Pop Culture Flashback: 'Saving Private Ryan' (July 24)

Steven Spielberg set out to make Saving Private Ryan, his movie about the Invasion of Normandy during World War II as realistic as possible. After watching the movie, many veterans agreed with him.

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1998 – ‘Saving Private Ryan’ was Triggering for Some

A scene from "Saving Private Ryan" — *Saving Private Ryan (DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures)*

Steven Spielberg’s movie, Saving Private Ryan made a huge impact when it was released on this day. The story is set during the invasion of Normandy during World War II. After three brothers had been killed, Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) was sent on a mission to find the fourth brother, Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), and bring him home safely. The movie also starred Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper and Vin Diesel.

American historian Stephen E. Ambrose’s books inspired the movie’s script. His books contain stories from at least two families where siblings went into combat together.

Making the War Real

Spielberg wanted to present a film about the war in a way that was as authentic as possible. Frank Darabont and Scott Frank, who are both movie directors and screenwriters, were hired for uncredited rewrites. To prepare the main actors to give their best performances, they had to go through a full week of boot camp.

Many of the men who fought in World War II have said that the opening scene of the Omaha Beach battle of the movie was very realistic. Perhaps too realistic. Some couldn’t find the strength to finish watching the film. For those who could, some ended up calling the dedicated phoneline set up by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to talk through the triggering moments.

About 1,500 background actors were used to film those first tense moments of the movie. It took four weeks of filming on Ballinesker Beach in Ireland. Most of the rest of the movie was filmed in England except for the cemetery scene which was film in France.

Saving Private Ryan was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and it won five Oscars for Best Director, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound and Sound Effects Editing. Many people expected that the movie would have won the Oscar for Best Picture too, but it lost Shakespeare in Love making it one of the biggest Academy Award upsets. Don’t feel too bad for Spielberg. The movie won plenty of other awards from the Golden Globes to the Directors Guild of America.

OTHER EVENTS THAT HAPPENED ON THIS DAY:

1948 – Marvin the Martian Arrives on Earth

Marvin the Martian and his dog K-9 — *(Warner Bros. via TVDB)*

It is said that the Warner Bros. cartoon character Marvin the Martian was designed to be the complete opposite of Yosemite Sam who is known for being loud and quick-tempered but not particularly dangerous. Marvin on the other hand was characterized as being a soft-spoken villain who actually was destructive and bent on destroying the Earth because it blocks his view of Venus.

Marvin made his first appearance in movie theaters on this day in the Looney Tunes short film, Haredevil Hare, but his name was never uttered in the original shorts. It wasn’t until the character became a popular merchandising character that he was given the name Marvin.

Marvin is known for the catchphrase, “That makes me very, very angry.” Marvin has done battle with Bugs Bunny as well as Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in both the original Duck Dodgers shorts and the later TV series that aired from 2003-2005.