It’s one of the greatest films of all time, but despite praise for its historical accuracy, Saving Private Ryan didn’t get everything right.
In a new video, World War II historian John McManus points out inaccuracies at the end of the film, which were presumably inserted for the sake of effective narrative.
When he spoke about the Battle of Normandy after D-Day, he began by saying how much he respected and loved Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning epic.
Speaking to Inverse, McManus said: “I want to say that respectfully because I think this is one of the most brilliant films ever made. I think those parts are beneath the dignity of a film of this brilliance. We also see the Captain (Miller, played by Tom Hanks), who is certainly dazed and beside himself due to acoustic trauma, shooting a gun at a tank, apparently a Tiger tank. Again, that’s a bit too Hollywood for me. I remember when I first saw that, thinking, ‘They’re not going to say the gun did that. That would be absurd.’ So, thankfully, it’s an airplane that does that.
“And if you look at German accounts of the Battle of Normandy, the first thing they usually mention is how suffocating the Allied air pressure could be. The planes pictured are probably not the ones that would have been used for that purpose, though. I believe they’re P-51s, and Brian even says a little later in the clip that they’re anti-tank guns. In fact, the main anti-tank guns were P-47 Thunderbolts, which tended to be better suited to that kind of task.”
McManus added: “I like that they’ve shown that the aircraft play a key role in the outcome of the battle, but I think the way it’s done isn’t all that realistic. A ground unit comes in to save the day and that’s a bit Hollywood too. But you know what, that’s not entirely unrealistic given what happened sometimes in Normandy, where there are some contested formations, particularly airborne troops, and these will meet up with amphibious land infantry units or armoured units at a pretty opportune time.
“Just for that part, I give it seven out of ten, because of the things I mentioned and the cheap Hollywood-isms like shooting a tank with a gun and stuff. Overall, though, I give the Ramelle battle scenes nine out of ten. I often say that I like those scenes, the battle scenes in the city, even better than the famous Omaha Beach scenes, because I think they are very faithful to the Battle of Normandy, exactly how it must have looked.”
