Concept Producer
Mark Gordon was a fan of writer
Robert Rodat's previous work on films such as
Tall Tale (1995) and
Fly Away Home (1996). The pair met in early 1995 to discuss potential projects and ideas. Within a few weeks, Rodat conceived of
Saving Private Ryan. At Hanks's and Dye's suggestion, Spielberg had the principal cast take part in a six-day
boot camp, wanting them to experience cold, wet, and exhaustive conditions, like those of WWII soldiers. Overseen by Dye and retired U.S. Marines, the actors remained in character while simulating attacks, performing runs with full backpacks, weapons training, military exercises, and push-ups after making mistakes, on three hours of sleep per night in cold and rainy conditions. The men wanted to quit, but Hanks convinced them otherwise, saying they would regret not following through and the experience would help them understand their characters and motivations. Diesel said, "at that moment we got this huge respect for him in real life, we were all exhausted, we all wanted to leave and here was this guy who was a superstar, who doesn't have to be here, voting to stay". Dye was present throughout filming to remind the actors of their training. Spielberg kept Damon out of the boot camp because he wanted the other actors to resent him and his character.
Pre-production The pre-production for
Saving Private Ryan was truncated because Spielberg chose to film
Amistad (1997) immediately after finishing work on
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). Cinematographer
Janusz Kamiński spent several weeks performing camera tests to define the film's visual aesthetic. The pair considered filming
monochromatically as Spielberg had with his Holocaust film, ''
Schindler's List (1993). However, they considered that this would seem "pretentious," and were interested in emulating the colored WWII footage from their research. Kamiński let his interpretation of the narrative dictate how to light scenes and narrowed down visual styles by identifying which films he did not want Saving Private Ryan
to emulate. He and Spielberg were visually influenced by WWII documentaries, such as Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), The Battle of Midway (1942), Why We Fight'' (1942–1945), and the
Nazi propaganda films of
Leni Riefenstahl. They also looked at various books, paintings, and photographs of the Omaha Beach invasion taken by the war photographer
Robert Capa. Kamiński wanted it to look like a major production "shot on
[16 mm film] by a bunch of combat cameramen". A variety of camera techniques were used to emulate the experience of being on a battlefield: Kamiński removed the protective coating on some lenses, creating a "flatter", degraded image akin to WWII-era cameras, and mismatched lenses when using multiple cameras for an inconsistent result; alternating
shutter angles and speeds; and desynchronizing the camera shutter which created a "streaking" effect. Kamiński considered this a risky option because if it failed there was no way to fix the image in post-production. A
Clairmont Camera Image Shaker vibrated the camera to emulate the effects of a nearby explosion or rolling tank. Spielberg chose to film in
1.85:1 aspect ratio because he believed it was more lifelike and closer to "the way the human eye really sees," and found
widescreen formats to be artificial. Three months were spent scouting for a location to portray the Normandy coast. The real location was too developed for their needs, and many other French beaches were restricted by military or wildlife use; Spielberg believed officials were difficult because they did not want him filming there. Beaches researched in England and Scotland lacked either the aesthetics or amenities required, such as housing for the crew, and the filmmakers needed a specific depth for the cast to leap from the landing crafts into the water. Associate producer, Kevin De La Noy's earlier work on
Braveheart (1995) in Ireland had developed contacts with the Irish Army and knowledge of local beaches. One such location, the long Curracloe Beach, near
Curracloe, County Wexford, offered the desired golden sands and sheer cliffs and nearby amenities. Spielberg selected a segment of the beach, known as Ballinesker. He said, "I was a bit disappointed that the beach we used wasn't as broad as the real Omaha Beach... I tried to use certain wide-angle lenses to extend the length of the flats on the sandy beach before the soldiers reach the shingle. I used wider lenses for geography and tighter lenses for the compression of action." A segment adjacent to
Blackwater, also in Wexford, was considered, but the local nuns could not make the land available in time. Service roads were built for vehicles to reach Ballinesker. Production designer
Thomas E. Sanders led construction of the concrete battlements, bunkers,
Czech hedgehogs, and barbed wire, much of which was made by local metalworkers. Over eleven weeks were spent preparing Ballinesker for filming. A storm destroyed some of the props just before filming, but they were rebuilt overnight. The main crew arrived on location on June 25, 1997.
Filming in Ireland Principal photography began on June 27, 1997. Filming completed up to 50 shots per day. Spielberg wanted the actors to get little rest, "A war is fought fast, and I really wanted to keep all of the actors off-balance. I didn't want them to be able to read 75 pages of a novel... I wanted to work fast enough so that they always felt as if they were in combat... I had to keep them on the set, which meant shooting the film even faster than I normally do. War doesn't give you a break."
Saving Private Ryan was shot almost entirely in continuity order, although some of the crew found this "a mentally demoralizing experience" because the cast started together and left as their characters died. The Omaha Beach battle was filmed over three to four weeks, for $12million. The scene involved about 1,500 people including 400 crew, 1,000 volunteer
reserve and
Irish army soldiers, and dozens of extras and about 30 amputees and paraplegics fitted with prosthetic limbs to portray disfigured soldiers. Their numbers were supplemented with over one thousand detailed mannequins. The extras were divided into platoons with a designated leader, allowing Dye to control their action via four different radios with aid from three
non-commissioned officers. Costume designer
Joanna Johnston contracted an American company responsible for making boots for soldiers during WWII to create about 2,000 pairs, using the last batch of dye from that period. Soldiers in the ocean wore wet suits beneath their uniforms to minimize hypothermia.
Armorer Simon Atherton was responsible for supplying authentic weapons. Two
Higgins Boats used in the landings were used in the scene; additional boats from the 1950s were brought from California, Donegal, and Southampton. Hanks recalled: Soldiers vomiting from the boats was achieved using
milk of magnesia. A
crane shot moving from beneath the ocean surface to above the battlefield was achieved by placing the crane on a flatbed trailer and reversing it into the sea. The Omaha Beach sequence was extensively choreographed by stunt coordinator
Simon Crane, with
squibs and explosives managed by
Neil Corbould. The only serious accident resulted when an extra's foot was run over by a car. Thousands of gallons of fake blood were used, mainly to turn the ocean and shoreline red. Based on his interviews with veterans, Spielberg had dead fish strewn in the water and around the battlefield, as well as floating a Bible on the surface. Bullet impacts were emulated using air pipes concealed beneath the sand and ocean surface. Drums of diesel fuel were burned to create black smoke, while a series of pickup trucks carried systems to disperse white smoke. During filming, the weather was cold, rainy, and overcast; Kamiński said this matched the weather during the Normandy landings, enhancing the film's accuracy. Artificial light was used sparingly apart from on the boats to highlight the actors' eyes under their helmets. Spielberg had the camera stay close to the ground to appear as if it was the view of a soldier avoiding getting shot or a combat cameraman. He intended for the audience to feel like they were a part of the battle rather than watching. Most of
Saving Private Ryan was filmed with handheld cameras. This was physically demanding on camera operator Mitch Dubin and
Steadicam operator Chris Haarhoff due to both proximity to the ground and movement through exploding scenery. The camera was close enough that fake blood, water, and sand would stick to the camera lens, but the filmmakers believed this made the footage more authentic. Kamiński considered the extensive setup of explosives, smoke, and choreography of over a thousand characters to be demanding as it could take half a day to reset if something went wrong, but the majority of scenes in the sequence were captured in less than four takes, using up to three cameras simultaneously. Spielberg said, "I rarely walked away from a scene until I got what I wanted, and I'd say that I got what I wanted from those complex setups about 80 percent of the time." He reviewed each day's footage nightly in a local parish hall. The production crew remained after filming to restore the beach to its original state over the following month, per an ecological protection order.
Filming in England and France near
Omaha Beach. Filming relocated to the
Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, England, at the end of August, for the remaining scenes and the battle of Ramelle. French towns and rivers were scouted where a partial set could be built, but this was discarded over environmental concerns of filming contaminating the water. Instead, Sanders and his team built the fictional Ramelle on the grounds of the Aerodrome, based on five towns where fighting took place. Nearly three
city blocks long, the set included fully built buildings, facades, and a custom built, long river. The river was lined because they "had to control the height of the water very carefully". Explosives were used to create bomb craters and damage around Ramelle. Though the battle involved fewer extras than the Omaha Beach scene, several weeks were spent developing the complex choreography based on a battle plan devised by Dye. Spielberg did not
storyboard Saving Private Ryan because he wanted to position the camera spontaneously in reaction to what was taking place in each scene and he often relied on Dye and other WWII consultants for advice on staging the combat scenes. Dale also advised on technical aspects of weapons; where Spielberg wanted to use larger explosions typically found in Hollywood action films, Dye would generally advise him to "go half that size, they were never that big". The production was estimated to have spent about £8million in the local area. Spielberg's spontaneous approach carried into other aspects; about halfway through filming, he decided to depict the remainder of the film from Upham's perspective, believing he represented the audience's inexperience of war. Goldberg's character was only going to be shot dead until Dye suggested a hand-to-hand combat sequence on the day of filming, leading Mellish to be stabbed through the heart. A separate scene of Ryan talking about his brothers was ad-libbed by Damon. The German machine-gun nest and following ambush of a half-track vehicle were filmed on the grounds of
Thame Park, Thame, in
Oxfordshire; the chapel interior where Miller's men rest was filmed in the Thame Park chapel. The Iowa cornfields where Ryan's mother lives in a house built for filming was set near
West Kennet, Wiltshire. The American war office was filmed in the Hatfield Aerodrome. Kamiński wanted scenes in America to be more colorful and a relief from the muted tones of the combat scenes, so he positioned very bright lighting outside the windows. Scenes featuring the elderly Ryan were filmed at the
Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in
Colleville-sur-Mer, France, adjacent to Omaha Beach. Filming concluded ahead of schedule on September 13, 1997, after 12 weeks, with the French church interior scenes. The estimated total budget was $65–$70million.
Post-production Kamiński chose to render his footage using
Technicolor's proprietary ENR process (similar to a
bleach bypass) which retained more silver in the
film stock and produced deeper blacks. He used "70 percent ENR" for a desaturated image which added a blue hue. Concerned this change would make the fake blood appear inauthentic, the effects department mixed blue coloring into it, giving it a dark red appearance. Visual-effects studio
Industrial Light & Magic provided digital enhancements; many bullet wounds and blood splatter were
computer-generated imagery.
Michael Kahn edited the final 170-minute cut. Spielberg said that Kahn's style was intended to defy audience expectations and not make every scene or transition clear. Some scenes were cut because of their graphic imagery, such as Miller's unit encounter with burnt out tanks with charred bodies. Mellish's death was also trimmed, removing parts where the character screams in pain, after Spielberg's projectionist said "It's too painful to watch." Spielberg said his movie had to be "ugly", but was worried the violent content could be seen as exploitative and earn it a restrictive
NC-17 rating from the
Motion Picture Association of America, restricting it to audiences over 17 years of age. He anticipated that the "historical importance" of the content would be taken into consideration; it received an
R rating, meaning children could watch when accompanied by an adult.
Music John Williams, Spielberg's longtime collaborator, produced, composed and conducted the score. Spielberg chose little music accompaniment, wanting the sounds of battle and death to be prominent. Using a
spotting process, he and Williams watched a rough cut of the film to agree on which scenes would feature music. Williams deliberately avoided "anything grandiose or operatic". Williams recorded the 55-minute score over three days at
Symphony Hall in Boston, with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra and vocals by the
Tanglewood Festival Chorus. The recording cost about $100,000 per hour. Spielberg chose the Orchestra: "This is a movie about a company of soldiers, and it seemed appropriate to use an experienced company of musicians who are all virtuosos. Also we really wanted the sound of this room, Symphony Hall. On a soundstage you can get acoustically correct sound, but you don't hear the air. Here you get a rich, warm sound off the walls and ceiling, and you do hear the air; Symphony Hall is an instrument too." ==Release==