- Person
- Steven Spielberg
- Lived
- b. 1946
- Field
- Film
- From
- American
The story
Steven Spielberg grew up on his father's war stories. Arnold Spielberg served in the Second World War, and his son later said that those stories taught him there was no glory in war, and that if he ever made a real war film it would have to tell the truth about what young soldiers had faced. As a teenager he had already made amateur war films.
Saving Private Ryan, written by Robert Rodat and inspired by real cases of brothers killed in the same war, follows a squad of American soldiers led by Captain Miller, played by Tom Hanks, sent to find a paratrooper whose three brothers have been killed, in the days after the Normandy landings. Spielberg interviewed veterans for his research and hired the former Marine Dale Dye to train the actors. The opening assault on Omaha Beach was filmed over several weeks with about 1,500 people, including some 1,000 Irish army reservists and soldiers. Halfway through filming, Spielberg reminded his cast that they were making a tribute to thank their grandparents and his father.
Released in July 1998, the film earned about 481 million dollars worldwide and five Academy Awards, including Spielberg's second for Best Director. Many veterans said its combat scenes were the most realistic portrayal of their own experience they had seen. The film historian David Thomson wrote that it changed war films, showing shock, wounds and fear as never before while conveying what duty had felt like in 1944.
In August 1999 Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen presented Spielberg and Hanks with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. Spielberg and Hanks went on to produce the miniseries Band of Brothers and The Pacific, which both won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries.
The film is credited with helping to renew interest in the Second World War at the turn of the century, inspiring other films, television series and video games set during the war. Its battle-scene techniques influenced many later films, and in 2014 the Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry.
Why it matters
The film renewed public gratitude for the Second World War generation and changed how war is portrayed on screen.
About Steven Spielberg
Filmmaker; defined modern blockbuster cinema and produced "Schindler's List." Founded the Shoah Foundation.
More about Steven Spielberg
- Spielberg helped create the Scouts' cinematography badgeSteven Spielberg, who made an early 8 mm Western to earn a Scout photography badge, helped the Boy Scouts of America create a cinematography merit badge, launched in 1989.
- Spielberg's Lincoln told how slavery was abolishedSteven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln dramatised the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, and the National Archives honoured him for it in 2013.
- Steven Spielberg founded the Shoah Foundation archiveAfter Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg used his profits to found the Shoah Foundation in 1994; its archive now holds more than 60,000 testimonies, the world's largest.
Steven Spielberg in the news
Sources
- Steven Spielberg Wikipedia
- Steven Spielberg Jewish Virtual Library
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.