‘Saving Private Ryan’ arguably the most iconic war film ever made is heading back to the big screen in honor of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion by Allied forces across the English Channel in 1944.
Fathom Events is bringing the film to 600 cinemas nationwide for two days only on June 2nd and 5th, both days at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm.
Director Steven Spielberg’s epic stars Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Ted Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, and Giovanni Ribisi, with Matt Damon in the title role of the U.S. Army Private who Hanks’ team is sent deep into occupied France to recover. The film was written by Robert Rodat and also features Ted Danson, Paul Giamatti, Dennis Farina and Nathan Fillion in supporting roles.
The Allied landings on D-Day, codenamed Operation Neptune, kicked off a months-long campaign — called Operation Overlord — to reclaim Normandy from the firm grasp of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
Considered one of the greatest WWII films ever, Saving Private Ryan is probably best known for its initial 27 minutes which features a brutally realistic recreation of the Normandy invasion, which critic Rex Reed of the New York Observer called, “the most overwhelming and agonizing half hour I have ever spent in a theater”.
Portraying United States Army Captain John H. Miller, Hanks leads his team on a search for paratrooper Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Damon), who is the last surviving brother of four servicemen. Parts of the movie’s invasion shots were filmed on location at Omaha Beach.
Code-named Operation Neptune, D-Day as it’s more commonly referred to, was the largest seaborne invasion in history and was over a year in the planning.
The invasion featured 5,000 landing and assault craft, nearly 300 escort vessels and a similar number of minesweepers, along with over 150,000 U.S., British and Canadian troops. Allied casualties on the bloody first day numbered close to 10,000 but the invasion and subsequent stronghold established in the surrounding area set the stage for base camp operations that would ultimately enable the Allies to push the Nazi forces back through France.
Saving Private Ryan-Best Scenes
The film went on to become the highest grossing film of of 1998 and one of the most successful war movies ever made, grossing $216 million domestically and $265 million overseas. Its $481 million 1998 global box office total translates to nearly $750 million in 2019 dollars.
Saving Private Ryan was nominated for 11 Academy Award nominations at the 1999 Oscars, winning statues for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Film Editing. In one of the most famous Oscar night upsets in Academy history, the film lost the Best Picture award to Harvey Weinstein and Shakespeare in Love.
