What Saving Private Ryan’s D-Day Scene Gets Wrong Explained By Historian Only4Media.com

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Summary

  • While
    Saving Private Ryan
    ‘s D-Day scene is generally very accurate, historian John McManus reveals that the film is wrong about how much armour made it ashore on Omaha Beach.
  • The D-Day sequence also features some German machine gun emplacements that are not historically accurate.
  • Saving Private Ryan
    , as a whole, is celebrated as one of the best war movies ever made because of its depiction of the horrors of combat.



Saving Private Ryan‘s D-Day sequence gets a few details wrong, reveals a World War II historian. Released in 1998, Saving Private Ryan follows Tom Hanks’ Captain Miller as he leads a mission across occupied France to rescue the last surviving brother of the Ryan family. The World War II film is widely regarded as one of the best and most accurate war movies ever made, in particular due to its portrayal of the American landing on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.

In a new video for Insider, World War II historian John McManus analyzes scenes from Saving Private Ryan‘s opening D-Day assault, specifically the section that plays after Miller and his men have made it ashore and found cover at a line of barbed wire.


It must be stated that McManus largely celebrates Saving Private Ryan‘s D-Day sequence as harrowing and effective, but he does take issue with the film’s false assertions that no American armor was able to make it onto Omaha Beach. Another detail that isn’t quite right has to do with the film’s depiction of certain German machine gun emplacements. Check out selections of McManus’ analysis below:

“Here we have a little bit of mythology, the idea that no armor made it ashore at Omaha Beach. Actually,
a lot of armor made it ashore at Omaha Beach
. The reason I think that this line is in there is because you hear him refer to DD tanks. Those are duplex drive, like amphibious tanks that swam their way in.

“Yes, it’s true that 27 out of 32 of those sank, but at the opposite end of Omaha Beach from where they are. On the side of the beach where they are, all the DD tanks got in because they were brought in by landing craft.

“Bangalore torpedoes were a major way that the Americans got off the beach. And that’s basically just explosive-laden tubes that you had to assemble together. And why was that? Because you might need a very long tube of explosives to get over that kind of barbed wire or through a minefield to create a path somehow. On Omaha Beach that is really common, especially for some of these initial waves, to use Bangalore torpedoes to blow gaps in the barbed wire.

“Although, when you see in this last part of the clip, the way the machine gun nest is portrayed is not necessarily all that accurate. It’s certainly right out there, completely vulnerable, and the Germans probably wouldn’t have had that many sandbags at a position like that.

“Yeah, I would say I’ll give it an eight out of 10. And the only reason I knock it down a peg is because of the idea of no armor making it ashore.”



Saving Private Ryan Has Been Widely Praised For Its Accuracy

What Steven Spielberg’s War Movie Gets So Right

Even though there are select details that the film gets wrong, McManus, like many other historians, is generally praiseworthy of the historical accuracy of Saving Private Ryan‘s Omaha Beach sequence. In fact, this opening D-Day assault is so effectively done that it was said to have triggered PTSD attacks among some World War II Veterans who watched it upon its release in the late ’90s. This was common enough that the Department of Veterans Affairs set up a toll-free hotline for Veterans who suffered adverse affects after watching the movie.


Authenticity was evidently very important to Spielberg, and he actually had the Saving Private Ryan cast undergo a version of military bootcamp prior to filming. With actors who had undergone some real military training and a focus on practical effects to bring the movie’s action to life, the end result is a film that feels like a realistic portrayal of the World War II experience. This specific feeling, in fact, is one of Saving Private Ryan‘s greatest strengths.

Soldiers from Saving Private Ryan - including Tom Hanks as John Miller and Tom Sizemore as Mike Horvath - in a boat landing on the beaches of Normandy.

Related

10 War Movies With The Most Realistic Action Scenes

There are plenty of war movies with quality action scenes, but these 10 stand out for their incredibly realistic and accurate portrayals of combat.

Although one could probably find a variety of historical inaccuracies when going through Saving Private Ryan with a fine-tooth comb, the movie excels because of its atmosphere and how it makes viewers feel. Even if the movie gets a machine gun emplacement wrong or fudges some historical details, it has been said to accurately portray the chaos, confusion, and horror of the combat experience for many Veterans. And it’s for this reason that Saving Private Ryan is sure to remain essential World War II movie viewing for decades to come.


Source: Insider

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