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Quotes

Private Reiben: You wouldn't shoot the kraut and now you're gonna shoot me?

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Mistakes

At the start of the film in the telegraph scene, a Captain goes into the Colonel's office to tell him about the Ryan brothers. He is holding a folder which he puts on the Colonel's desk, but we don't see him pick it back up in all the following shots, yet it suddenly appears back in his hands. See more...

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Some of the extras in the film were real amputees with one arm or leg missing so the effect of seeing someone blown up and lose their limb was as realistic as possible, as opposed to having a leg or arm "tucked away." There was uproar in Ireland because of this, but the extras loved meeting the actors and getting paid handsomely as well.
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The majority of the extras in the movie were from the Irish Army and the F.C.A. (a military organisation). Direct from one of these extras: in the opening scenes where the soldiers are in the boats before docking France against German militia, the soldiers puke their guts out, and we all see this. What you don't know is that it was REAL vomit you see - it was caught on camera perfectly and it was kept...
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Director Steven Spielberg reduced the color saturation of the film by approximately 60% to more closely match his artistic vision. This led to a flood of complaints by customers when the movie was broadcast on TV and cable, so the cable and TV companies had to turn the colour gain back up again.
Edit Submitted by Phil C.
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The story James Ryan tells Miller, about his brothers in the barn with Alice Jardin, was not in the script. Matt Damon ad-libbed it and Spielberg decided to leave it in the final film.
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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!
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The movie was shot in chronological order, which is unusual for a film. Spielberg chose to shoot it that way so that the actors would feel like they were going through the experience in the same order as the characters they play, and they lose friends on the way. This helped create the resentment towards Ryan, who doesn't share the journey with them.
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The resentment the soldiers feel towards Pvt. Ryan is real: Matt Damon was the only cast member who didn't go through boot camp.
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The "streaks" that appear in the film when fires or explosions are shown are deliberate. This is a phenomenon that would often appear in actual WWII combat photography and was intentionally emulated when the film was made.
Edit Submitted by Phil C.
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There is a very common misconception that the guy that they let go at the radar station, who ends up shooting the captain, is the same actor/character as the guy that stabs and kills Mellish. It's understandable because they do actually look very similar, but if you look closely you'll see that they are, in deed, not played by the same actors. The guy with the knife is not quite as bald, doesn't have two wounds under his right eye, and has connected earlobes. The one that they let go and later shoots the caption is more bald, has the two wounds under his eye, and does not have connected earlobes. Plus their mannerisms and voices are very different.
Edit Submitted by cybermark1
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The scene where Private Jackson shoots through the German sniper's scope, killing him is based on Carlos Hathcock's 2 mile sniper shot through a Viet Cong's sniper scope with a scoped Browning M2. Carlos Hathcook was very famous for killing a General and later commanded a platoon of snipers.
Edit Submitted by rockmandrum
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During the scene in which Pvt. Stanley Mellish is being stabbed slowly by the German soldier, the soldier is whispering something to him in German - "Give up. You have got no chance. This way is much more easy for you. Much easier."
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The opening sequences of the Normandy invasion on D-Day were actually shot in Ireland, not in France. The French government would not give permission to the producers to shoot on Normandy beaches.
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