Saving Private Ryan corrections

When the group of soldiers led by Captain Miller are in the village, and the soldier knocks the wall down accidentally, if you notice when the soldiers above shoot them dead, that a lot of the blood gets sprayed onto part of the back wall, yet when we see the wall from inside the house, there is hardly any blood at all. See more...

Trivia

The storyline for the movie was very loosely based on the story of Sgt. Frederick (Fritz) Niland from Tonawanda, New York. He and other members of the 101st, were dropped too far inland, but eventually made their way back to their unit. Upon his arrival back, the Chaplain told Niland about the death of his three brothers, two at Normandy and one in the Far East, so the Chaplain arranged his return home, due to the US War Department's Sole Survivor Policy. As it turned out, his brother believed to have been killed in the Far East had been captured, and later returned home as well. The story of Niland and the 101st was written about by the Chaplain, Lt. Col. Father Francis Sampson, in his book, Look Out Below! See more...

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Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 90 corrections

Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Adam Goldberg, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel (add more)

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

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During the whole opening sequence of the storming of Omaha beach, not once are the barrels on the German MG-42's changed. The heat developed in these barrels due to this machine-gun's extreme cyclic rate (25 rounds pr. sec), makes it necessary to replace them with a spare barrel on regular intervals. Granted, in the heat of battle, it might get problematic to do this, but a seasoned German soldier would've managed to change the barrel in only a few seconds. There is also no barrel change in the scene where Miller's patrol attack the German MG-34 position later in the movie (where in the end the medic gets hit and dies). [In the normandy sequence, there's no way of knowing the gunnners never changed barrels. The focus is rarely on them, but rather the americans fighting their way up the beach. Just because they don't specifically show them changing barrels doesn't mean they didn't, there's plenty of time where they're offscreen for them to do so. The second firefight is very brief, there's no way the machine gun's barrel would overheat from such a short engagement.]

In the beginning, we see the invasion of Normandy, and Miller arrives at the beaches. But the strange thing is that the beaches weren't taken until the third wave in the invasion. There were three invasion waves. The first wave were all but slaughtered; few of the men survived. But because there are no dead bodies on the beaches when Miller and his men arrive, we assume he is with the first wave. But Miller and his invasion wave take the beaches. [You can see bodies up the beach when the camera first changes to the German gunner's view. These bodies are too far up the beach and too soon for them to be Miller and his invasion.]

At the end of the opening battle the Americans use grenades to clear the trench leading to the entrance to the bunker. Reiben unpins a grenades and throws it to Sergeant Horvath who lobs it over the wall. During this Reiben unpins another grenade and throws it over the wall but there is only one explosion. [One of the grenades could have been a dud.]

Corrected by William Bergquist

In the beach scene where Miller has lost his hearing momentarily, you see him look at a young soldier cowering against an obstacle on the beach. In front of him there is a large egg-shaped object. Moments later, there is a small explosion which presume is a German firing upon him. After the sand has settled from the small burst, the object has disappeared and there is no hole in the ground. [It was not an explosion but simply just another soldier running and kicking the object, thats why there is no hole in the ground.]

The name of the river in the final battle of the movie is actually Merderet, not Ramelle. Ramelle was a made-up name for the movie. [The name of the river is Merderet, but Ramelle is not a made-up name, it is the name of the town the final battle takes place in.]

The Rangers were driven into the beach by US Coastguards driving British landing craft, whereas infantry on Omaha arrived in American craft piloted by RN coxswains. [All the first wave craft at the Vierville Draw, including the Rangers', were British LCAs, driven by Royal Navy crews. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/A1929468.]

One American soldier shot into the sight slot on the front of the German "Tiger" tank. This slot was made of a particular glass called "Kinon," at least 15 centimeters thick, and it was almost impossible to break. [In the movie you can see that this glass was raised above the slot.]

Near the end of the movie at the Alamo rally point when the P-51's show up to blast the German tanks they are referred to as "Tank Busters". P-51's were not usually equipped to do this as a P-47 would be the much more likely aircraft for the job. There was a version of the P-51 called an A-36 equipped for ground attacks, but they were very specific about this being a P-51. [A-36 may have been the "official" designation but that doesn't mean everyone knew that. And if you're an infantryman on the ground and look up to see the P-51 silhouette you're not going to shout LOOK A-36's. You're gonna call them P-51's, even if they are the tank buster variant.]

The German troops who attack the village in the film's climatic battle scene must have been either very badly led or very inexperienced. No experienced soldier of any army, let alone the battle-hardened Germans, would attack a village or town by advancing in long files down the middle of the street as the attackers do in this film. In reality, they would have attacked house to house, using the cellars and alleyways to gain access into the village, rather than allow themselves to be mown down like ninepins in the middle of the road. [Not all the army goes down the middle of the town as some take the side streets. It's also not likely they thought they would encounter resistance. While that plan of attack might be taken if they thought there would be an ambush, but as shown before the troops arrive there was only a handful of soldiers and the Germans might have thought there wouldn't be much problem. Bottom line there is no way to say that line of action would be taken.]

When they are preparing for a German assault towards the end of the movie, Miller explains to them the concept of the sticky bomb and adds, "If you have a better idea of knocking the treads off a tank I'd like to hear it." Um... the bazooka? They had eight rounds for it, and it could have easily been used to disable the treads. And the men wouldn't blow themselves up with it. [They do use the bazooka on the tanks later when they are retreating over the bridge, and it seems to be pretty ineffective.]

When the SS soldier is killing Private Mellish in the last battle scene you can see a line where the soldier stabs Mellish. [What line? I've watched this scene carefully and can see no line that strikes me as unusual.]

Mellish gets stabbed by a German soldier wearing SS insignia. Later, Upham shoots the same soldier, who is now wearing Wehrmacht insignia. [It's not the same soldier, they look a lot like each other, but they're not the same.]

In the opening battle scene, Tom Hank's makes reference that all of the armour support for the invasion, the 741st and 743rd Tank Battalions, having foundered in the English Channel. While the 741st did lose 30 of the 32 tanks allocated to the 1st Infantry Division's part of Utah Beach, the 743rd successfully landed 32 tanks on the 29th Infantry Division's Omaha Beach, including the Dog Green section. [Actually there were 29 tanks assigned to Omaha beach, but the American commanders sent the 'floating tanks' away 3 miles off-shore. Only two made it.]

The battle of Normandy was over by nightfall, not in the middle of the day as it is depicted in the film. [They didn't depict it as being over, they depicted a foothold being established at one sector of the battlefield. The battle may have been over for those soldiers, but not the rest of the invasion force. In all fairness, there should have been, as another poster pointed out, bodies covering the beaches when Tom Hanks' company arrived.]

At the end of the opening battle the Americans use grenades to clear the trench leading to the entrance to the bunker. One of the soldiers removes the pin from a grenade and throws it to another soldier who lobs it into the trench. No well trained soldier would do something so foolish. He might hand on a grenade with the pin still in it but to throw it live to his mate was extremely foolish. If he had dropped it the whole squad would have been wiped out. [Well, most of the men were not specially trained soldiers, they were just normal guys. The soldiers would have been so pleased not only to still be alive but to have an advantage and were probably just showing off a little.]

When the platoon sergeant is canning the dirt sample from France, the markings on the 3 cans are made with a wide-tipped magic marker. These were not developed until 15 years later. A black grease-pencil was standard issue in those days (1944). [The first magic marker was actually marketed in 1952 but similar types of pens were already available in the 1940's]

In the final battle Tom Hanks and Matt Damon run out of ammunition and start throwing mortar rounds that explode on impact. This is impossible as mortar rounds have to spin a certain amount of times to arm themselves (a safety measure) so unless the pair are two all star quarterbacks, nothing would have happened to the rounds when they landed. [An infantry mortar round is fin-stabilised, and therefore does not spin in flight. A modern mortar round can be set to explode on impact, or on a delay setting (to allow the round to detonate after it passes through trees, etc). For the round to explode on impact, a safety pin would have to be removed from the round detonator on its cap, something that is not present in the film. The safety device described was only ever attached to bombs dropped from aircraft during the war.]

There appear to be multiple mistakes right after Miller decides to release the German rather than execute him. There is much commotion as Rieben and Horvath are arguing, but you can see in the background that Mellish is telling Miller that he has a sixth sense and that Ryan's dead. Right after, Mellish comes running over to Miller and starts repeating himself. Also, whenever Reiben and Horvath are not shown, they can be heard repeating the same words in the same tone as when they are being shown. At one point, I believe I can overhear them arguing even as they are being shown arguing. Also, look at the positions of some of the other actors, they change from shot to shot. [This is just a simple time lapse. If they went to a split-screen, you would have no idea what was going on, so they showed what went on at one place for a moment, and then what went on during the same moment between different people.]

In the French village where the squad first looks for Private Ryan, soldiers shout "Thunder.", and the reply they get is "Flash." This is totally the opposite. In Europe for identification you shouted out "Flash" to which the countersign was "Thunder". [The statement is correct, but in the movie's context, either one is wrong. The challenge/password was changed every few days. (Flash/Thunder was used from the 101sts landing till the end of June 6th) It was changed repeatedly so the enemy would not be as likely to pick up the reply and have the chance to use it. During the movie time span, the correct challenge/reply would have been Thirsty/Victory, or Weapon/Throat, used from D 1-D 3, and D 4-D 6 respectively. (The true one depends on the movie, if they set out ON D 3, or got the orders, and left the next day. )]

Look very close at the M1 Garand cartridge belts. The ten pockets where the 8 rd. clips go are flat. These guys are all going into combat with no ammo! You would at least think they would have put blocks of wood equal to the size of the clips in the belt pockets to make it look like they have ammo in their belts. [They had already attacked two towns and a german MG nest, this would have taken up a large amount of ammo...]

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