Today I read the following:
Tom Hanks performance as an Army Ranger was considered by the US Army to be brilliant and highly accurate, which is why Hanks was inducted as an honorary member of the "Ranger Hall of Fame" of the Army. (
https://ranger.org/ranger-hall-of-fame/)
He is the first actor to receive such an honor without going to war.
The Normandy landing scene was chosen by Empire magazine as the "greatest battle scene of all time", and was ranked number one on "50 Greatest Moments in History". of cinema, by TV Guide magazine.
The scene lasted 20 minutes, had the participation of 1,500 extras and cost 12 million dollars. The entire movie had a budget of $70 million, making it perhaps one of the most expensive scenes to shoot in history.
"Saving Private Ryan" was the last film to win an Oscar for best editing that was not digitally edited. In fact the film won five.
In order for them to realize what the soldiers of the WW2 had to go through, the actors who played the rescue squad had to go through a training camp. They spent ten days with a retired captain (Dale Dye), who gave them the same training that soldiers had to do before being sent to their destination. They had to march, sleep in tents, and eat army rations. They also learned how to handle weapons, clean them and disassemble them.
Spielberg did not allow Matt Damon to take that course, in order to show the contempt that his colleagues in the film had for him.
