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Home |
 Saving Private Ryan is a
blockbuster depiction of the realities of war. Winner of five Academy Awards
including Steven Spielberg's Best Director, it is an
unforgettable experience. The film follows Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) who, in
the brutally real opening sequence, survives the landing at Omaha Beach. He is then
given a new mission: to find and extract Private James Francis
Ryan (Matt Damon), one of four brothers, the other three of whom have been killed in
action within days of each other.The plot was inspired in part by the true story of
Fritz Niland, one of four brothers from New York state who saw action during the
war. Two Niland brothers were killed on D-Day, while another was missing in action
in Burma and was presumed dead, although he actually survived. Fritz was located in
Normandy by an Army chaplain, Reverend Francis Sampson, and taken out of the combat zone. |
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 "The search
for Private Ryan is fiction," says historian Stephen Ambrose, "but of the kind
that illuminates truth rather than diminishing it." For a more complete
discussion of the film and of D-Day by Ambrose, see the Ambrose
on D-Day page.
There are plot summary and scene-by-scene outline pages here, both with pictures. The
site is arranged so you can go from one page to any other from all the pages or from the Timeline page.
Saving Private Ryan is one of five films on this site that cover the
tumultuous years of the Second World War. The others are Schindler's List, The Great Escape, Bridge on the River Kwai and Patton. They are part of the larger History in Film web site that supports teaching history
using popular films. It includes films from Rome up to the war in Vietnam.
I'd enjoy hearing your comments on this site. Please sign the Guestbook.
I hope you enjoy your visit.
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Film Stats
Historical drama, WW II |
| Stars |
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Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt
Damon, Tom Sizemore |
| Director |
Steven Spielberg |
| Producer |
Bonnie Curtis, Allison Lyon
Segan |
| Year |
1998 |
| Released by |
DreamWorks |
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Buy the Book
D-Day June 6, 1944 : The Climactic Battle of World War II by
Stephen E. Ambrose |
Buy the Movie
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If you're a teacher who is interested in using this film and you would like these pages to
edit and print as your own, they are all available here
as Rich Text Format files in one relatively small WinZip package. Alternatively, if you
only want a few of the files, each page has a download link for that RTF WinZip file alone
(usually 3 or 4 K). If you would like the short answer essay test that accompanies this
film, please E-mail me at the mail box below. I'd be glad to send it back to you. |
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