The ‘Saving Private Ryan’ scene that was 26 years in the making: “I saw something I’ll never forget”
As if it wasn’t already abundantly clear from his filmography, Steven Spielberg is a lifelong World War II history buff, which he’s incorporated into his filmography in a variety of different ways.
From the farcical stylings of the misfiring blockbuster comedy 1941 to Harrison Ford’s title character battling against Nazis in the original Indiana Jones trilogy via the heartbreaking drama of Schindler’s List and his status as the executive producer of Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Masters of the Air, the three-time Academy Award winner has frequently used the conflict as a narrative backdrop.
Whether it’s played for laughs, tears, thrills, or action, Spielberg’s obsession with the war was the biggest inspiration behind two of his greatest-ever movies. Whereas Schindler’s List focused on the intimate, human cost of World War II to haunting effect, Saving Private Ryan went straight for the jugular.
Audiences didn’t know what they’d signed up for when they took their seats to see the filmmaker’s ear-shattering masterpiece in the summer of 1998, but after the staggering D-Day sequence, they were under no illusions that this was an immersive, authentic, and pulse-pounding story like no other.
It’s undoubtedly one of the finest moments the highest-grossing director in cinema history has ever crafted, which makes it easy to forget that it’s not the opening scene. Saving Private Ryan begins with Harrison Young’s older James Ryan visiting the cemetery in Normandy and collapsing from grief in front of his fallen comrades, and it was something Spielberg had in his mind for 26 years.
There aren’t many parallels to be drawn between the film and its director’s breakthrough feature, Duel, but the promotional trail for the made-for-TV chase thriller saw Spielberg witness a crushing reality that he held onto for two and a half decades before incorporating it into his seminal work.
It may have premiered on the small screen in the United States, but Duel was released theatrically in many European countries, including France. When he crossed the Atlantic to drum up buzz for his white-knuckle tale in 1972, the World War II aficionado made a point of visiting hallowed ground.
“On my first free day, I got in a car, and I went to Omaha beach,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I spent a whole day there. I saw something I’ll never forget. I saw a man walking ahead of me with his entire family. The man collapsed upon seeing all the crosses and Stars of David, and he began to sob uncontrollably, and his family had to help him to his feet.”
That image was permanently etched into Spielberg’s psyche, and he drew from that experience to begin Saving Private Ryan. “That’s how this movie starts,” he said. “It starts with something I actually observed happening right in front of me in 1972.”
It was a powerful way to begin the film, but it carries even more heft knowing that it wasn’t as if Spielberg or screenwriter Robert Rodat conjured it up so they could bookend the picture. The director saw it happen, and he never forgot.
