Saving Private Ryan
Year: 1998
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Jeremy Davies, Matt Damon, Ted Danson, Paul Giamatti, Dennis Farina, Joerg Stadler, Max Martini, Dylan Bruno.
Set Locations:
Tom Hanks shows the serious side to his acting in director Steven Spielberg's 1998 World War II film 'Saving Private Ryan'. The film was highly successful, being the highest grossing film at the box office in that year. Hanks plays Captain Miller who is given the task of finding a private who has been dropped behind enemy lines in Normandy.
Captain Miller and his company are fighting their way through enemy lines following their landing on Omaha Beach as part of the D Day landing . Then, General George C Marshall in the United States discovers that three of the four Ryan brothers lost their lives in combat and that their mother received the news on the same day. He orders Miller and his company to go in and find the fourth son, Private Ryan played by Matt Damon, and make sure they get him back home safely.
After firstly saving the wrong Private Ryan in error, the company locate the correct Private and set about rescuing him. After finally overcoming the German machine gun nest, stubbornly defended by the last German soldier (known as 'Steamboat Willie'), Ryan is finally rescued. Unfortunately, Steamboat Willie shoots Captain Miller and fatally wounds him before being shot himself by another member of the company. Miller's last words to Ryan are "James, earn this. Earn it…".
For the purposes of filming, Omaha Beach is actually mostly in County Wexford in Ireland. Ramelle is in fact the former British Aerospace factory, which is at Hatfield in Hertfordshire. The county of Hertfordshire has a long history and lies just to the north of London . Although it has something of a reputation as being part of the London Commuter Belt, the majority of the land in the county is actually used for agriculture and the county retains much of its traditional beauty.
Many of the action shots are filmed at Thame Park in Oxfordshire , including the storming of Steamboat Willie's machine gun nest and the ambush of a half-track vehicle. All the large open field shots were also filmed at Thame Park. Thame Park is just one of the many good reasons to visit the picturesque and historic English county of Oxfordshire. The park is in itself a place possessing a long history dating back to Anglo Saxon times and was home to a Cistercian Abbey for four hundred years prior to the suppression of the monasteries. Thame Park also features Thame Park House and was sold into private ownership in the year 2000.
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