The Making of ‘Saving Private Ryan’s Legendary D-Day Scene Was a War in and of Itself for Steven Spielberg (2025)

Saving Private Ryan follows Tom Hanks' Captain John Miller and his team of soldiers as they attempt to locate and bring home Private James Ryan (Matt Damon) and stands out as a gem among director Steven Spielberg's already uber-impressive filmography. The World War II drama won five Academy Awards—including Best Director and Best Cinematography—and the film's brutal opening scene, which recreates the U.S. Army's landing at Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion, was singled out and praised for its accurate depiction of war. The almost half-hour sequence is harrowing and hard to watch, but keep those eyes open during your next viewing, because behind the scenes, Spielberg and his crew were fighting a war of their own to bring us one of Hollywood's most memorable scenes.

‘Saving Private Ryan’ Was a Labor of Love for Steven Spielberg

Over the course of the four exhausting weeks it took to capture the Omaha Beach sequence, Spielberg used a variety of techniques in accomplishing the cinematic feat, assembling an army of professionals and deploying them to command their respective departments. When discussing the brutal authenticity of Saving Private Ryan’s opening scene, Spielberg explained that his aim was to honor those who had stormed the beaches of Normandy by showing the real horror of war, rather than a glossed-over Hollywood version. This, of course, meant historical accuracy was key — from costumes and props to color grading and sound design.

Saving Private Ryan was shot in sequence, notoriously much more expensive and time-consuming than filming scenes out of order, meaning the film's longest and most grueling sequence was shot first. Spielberg and company's initial idea was to film on the actual beaches of Normandy, but due to the beaches being designated a protected historical landmark and a somewhat unhelpful French government, the production ultimately settled on a strip of beach along Ireland's coast called Ballinesker. This wasn't the only setback production faced in choosing a location, however. After eleven weeks of preparation for the opening sequence, a series of props were destroyed in a storm just a few days before shooting was scheduled to begin.

Omaha Beach Was 'Saving Private Ryan's Most Expensive Scene

As Ballinesker was not as large as Omaha Beach, Spielberg and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński experimented with wide-angle camera lenses to give the location a greater sense of scale. In an unusual move for the typically methodical director, Spielberg chose not to storyboard the Omaha Beach scene. Instead, Kamiński and the camera were placed in the center of the action to react spontaneously while shooting the scene, similar to the way World War II was captured by combat cameramen. Almost like planning a military operation, every decision Spielberg made during filming was agonizingly deliberate, as unit production manager Mark Huffam told the BBC, saying, "We used to every night fax him about 150 questions, and you’d come in the next morning and there would be a succinct answer to every single one of them."

The resulting four-week shoot was a kind of terrifying organized chaos. Spielberg’s soldiers — some 2500-strong Irish army reservists — were all outfitted in World War II replica uniforms handmade by head costumer and designer Joanna Johnston and her team, while former U.S. Marine Corp. captain Dale Dye was brought in to serve as a military advisor on-set with the extras. Many of the injured soldiers on the beach were played by amputees to allow the gruesome wounds to appear even more realistic, and real explosive charges were used in simulating explosions to add yet another additional layer of realism.

Altogether, the 24-minute sequence cost a whopping $12 million, almost a fifth of the film’s $70 million budget. The many months of preparation and meticulous planning necessary to pull off such a visually arresting sequence paid off for Spielberg and his crew, as Saving Private Ryan went on to (mostly) dominate the 1999 awards season. Though, perhaps what was more important for Spielberg — who described the film as a tribute to his veteran father — was being awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the United States military’s highest civilian honor. Both the historic Omaha Beach scene and the film itself were lauded by critics and veterans upon release, and to this day, Saving Private Ryan's opening sequence is considered the most accurate depiction of war ever committed to the screen.

Saving Private Ryan is available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.

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Saving Private Ryan

R

Following the Normandy Landings, a group of U.S. soldiers go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose brothers have been killed in action.

Release Date

July 24, 1998

Director

Steven Spielberg

Cast

Tom Sizemore, adam goldberg, Vin Diesel, Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Matt Damon

Runtime

169 minutes

Main Genre

War

WATCH ON PARAMOUNT+