FAQ

Given how this has no bearing on the plot and is never mentioned; it can be assumed the characters were the same age as the actors playing them.

It means its a sign of serious infection, such as gangrene. At that point it would need to be surgically debrided along with antibiotics. Given the timeframe and their location, he'd probably be looking at amputation or death, which is why Reiben nods his head yes to Wade, indicating that the soldiers leg has gone bad.

He was praying in Latin, The Act of Contrition which translated in English means; "Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for the sins that I committed and I detest all of my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend You, my God, who are all good and deserving of all of my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance and to amend my life. Amen".

When Ryan says "on the level?" in response to being told his brothers have been killed, he's asking if Miller is being sincere. Miller's response, "Yeah, I'm afraid so," confirms he's telling the truth. It's an old-fashioned expression contemporary to the time period the film is set in, where "level" is being used in the same sense as in the still widely-used phrase "to level with someone". Nowadays instead of "On the level?" we'd be more likely to say something like "Are you serious?" or "Is this for real?".

It was a silent order to Horvath and he was mirroring the order down the line to his squad. It's following the chain officer giving the order to him and he's giving it to the men.

It is a wedge formation signal. The wedge formation is the basic formation for a team or squad like this one for open terrain because it allows the leader to maintain control while allowing the unit the flexibility to bring about its full fire capability in any direction quickly.

The Army would often utilize nets to used to attach scrim (camouflage) such as pieces of tree bark, leaves, or fabric. Another advantage was that the nets also reduced the shine of the helmet when it was wet. Many soldiers would also use nets for less essential purposes, such as storing packets of cigarettes underneath them.

Netting was not officially issued by the US Army - as a result, the majority of nets used by US troops were acquired from British or Canadian Army stocks or cut from larger camouflage nets. There is no specific reason why Capt. Miller, Sgt. Horvath, Caparzo and Wade would not wear nets and the others would as it was simply down to personal choice. For example, Pvt. Jackson would benefit more than the others by using netting since he is a sniper and would be engaging the enemy from a position of concealment - therefore he would benefit from using netting to attach scrim in order to better conceal his position.

From a production standpoint, it also gives the characters the actors play a little more distinction from each other.

They were all part of the same company under Captain Miller's command. When Miller was given the assignment of locating Private Ryan, he was told to take the "pick of the litter" and the rest of the company would get folded in to Baker Company. So Miller tells Horvath to get Rieben on B.A.R. (Browning Automatic Rifle), Jackson (a skilled sniper), Wade (a medic), Beasley (a translator) and Caparzo (a rifleman). When Horvath informs Miller that Beasley and his next pick, Talbot are dead, he picks Mellish as another rifleman instead and then recruits Upham as their translator.

The surviving soldiers would remove one of the dog tags (one tag would be worn around the neck and a second would be attached to the chain with a smaller chain to easily be removed) to bring back to base to report the death of the soldier. They would be buried in temporary graves and their graves marked. As we see, they would stick their service rifle in the ground and put the dog tag necklace through the trigger guard of the rifle. Eventually, when the area was secured, allied forces would exhume the bodies and ship them home to their families. Likewise, if soldiers were buried in enemy territory, a ceasefire was often negotiated so the bodies could be retrieved.

There's a similar scene near the end of The Thin Red Line (1998), the 2nd movie about World War II released in the same year.

Anzio is a seaside village on mainland Italy just south of Rome where the Allies landed in order to engage the forces of Germany and Italy. The Allies had already fought their way across Northern Africa to drive back Italian and German forces. After they secured that region, they invaded Sicily and did the same. They then chose Anzio where very fierce fighting took place and resulted in high casualties on both sides. Miller's unit, or part of it, fought in both North Africa and Italy and were later sent to Normandy. Horvath is also shown filling a tin with French dirt and putting it into a bag that already has tins labelled Africa and Italy.

When three of the four Ryan brothers are killed in action in World War II, Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is ordered to take a squad of soldiers from the 2nd Ranger Batalion to find the fourth brother, Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), and return him to his mother. Although the current whereabouts of Pvt Ryan are unknown, it is known that he was dropped near Neuville, Normandy behind enemy lines, so that's where the rescue team must go ...at the risk of their own lives.

Saving Private Ryan is based on a script by American screenwriter Robert Rodat. The premise is very loosely based on the real-life case of Sgt. Frederick Niland, who was sent back to New York after it was thought that his three brothers were all killed in World War II.

Besides Cpt Miller, there is Sergeant Mike Horvath (Tom Sizemore), Privates Melllish (Adam Goldberg), Caparzo (Vin Diesel), Reiben (Edward Burns), and Jackson (Barry Pepper), translator Corporal Timothy Upham (Jeremy Davies), and medic Irwin Wade (Giovanni Ribisi).

It was filmed at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial near Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

It was code-named "Omaha Beach" for one of the principal landing points of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, during the Normandy landings of June 6th, 1944. The beaches at Normandy were further divided into "sectors" for specific units to approach; Miller and his team land at "Dog Green" Sector where some of the fiercest fighting occurred.

Historically, a murder hole or meurtrière is a hole in the ceiling of a gateway or passageway in a fortification through which the defenders could fire, throw or pour harmful substances or objects such as rocks, arrows, scalding water, hot sand, quicklime, tar, or boiling oil, down on attackers.

Here it could be referring to the pillboxes (the concrete fortifications which the Germans were firing on the allies from), as their objective was to get up the beach and clear the bunkers so more troops and armour could land on the beach.

He says this because, when sending Jackson to fire on the machine gun nest, Miller distracts the gunners by temporarily exposing himself and shouting an order to draw the machine-gunner's fire.

Mellish is Jewish (this is evidenced by the fact that he has a Star of David attached to his dog tags throughout the movie and in a later scene where Mellish shows this Star of David to a line of captured Nazis and repeats "Juden" (German for "Jews") over and over. While the war has not been mainly about the wholesale murder of his people but the aggressive expansion of Germany, the Jews were the ones who have suffered the most (in combined terms of quantity, severity and degradation of standards of living). He has just been through a horrific, bloody battle in which his friends and allies were being killed all around him. He breaks down and cries after Caparzo gives him a Hitler Youth Knife taken off the dead body of a very young German soldier. The words uttered by Mellish after he receives the knife are: "And now it's a Shabbat Challah cutter (a Jewish bread knife), right?"

On November 13th, 1942, the American heavy cruiser USS Juneau was sunk in the naval Battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific War, killing nearly all of the 700-man crew, including five brothers from the same family, the Sullivans, who had contrived to serve together on the same ship. After this incident, the US military introduced the "sole survivor" policy whereby family members were forbidden to serve together in order to avoid such a tragedy ever occurring again. The scene where Miller tells Ryan his brothers are dead and Ryan asks, "Which ones?", only to be told that they have all been killed is taken almost word for word from the real life incident when the Sullivans were told of their sons' deaths.

It's an acronym: Fucked Up Beyond all Recognition, Reason or Repair. It was a common euphemism used by American troops during the war. Another popular euphemism from World War II that's actually an acronym was "SNAFU" ("sna-foo") which stood for "Situation Normal: All Fucked/Fouled Up".

It's the clip that held the cartridges popping out of the rifle's breech. The rifle used by the American infantry during World War II was the Garand M1. It featured a new type of loading system that consisted of a metal "clip" that held eight rounds. The M1 was designed to be faster to load and fire during combat in "semi-automatic" fashion, compared with older "bolt action" rifles that had to be cycled for every shot, like the Karabiner 98k that we see the German soldiers using. With the M1, the rifle could be loaded and shot faster because the bolt cycled automatically. When Mellish or Caparzo had fired all eight shots, the clip would spring out instantly. Many GIs liked the rifle for its semi-automatic action, faster loading, and target accuracy but disliked this specific feature because it provided the enemy, by the noise and sight of the clip flying out, with the knowledge that an American soldier had emptied their rifle, meaning that the enemy could charge them. More info on the M1 can be read here.

Due to the pinging sound many soldiers would carry a spare empty clip. And after firing a few shots would throw or 'twang' the empty clip. Axis soldiers would think that they could safely emerge to shoot the US soldier, who was reloading, and then would be shot.

Yes. While ranks were usually omitted from helmets to avoid making officers targets (likely removed on the battlefield, but put on when on base) photos from D-Day show some officers wearing insignias. Also, there is an urban legend that uniforms are labelled incorrectly because this helps keep the actors from breaking the law against "impersonating military personnel". If their uniforms have a few deliberate inaccuracies on them, it isn't considered breaking the law. However, this isn't against the law for motion pictures in the U.S.A. It may also be a choice on part of the filmmakers to not have actors in proper military outfits, or it could be ignorance on part of the consultants or costume department.

Reiben, Jackson, Mellish, and even Capt. Miller took a rather callous and disrespectful approach to sorting through the tags, both to the dead soldiers and the other Airborne soldiers marching by. They were too casually tossing them aside and, like Wade suggested, treating them as one would treat "poker chips" in a card game. Additionally, their chatter while doing so was also callous and was overheard by at least some of the passing paratroopers. What's interesting is that Captain Miller, obviously a fair and moral officer, didn't realize this himself and even laughed at some of the jokes that Rieben, Mellish and Jackson were making. This may have been intentional by the filmmakers to show that even moral men like Miller can become desensitized and cold to the deaths of others during a war. The writers gave the responsibility to Wade of pointing this out to the others, at which point Miller seems to snap out of it and even shows some regret when looking at the paratroopers passing by. Miller then puts an end to searching through the tags.

At the time, the Geneva Conventions (the rules settled upon by both sides in the war) stipulated that if Medics were not to be fired upon during combat then they were not permitted to carry any sort of weapon, and Wade as Medic was simply applying/following the particular principle.

No, there isn't a town in France called Ramelle. It's a fictional name made up by the writers. However, the Merderet River is real and winds through Normandy to the English Channel.

Sgt Horvath was probably trying to incapacitate, not destroy, the turret on the Tiger tank. Allied forces familiar with the Panzer VI "Tiger", a 60-ton Main Battle Tank during the war knew that the armor is very tough and, even with support fire from a friendly tank, the odds of destroying a Tiger tank with a bazooka like Horvath's are pretty small. From the infantry perspective, techniques that were developed and employed in order to combat heavy Tiger tanks focused mainly on disabling the tank rather than destroying it. Anti-tank weapons of the era, such as the bazooka, were ineffective against most areas of the Tiger's armor, so specific weak points in the design were the focus. Hitting the Tiger in the tracks, suspension, engine compartment, observation slits, and in the joint between the main body and turret were some of the common weak points. Tiger tanks could only be destroyed head-on or from the sides by land mines, or direct hits by heavy artillery shells, or bombs dropped from aircraft. In the film, the first Tiger is disabled by taking out the tracks with "sticky bombs" followed by grenades thrown in the turret hatch. When Horvath fires at the second Tiger, both shots are clearly placed on the joint between the body and the turret, the idea most likely being to hinder or incapacitate the turret's ability to swivel left or right. As the war went on, the Allies developed better strategies for disabling Tigers. One example involved British Cromwell or US Sherman tanks trying to "flank" a Tiger by working in squadrons or columns. One or more tanks would act as a diversion to keep the Tiger's crew focused in front of it while another tank would maneuver behind the Tiger and hit it in the rear section where its armor was the weakest.

There is also what some people call the "Rattle Effect", basically blunting the effectiveness of the crew by making them concerned that the next shell could find a weak spot. Additionally, making the crew keep hatches closed reduces their ability to see their surroundings so leaves them open to flanking attacks.

He's lining up the primer ends of the rounds in the magazine. When he raps them on his helmet, they are forced flush against the interior of that wall of the magazine. When they're all lined up, there's less of a chance that they'll jam in the breech of the rifle (a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) M1918A2 in this case), forcing the operator to stop shooting and clear the jammed round from the breech, costing valuable seconds or minutes during combat. There are a couple of similar moments in Full Metal Jacket.

If you listen closely you can hear fragments of the grenades hitting the interior walls of the tank, the sound effect used is very similar to the sound effect of certain gunshots used in the film, so it is easily missed. You wouldn't naturally see smoke anyway due to them closing the hatch, which is roughly 2 inches of thick metal, as is the exterior of the tank turret itself. Typically, grenades used in combat are fragmentation grenades. A charge is ignited inside the grenade causing it to explode and project shrapnel, which is why the outer casing of the M2 grenade looks like a pineapple, it's actually designed to break apart in pieces that are like bullets. The familiar sight of a grenade causing a fiery explosion is most often for dramatic or FX purposes. After the grenade goes off, the hatch isn't opened again so we don't see any smoke escaping the tank. By then, the perspective of the battle has shifted away from the tank.

M2 grenades were mainly used as anti-personnel weapons, not as demolition. In short, they aren't nearly powerful enough to blow apart a tank so you don't really see a fiery explosion. However, a grenade thrown or tossed inside a tank is still quite deadly to the troops inside.

There are two scenes in which the American characters come into close contact with German soldiers. In both of those scenes, the Germans are portrayed simply as soldiers fighting for their country and their families. While it is understandable that those of German heritage, who likely had a relative fight for their country during World War II, might be displeased with films in which the Germans are portrayed as the antagonists, they should also understand that Saving Private Ryan is filmed to look like a documentary from the Allied perspective. For the most part, the German soldiers are shown as "the enemy in the distance", as it would appear if a documentary is being shot from within the ranks of the Allies. See also: Das Boot (1981) (1981), which shows the war from the German perspective and does not portray the Allied soldiers as evil monsters, simply as "the enemy in the distance." One should remember that the Germans were fighting a war of aggression that their leaders started, and they were in fact occupying a foreign country. The argument could be made that the common, non-Waffen-SS German soldiers were only following orders and were not involved in the politics, and though that's true, it's also true that many of them had been indoctrinated into believing that what they were being ordered to do was right. The truth is that some ordinary German soldiers committed atrocities (predominantly mutilation and murder) against captured Allied soldiers in Normandy, and many Allied soldiers retaliated in kind. It's difficult to unfairly portray soldiers of an aggressor, occupying army.

No. This movie is fiction based on true events, and is not intended to be an educational documentary.

They're called barrage balloons, commonly used during the war. They are used to stop low-level bombing and low-level fly-bys by enemy fighter planes. The cables attached to the balloons are designed to cut through the wings of the aircraft and to bring them down. Any pilot would have to fly above them, and the balloons would also restrict the view from above.

There's no tree-cover to the left. Whoever goes that way will likely be spotted and targeted before the others and get gunned down, but it's their best chance that one of them will make it into grenade range of the nest before they're all killed even as Miller says about the gunner "changes out his barrels". It's not a job anyone would immediately volunteer for, and the captain's trying to get someone to volunteer so he doesn't have to potentially order two men to their deaths on a mission that all of them, including himself, think isn't worthwhile. Also most people are not ambidextrous (ability to use both hands equally well) so running left means you'll have shoot left or use the right shoulder to shoot as you're running left which is much harder to do. However, Barry Pepper and by extension Jackson is left-handed. So that helps with that scenario as he's the one who volunteers to go left.

They weren't plastic bags, but bags made from a substance known as pliofilm, a rubber-based clear (and later dark green) material developed in 1934 by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company and used by American soldiers at Normandy, The bags were meant to keep sand and water out of their weapons and magazines as long as possible in order to prevent gun jamming and wet gunpowder,before they needed to be used in combat, as Captain Miller comments "Keep the sand out of your weapons, keep those actions clear, I'll see you on the beach".

it's an American Military slang for a kilometer.

Yes, there were actual sticky bombs used during World War II. Developed by the British, they were nitroglycerin-filled glass spheres, coated with a sticky adhesive-like axle grease and covered by a protective metal sheathing that was stripped away before being thrown. Designed as anti-tank weapons, the bombs were often more dangerous to the user than to the tank, occasionally getting stuck to the person who was throwing it or even igniting while being handled or during transport. In addition, Britain trained their Home Guard units in the making of improvised sticky bombs, the most common being glass containers of nitroglycerin inside a bag soaked in the glue compound, and dropped onto enemy tanks from rooftops. The G.I. may have learned of the improvised method, as actual sticky grenades only made it into the hands of very few combat units.

Those obstacles were part of the German defenses and were intended to rip out the bottom of Allied landing craft. Rommel and his staff assumed the Allies would attempt to land at high tide, reducing the amount of open beach the Allied troops would have to cover. If the Allies had landed at high tide, those metal obstacles would have been effective, however, Allied planners elected to land at low tide to expose the obstacles. Nicknamed "Czech Hedgehogs", once they were placed on the sand, the tide would wash against them and they'd sink into the sand, making them very difficult to remove.

There was a 2nd type of obstacle placed on the beach: a simple structure consisting of two logs attached at an angle and pointing out to sea. They'd likely have the same effect.

Because of concern about hitting Allied troops, Allied bombers were ordered to delay their drop point a couple of seconds inland. All their bombs fell well behind the German defenses. The naval bombardment was curtailed in attempt to preserve the element of surprise. however, the key element of the US troops getting off the beach at Omaha where the US Navy destroyers that closed on the shore until there were literally only a couple of inches of water beneath their keel. at point-blank range they dueled with the German gun emplacements and cleared exits from the beach.

Yes. Of the six regiments of American paratroopers launched into Normandy, only two got their men to the right drop zones. Ironically, one of those regiments was the 506th which is Private Ryan's regiment. German anti-aircraft cannons were much more effective and numerous than the Allies thought they'd be, causing many aircraft to be shot down or forced off course. The scattering is an occurrence that's shown in more detail in Spielberg and Hanks' 2001 miniseries about the 506th, Band of Brothers.

They were mainly Churchill and M-4 Sherman tanks designed to float into the beach, the DD means duplex drive, meaning they had a drive mechanism to propel them through the water as well as on land. One of a few tank variants designed by Major General Percy Hobart (British Army) the idea and production was mainly used by the British and not formally adopted by the United States, although they did have a few. The tanks were also equipped with an inflatable skirt to provide buoyancy. These floating tanks had a very low freeboard however, and could swamp easily in rough seas. That's exactly what happened at D-Day. most of the DD tanks went straight to the bottom when launched, drowning their crews. Of the 280 launched from 5000yds only around 160 made it to the beach.

Some viewers thought he was saying CADAFF CADAFF, but he was actually saying C.A.T.F. which is Commander Amphibious Task Force. He's likely trying to make radio contact with the command contingent of his unit.

That is the division patch of the 29th Infantry Division, a National Guard Division with troops from Virginia, Maryland and D.C. it was known as the Blue-Gray Division because it had regiments with ties to both the Confederate and Union armies. All U.S. soldiers wear their division patch on their left shoulder.

The coxswains unloading their troops too far out caused some of this. In many cases, however there were deep pools of water caused by exploding Naval shells that had fallen short. These deep holes couldn't be seen from the landing craft and so troops who thought they were unloading into shallow water stepped off into water that was 30 ft deep in some cases.

"Solitude" by Duke Ellington.

"Tu Es Partout" (You are Everywhere).

They were doing triage which is the process of prioritizing medical care when resources are not available to treat all patients equally. Medics and doctors on Omaha Beach had little in the way of supplies in order to treat wounded and, in many cases, had to suffice with little more than sulfa powder, morphine, and bandages.

It is eiderdown that blows into the air when they get hit by a bullet. They used eiderdown because it was a very warm filling for their assault jackets. Eider is still rarely used in the manufacture of some sleeping pillows and quilts.

"Comp" is short for Composition B, an explosive its used as a burster in rockets, land mines and projectiles, its a mixture of RDX and TNT. The chemical composition of the compound made it a more stable explosive than TNT so it could be carried by soldiers and demo experts without the fear of it suddenly exploding like sticks of TNT might when jostled too heavily. It's the same explosive that's used to destroy the heavy cannons in the second episode of Band of Brothers ("Day of Days") but in that series the troops using it simply call it "TNT", probably because it's easier to remember.

The World War II M1A1 Bangalore Torpedo was a pipe-shaped Class V anti-personnel mine-clearing charge capable of blasting a ten- to 20-foot wide path through a minefield or section of barbed wire. It was typically filled with TNT. Short connecting sleeves were used to attach the threaded ends of two or more tubes in order to create a longer explosive device. A rounded nose sleeve was placed on the leading end of a tube in order to push the tube through obstacles. The torpedo was set off by placing a blasting cap in the recessed end cap well and igniting it with a time-delayed (electric or non-electric) fuse, it was designed in 1912 by Captain McClintock (Royal Engineers) whilst serving with the Bengal, Bombay and Madras Sappers and Miners. Developed in Bangalore, India the original design was for a means of blowing up booby traps and barricades left over from the Second Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War without harming the sappers who previously did so by hand.

In this case, the bangalores were used to clear out the mines and barbed wire the Germans had placed in front of their bunkers so Miller's unit could advance.

Some were chewing gum. But most were chewing tobacco.

It is protection from hostile observation and fire provided by an obstacle such as a hill, ridge, or bank.

The Allies arbitrarily divided the beaches into sectors and assigned letters of the phonetic alphabet to them. In the alphabet of the time, A was Able, B was Baker, C was Charlie, D was Dog, E was Easy, and so on. Omaha sectors were Able through George while Utah Beach had Peter through William. Each sector was further subdivided into three colors, Green, White, and Red (West to East). Not all the sectors would be used. Omaha, for instance, was only going to use Charlie through Fox. Easy Sector on Omaha was only divided into Red and Green. The 29th Infantry Division, 5th Rangers and Charlie Company, 2nd Rangers were to land on Dog Green. The 1st Infantry Division landed at Easy Red and Green.