The soldier James Ryan“ emerged in 1998 as the clear winner of the World War II film duel: Although Terrence Malick’s masterpiece “The Fine Line”, which was released almost simultaneously, received euphoric reviews and a Golden Bear at the Berlinale, “Saving Private Ryan” managed to win five Oscars (out of eleven nominations) and ended up in the last box office. grossing $482.3 million, making it the second highest-grossing film of the year worldwide (after “Armageddon,” which also had competition from “Deep Impact”). For FILMSTARTS, both works are perfect 5-star masterpieces.
This is probably not least due to the opening scene, which lasts more than twenty minutes, which throws us into the middle of the so-called D-Day, i.e. the landing of the Allies in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Steven Spielberg implemented the scene so realistically that an emergency hotline for veterans even had to be set up because there was a risk of retraumatization. And when the author of these lines saw ‘Saving Private Ryan’ again in the cinema a few months ago, he was literally pushed back into his seat by the brutality and eye- and ear-splitting power of the sequence – even though he is otherwise not a particularly big fan of the movie.
But anyone who thinks ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is technically perfect is wrong: even a virtuoso like Steven Spielberg makes mistakes – which, given the confusing war, is very understandable and barely noticeable on the screen (or television). But attentive viewers won’t miss anything: when two soldiers (Tom Sizemore and Edward Burns) run across the bridge being blown up by Ryan (Matt Damon), a cameraman and another man with a cable can clearly be seen at the bottom. the right holds up – and apparently no one noticed, either on site or in post-production.
Here’s a photo of the scene in question:
However, while researching this article, we noticed that the version currently streaming on Netflix features neither the camera operator nor the cable company. Perfectionist Spielberg may have noticed the error later and digitally retouched it from the film. It should still be available to see in theaters or on older DVDs and Blu-rays:
The actual action in the scene takes place somewhere else anyway, so not too many people should have been thrown out of the movie over the small glitch. By the way, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is not the only Spielberg film that, despite all its perfection, still has one or two flaws – if you want to know why the opening scene of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom“ is not as flawless as it seems, you can read more here: