“Saving Private Ryan” brought Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks together. From this pairing would spring three limited series: “Band of Brothers,” “The Pacific” and “Masters of the Air.” Yet the film gives us a standard to which we should hold up other films as well as the limited series and the failure to do so brings up questions of subtle racism.
Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, “Saving Private Ryan” is set in 1944 France. The film begins with the Normandy invasion, following the US Army as it lands on Omaha Beach. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) survives and takes command of what remains of the 2nd Ranger Battalion. Miller and his group get behind German lines.
Soon after, Miller is asked to assemble a team to find the titular Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) of the 101st Airborne Division. He has been listed as missing in action. His three brothers were killed in action and the General George C. Marshall wants to prevent this Ryan family from losing all of its sons.
Although this team will be traversing areas that uses the same alphabet, Miller begins by enlisting Timothy Upham (Jeremy Davies), a staff assistant without combat experience. Upham is recruited by Miller because he understands both French and German. Other recruits include Miller’s friend and second-in-command Mike Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Richard Reiben (Edward Burns), Adrian Caparzo (Vin Diesel), Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper) and combat medic Irwin Wade (Giovanni Ribisi).
Miller will die, but asks Ryan to earn the sacrifices he and his men made in order to send him safely home. Only Richard Reiben and Timothy Upham survive. This is, of course, a film about White people and all the leads are White people. Miller’s mission team includes a Jewish American (Stanley “Fish” Mellish who is played by Adam Goldberg) and I would guess that the team member Adrian Caparzo (Vin Diesel) was supposed to be Italian American. The combat medic, Irwin Wade, is played by Giovanni Ribisi who is Italian American on his father’s side. Italian American actor Dennis Farina plays Walter Anderson, the officer who assigns Miller to find Ryan.
Historical Background
While most people know that the US military forces were segregated, many are unaware that this segregation focused on African Americans and Japanese Americans. Chinese Americans and Filipinos were often placed within the general troops. Chinese American Randall Ching landed on the beaches of Normandy in 1944 as part of the 5th Ranger Infantry Battalion. Quan Wing Yip served with the 101st Airborne Division; Yip would have been in the same division as the fictional Private Ryan.
“Saving Private Ryan” was based on the Niland Brothers, but they weren’t the only brothers who went to war.
- The Sullivan Brothers (4 January 1942)
- 3 Brothers from Alabama Were Killed in WWII. Now their Family Wants FDR’s Long-Lost Condolence Letter Back (5 June 2023)
- The Niland Boys
- World War II Claimed the Lives of Four Utah Brothers (5 February 2016)
Perhaps less well known is the deaths of the three Akimoto brothers.
The film has been criticized for its lack of diversity in the forces. It did not show other Allied forces such as the British or Canadian troops.
For me, Hanks’ everyman persona reaches out to us and his weariness and gentleness reminds us of how we would all like to face the savagery of war. We feel Miller’s resolve, but also his regret at the changes that makes him wonder if his wife would recognize him or be able to love the man he has become. Yet in Rodat’s script, it is Miller’s very kindness that does him in. Through Davies’ Upham, we can see the transformation on one man and we never realize where that leaves him except alive. As often happens in a Spielberg film, the ending veers into saccharine sweetness with the speech of an older Ryan. The younger Ryan’s insistence on staying with his comrades in arms to complete their mission resulted in more deaths of the team sent to find him (Jackson, Horvath, Hellish and Miller) and send him home weighs heavily on him.
If for German and French…
The 2023 film “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant” reminded me of the importance of interpreters. In “Saving Private Ryan,” the interpreter is the first team member chosen by the leader and is an emotionally pivotal character. In war films, we should always look for the interpreters and ask where they came from. If the US troops during World War II needed interpreters for French, Italian and German, even though they use the same alphabet symbols as English, then how much more valuable were interpreters in countries where the language does not share the same writing systems? This is true with Afghanistan as shown in the Guy Ritchie film, but it was also true during World War II in the Pacific regions. This is most pointedly evident in the limited series, “The Pacific.” Yet “Band of Brothers” can also be faulted for Asian American erasure.
“Saving Private Ryan” premiered in Westwood on 21 July 1998 and was released in the US on 24 July of that year. The film was nominated for 11 Oscars, and won three (Best Film Editing, Best Effects/Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound). The film won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Score for Critics Choice Awards. At the Golden Globes, it won Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director.
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