At the
War Department scene it is noted that all four brothers
were in the same company in the 29th Infantry Division but
then were split up. Yet in the village when Ryan is reminiscing
about his brothers with Captain Miller, he tells a story
the story of Alice Jardine and says that was the last night
his brothers were together. Best solution: Ryan meant that
was the last time they were together at home.
- The noisy patrol. When the squad first sets out to look
for Private Ryan, they make a great deal of noise as Corporal
Upham questions them. Rangers (or any experienced infantrymen)
would never have been so careless because noise meant death.
This scene was probably artistic license to help sketch
the characters of the film.
- The missing bodies at the top of the stairs. Private Mellish
and Corporal Henderson shoot two German soldiers outside
the entrance to the room they’re in. Yet when we see
Corporal Upham frozen on the stairs, the bodies have vanished.
- The Captain’s bars. Captain Miller had his rank painted
on his helmet. Experienced combat officers (i.e. those who
survived their first day of combat) obliterated all sign
of rank from their person lest they attract the interest
of enemy snipers. While many officers did have their rank
prominently displayed on their helmet, these were generally
rear echelon types who never got close to the sound of gunfire.
- The wrong combat patch. Soldiers who have been in combat
are allowed to wear their unit patch on their right shoulder.
During the scene at the War Department, Colonel I.W. Bryce,
the one-armed colonel, has a combat patch of the 2nd Infantry
Division. This isn't possible because the 2nd Infantry Division
did not see any combat until June 7, 1944. An obscure error.
Bryce could have lost his arm in the first World War, though
he looked too young to be a WWI vet. In the book based upon
the script he supposedly lost his arm in combat in Sicily.
(Incidentally, one of the producers of the film is Ian Bryce.
Neat way to sneak your name into the show.)
- The reappearing arm. The same Colonel Bryce regrows his
missing left arm in General Marshall's office. Watch closely
as the camera pans from General Marshall to assembled officers.
Apparently the army reissued Colonel Bryce his left arm.
Some think it might just be a shadow that causes this illusion.
- Ghost in the squad. Just prior to the machine-gun nest
attack, Miller’s squad is seen in a panoramic view
with eight members. They started out with eight but Private
Caparzo was killed at Neuville. The squad is haunted.
- In the film, Private Ryan’s drop zone is supposedly
near Neuville. The town is also depicted as occupied by
paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division. In reality
Neuville was in the 82nd Airborne Division’s area,
just north of the 505th Regiment’s drop zone. Private
Ryan’s regiment was actually dropped 7-10 kilometers
to the southeast in the vicinity of Vierville. A minor point
only for the historically obsessed.
- Which company is Ryan really in? When Miller first sets
out to look for Ryan, the missing private is supposed to
be in Baker Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
Yet at the glider landing zone where the squad finds the
deafened soldier who knows Ryan, he’s moved into Charlie
Company. But the soldier could have just gotten confused
as to which company Ryan was in. That would have been an
easy mistake to make. Both companies were in the same battalion.
- The P-51s that save the day at Ramelle don't have bomb
racks.
- A very obscure mistake at the glider landing zone: the
squad approaches a makeshift table to look through the dog
tags. The table has nothing on it in the first shot but
when they get to it, Pvt. Jackson kicks a K-ration box off
it. Somehow the box jumped onto the table.
- For the really, really sharp eyed: the .30 caliber machine
gun ammo is missing the primers.
- Wrong-way poles. In the Omaha Beach scene some of
the obstacles are pointed in the wrong direction.
We're referring to the large wooden obstacles, not the metal
tetrahedrons that the U.S. troops sheltered behind.
These wooden obstacles consisted of a log roughly the size
of a telephone pole with one end elevated and supported
by two other logs. The raised end was supposed to
face the beach. The idea was that an incoming landing
craft would ride up the pole and detonate the Teller mine
at the end of it. Yet in the opening beach scene,
the elevated end of these poles is facing the water. Later
during the Omaha Beach sequence the poles have reversed
direction and are facing the proper way.
Miscellaneous
Q:
FUBAR?
A:
An age-old military acronym—Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition
(the PG version). Cousin to SNAFU—Situation Normal, All
Fouled Up. Often used as a verb, as in ‘We really FUBARED
that.”
Q:
What was the name of the Edith Piaf song Upham was
translating in the village?
A:
"Tu Es Partous" (Phonetically: Two A Par Two, obviously
a song about miniature golf)
Q:
What was the song Melish sings?
A:
"Solitude" by Duke Ellington et al.
Q:
Whom was the Czech Wehrmacht soldier referred to in
the credits?
A:
No figuring what Hollywood is thinking. After taking the bluffs
above Omaha Beach two Wehrmacht soldiers attempting to surrender
are shot by two Rangers. One of the Wehrmacht soldiers was
speaking Czech. But according to another web site whose author
has sources associated with the production, the Czech Wehrmacht
soldier was the killer of Mellish, although that character
was in the SS, never spoke Czech, and there were no other
clues identifying him as Czech. All in all, it has no bearing
on the film.
Once again
a big thank you must go out to Jack Macpherson for compiling
this exhaustive FAQ. My only wish is that I had've been quicker
in getting permission to use it at C2SPR.
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