Saving Private Ryan

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Hailed as one of the most memorable and accurate epic war movies of all time, the gory and accurate opening scenes of the invasion was so accurate veterans broke in tears prompting the Defense Department’s office of Veterans Affairs to put up a toll-free 800 number for counseling. The movie was hailed as too violent and gory that many countries wanted the film’s graphic scenes cut. Spielberg stood firm opting not to release the film in countries that wanted editing. He also insisted that the film be released uncut even if review boards issue cuts and revisions in accordance with ratings.
There are many unknowns about the film, one of the best is that it was the last (very last) film edited using traditional cut and pasting of the film negatives. Known as linear editing, the scenes are viewed, literally cut and taped together which results in a master negative from which the actual film rolls are made from. The actors all received a few weeks of boot camp except Matt Damon so their resentment of him not getting battered and bruised would show in the film. The opening invasion scene also showed two actual landing crafts that were used on D-Day. The two German Tiger tanks seen in the final battle were actually Russian T-34 tanks made to look like them.