Steven Spielberg was committed to his authentic portrayal of World War II stories. While filming Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg even sent the actors to a military BootCamp for training. The Jaws director also made some decisions that helped in adding some of the nuanced details to the film. One such scene was a badly delivered narration from Matt Damon about a story from Private Ryan’s childhood.
Some viewers still wonder why Damon’s ‘failed’ scene was added in the final cut of the movie. It is also notable that Damon improvised the lines himself. According to Spielberg, Damon played James Ryan authentically because he captured the immaturity of the hapless character.
Steven Spielberg Kept Matt Damon’s Improvised Story Even Though It Was Bad
Matt Damon‘s Private James Ryan makes a speech to Tom Hanks‘ Captain John Miller at one point in Saving Private Ryan. When Miller asks him to picture a childhood memory with his brothers, who passed away in the war, Ryan recounts a lackluster tale as opposed to the usual trope of the inspiring story. Damon improvised the speech, specifically coming up with an unfunny and dull story.
He shares the story about how his brothers would drag him to a barn at night, where he watches his eldest brother kiss an unappealing appearance. For the viewers, the story came across as childish and offensive, with a dull delivery of lines. Producer Peter Bart revealed in his book, The Gross, that the scene did not impress anyone on set, but Steven Spielberg chose to keep it for one particular reason.
Spielberg revealed that the sub-par quality of Damon’s story reflected the ordinary young man’s behavior. Private Ryan is not a heroic character but a person who gets involved in an unfortunate circumstance. He has no particularly interesting story to tell other than his normal childhood life.
According to Bart’s book, the Munich director admitted that Damon’s “ad-libbed speech was neither profound nor insightful” (via ScreenRant). However, the scene oddly worked in favor of the film as it represented an “oddly unformed kid who was fated to be at the center of this mission.” However, the audience also found one factor that stopped them from absolutely hating the scene.
Tom Hanks’ Captain Miller had a similar reaction to Ryan’s story. He was cringing throughout the delivery in the film, probably because Hanks was unaware of Damon’s improvisation. Hanks had a totally awkward reaction to the story, which resonated with the viewers of the film.
Steven Spielberg Put Saving Private Ryan Actors Through Intense Military Training
The Saving Private Ryan actors were sent to a military BootCamp headed by Vietnam war veteran Captain Dale Dye. The actors had to change their entire life routines and slip into a military routine. They had to wake up at five in the morning for intense workout sessions, which included push-ups and crawling on the ground in the rain. They had to eat what soldiers in combat would eat.
The conditions at the BootCamp got so worse that actors almost caused a mutiny and threatened to quit Steven Spielberg’s film. Many actors complained that the director was forcing them into Method acting. According to Captain Dye, it was Tom Hanks who finally stepped in and resolved the issue. All it took was one inspiring speech from Hanks, as Captain Dye recalled to Yahoo!:
You owe it to these people you’re representing on film to get this right. And in order to get it right, you’ve got to experience some of what they experienced.
The actors were finally convinced and got back into their training for the roles in the film. The training was very helpful as Saving Private Ryan is deemed to be one of the greatest war films ever. It became the second-highest-grossing film of 1998, earning a total of $482.3 million at the box office (via Box Office Mojo).
Saving Private Ryan is now available for streaming on Fubo.
