Week 6 - Saturday, December 19th, 2015

Aim: What was the inspiration of the movie "Saving Private Ryan"?

Do Now: Why do you think its important to celebrate people who give service to our country?

Lesson Overview:

Overview

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war drama film set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II. Directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat, the film is notable for its graphic and realistic portrayal of war, and for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which includes a depiction of the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944. It follows United States Army Rangers Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and a squad (Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies) as they search for a paratrooper, Private first class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who is the last-surviving brother of four servicemen.

Saving Private Ryan received universal critical acclaim, winning several awards for film, cast, and crew, as well as earning significant returns at the box office. The film grossed US$481.8 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of the year. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated the film for 11 Academy Awards; Spielberg's direction won him a second Academy Award for Best Director, with four more awards going to the film. Saving Private Ryan was released on home video in May 1999, earning another $44 million from sales. In 2014, Saving Private Ryan was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry as it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Plot

On the morning of June 6, 1944, the beginning of the Normandy Invasion, American soldiers prepare to land on Omaha Beach. They suffer heavily from their struggle against German infantry, machine gun nests, and artillery fire. Captain John H. Miller, a company commander of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, survives the initial landing and assembles a group of his Rangers to penetrate the German defenses, leading to a breakout from the beach. In Washington, D.C, at the U.S. War Department, General George Marshall is informed that three of the four brothers of the Ryan family were killed in action and that their mother is to receive all three telegrams in the same day. He learns that the fourth son, Private First Class James Francis Ryan, is a paratrooper and is missing in action somewhere in Normandy. Marshall, after reading Abraham Lincoln's Bixby letter, orders that Ryan must be found and sent home immediately.

Three days after D-Day, Miller receives orders to find Ryan and bring him back from the front. He assembles seven men from his company— TSgt. Mike Horvath, Privates Richard Reiben, Stanley Mellish, Adrian Caparzo, Danny Jackson, medic Irwin Wade—and T/5 Timothy Upham, a cartographer who speaks French and German, loaned from the 29th Infantry Division. Miller and his men move out to Neuville; there, they meet a platoon from the 101st Airborne Division, and Caparzo dies after being shot by a sniper. Eventually, they locate a Private James Ryan, but soon learn that he is not their man. They find a member of Ryan's regiment who informs them that his drop zone was at Vierville and that his and Ryan's companies had the same rally point. Once they reach it, Miller meets a friend of Ryan's, who reveals that Ryan is defending a strategically important bridge over the Merderet River in the town of Ramelle. On the way to Ramelle, Miller decides to neutralize a German machine gun position, despite the misgivings of his men. Wade is fatally wounded in the ensuing skirmish, but Miller, at Upham's urging, declines to execute a surviving German and sets him free on condition that he give himself up as a prisoner of war to the first Allied unit he encounters. No longer confident in Miller's leadership, Reiben declares his intention to desert the squad and the mission, prompting a confrontation with Horvath. The argument heats up until Miller defuses the situation by disclosing his background in civilian life, about which the squad had earlier set up a betting pool. Reiben then reluctantly decides to stay.

Upon arrival at Ramelle, Miller and the squad come upon a small group of paratroopers commanded by a Corporal Henderson, one of whom is Ryan. Ryan is told of his brothers' deaths, the mission to bring him home, and that two men had been lost in the quest to find him. He is distressed at the loss of his brothers, but does not consider it fair to go home, asking Miller to tell his mother that he intends to stay "with the only brothers [he has] left." Miller decides to take command and defend the bridge with what little manpower and resources are available. Using his own men and the accompanying paratroopers, Miller forms ambush positions throughout the ruined town for the tanks and infantry utilizing molotovs, Det cord, and "sticky bombs" made from socks and TNT. Elements of the 2nd SS Panzer Division arrive with infantry and armor. Paratroopers attempt to lure the armor down the first street in an effort to destroy them with their sticky bombs, but only one Tiger tank takes the bait.

In the ensuing combat both sides take heavy casualties. Nearly all of the paratroopers in Ryan's squad are killed. Jackson's position in the church tower is compromised and destroyed by a Tiger tank. Horvath is shot multiple times, once in the waist area with a pistol and again in the chest. Shortly after reaching the "Alamo" (as Miller refers to the bridge), Horvath dies from his wounds. A terrified Upham hides, unable to act even when he sees Mellish's life in peril. Due to his failure to distribute ammunition, Mellish and Henderson's flank is compromised as they deplete their ammunition. Henderson, fatally shot in the neck, bleeds to death. Mellish shoots the German who killed Henderson but, out of ammo, desperately struggles hand to hand with a Waffen-SS soldier who manages to stab him with Mellish's own bayonet. While attempting to blow the bridge, Miller is shot and mortally wounded by the German soldier he had set free earlier (who, contrary to his word, has evidently rejoined German forces). Just before a Tiger tank reaches the bridge, an American P-51 Mustang flies overhead and destroys the tank, followed by American armored units which rout the remaining Germans. The German infantryman who killed Miller raises his hands in surrender to a now furious Upham, but Upham, enraged at his treachery, shoots him, and lets the other surviving Germans flee in panic.

Reiben and Ryan are with Miller as he dies and says his last words, "James ... earn this. Earn it." In the present day, an elderly Ryan and his family visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Ryan stands at Miller's grave and asks his wife to confirm that he has led a good life, that he is a "good man" and thus worthy of the sacrifice of Miller and the others. His wife replies, "You are." At this point, Ryan stands at attention and delivers a salute toward Miller's grave.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Private_Ryan

Fact vs. Fiction

Saving Private Ryan has received critical acclaim for its realistic portrayal of World War II combat. In particular, the sequence depicting the Omaha Beach landings was named the "best battle scene of all time" by Empire magazine and was ranked number one on TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest Movie Moments".[15] The scene cost US$12 million and involved up to 1,500 extras, some of whom were members of the Irish Reserve Defence Forces. Members of local reenactment groups such as the Second Battle Group were cast as extras to play German soldiers.[16] In addition, twenty to thirty actual amputees were used to portray American soldiers maimed during the landing.[17] Spielberg did not storyboard the sequence, as he wanted spontaneous reactions and for "the action to inspire me as to where to put the camera".[18]

Saving Private Ryan was noted for its recreation of the Omaha Beach landings.

The historical representation of Charlie Company's actions, led by its commander, Captain Ralph E. Goranson, was well maintained in the opening sequence. The sequence and details of the events are very close to the historical record, including the seasickness experienced by many of the soldiers as the landing craft moved toward the shoreline, significant casualties among the men as they disembarked from the boats, and difficulty linking up with adjacent units on the shore. The distinctive signature "ping" of the US soldiers M1 Garand rifles ejecting their ammunition clips is heard throughout the battle sequence. The contextual details of the Company's actions were well maintained, for instance, the correct code names for the sector Charlie Company assaulted, and adjacent sectors, were used. Included in the cinematic depiction of the landing was a follow-on mission of clearing a bunker and trench system at the top of the cliffs which was not part of the original mission objectives for Charlie Company, but which they did undertake after the assault on the beach.[19]

The landing craft used included twelve actual World War II examples, 10 LCVPs and 2 LCMs, standing in for the British LCAs that the Ranger Companies rode in to the beach during Operation Overlord.[19][20] The filmmakers used underwater cameras to better depict soldiers being hit by bullets in the water. Forty barrels of fake blood were used to simulate the effect of blood in the seawater.[17] This degree of realism was more difficult to achieve when depicting World War II German armored vehicles, as few examples survive in operating condition. The Tiger I tanks in the film were copies built on the chassis of old, but functional, Soviet T-34 tanks.[21] The two vehicles described in the film as Panzers were meant to portray Marder III tank destroyers. One was created for the film using the chassis of a Czech-built Panzer 38(t) tank[22] similar to the construction of the original Marder III; the other was a cosmetically modified Swedish SAV m/43 assault gun, which also used the 38(t) chassis.[23]

Inevitably, some artistic license was taken by the filmmakers for the sake of drama, distorting the historical veracity of the film's presentation. There are strategic and operational, as well as tactical flaws in the film's depiction of the Normandy campaign. There is a strategic problem in that at the time of the mission, American forces from the two American beach areas - Utah and Omaha - had not yet linked up.[24] Had such a mission been executed in reality, a Ranger team operating out of the Omaha beach area would have had to move through the heavily enemy-occupied city of Carentan, or swim or boat across the estuary linking Carentan to the channel, or transfer by boat to the Utah landing area. On the other hand, US forces moving out of Utah would have had direct and much shorter routes, relatively unencumbered by enemy positions, and were already in contact with some teams from both US airborne divisions landed in the area.[25] The Utah beach landings, however, were relatively uncontested, with assault units landing on largely unoccupied beaches and experiencing far less action than the landings at Omaha.[26] The filmmakers chose to begin the narrative with a depiction of the more dramatic story of Omaha, despite the strategic inaccuracy of an impossible mission that could easily have been pursued from the other beach area. In addition, one of the most notable of the operational flaws is the depiction of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich as the adversary during the fictional Battle of Ramelle. The 2nd SS was not engaged in Normandy until July, and then at Caen against the British and Canadians, 100 miles east.[27] Furthermore, the Merderet River bridges were not an objective of the 101st Airborne Division but of the 82nd Airborne Division, part of Mission Boston.[28]

Much has also been said about various "tactical errors" made by both the German and American forces in the film's climactic battle. Spielberg responded, saying that in many scenes he opted to replace sound military tactics and strict historical accuracy for dramatic effect.[29] Some other technical errors were also made, often censored, including the mistaken reversed orientation of the beach barriers; the tripod obstructions with a mine at the apex.

To achieve a tone and quality that was true to the story as well as reflected the period in which it is set, Spielberg once again collaborated with cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, saying, "Early on, we both knew that we did not want this to look like a Technicolor extravaganza about World War II, but more like color newsreel footage from the 1940s, which is very desaturated and low-tech." Kamiński had the protective coating stripped from the camera lenses, making them closer to those used in the 1940s. He explains that "without the protective coating, the light goes in and starts bouncing around, which makes it slightly more diffused and a bit softer without being out of focus." The cinematographer completed the overall effect by putting the negative through bleach bypass, a process that reduces brightness and color saturation. The shutter timing was set to 90 or 45 degrees for many of the battle sequences, as opposed to the standard of 180-degree timing. Kamiński clarifies, "In this way, we attained a certain staccato in the actors' movements and a certain crispness in the explosions, which makes them slightly more realistic."[30]

[15] "50 Greatest Movie Moments". TV Guide. March 24, 2001. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
[16] "Roaring back to the forties". Matlock Mercury. August 6, 2008. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
[17] "How we made the best movie battle scene ever". Independent. June 7, 2006. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
[18] "Steven Spielberg Goes To War". Empire. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
[19] Saving Private Ryan: Company C, 2nd Ranger Battalion. Sproe.com. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
[20] Saving Private Ryan: LCM (3). Sproe.com (April 11, 2009). Retrieved September 8, 2011.
[21] "Ryan Tigers". Second Battle Group. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
[22] "Marders". Second Battle Group. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
[23] Reproductions of Panzers based on modern Tanks.shadock.free.fr. Last update: March 9, 2010
[24] On June 12, 1944, three days after the fictional Ryan mission was to begin, Carentan was finally captured after heavy fighting, and US forces operating out of the two beaches finally linked up. See Messenger, Charles, The Chronological Atlas of World War Two (New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1989), 182.
[25] Ryan, Cornelius, The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 (New York: Popular Library, 1959), 286-8.
[26] Out of 23,000 men landed at Utah, only 197 were casualties on the first day, compared to 55,000 men landed at Omaha with 4,649 casualties. See Messenger, 181.
[27] "Normandy and Falaise—April to August 1944". Das Reich. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
[28] "U.S. Airborne in Cotent in Peninsula". D-Day: Etats des Lieux. Retrieved September 5, 2008.
[29] Sunshine, Linda (July 24, 1998). Saving Private Ryan, The Men, The Mission, The Movie: A Steven Spielberg Movie. Newmarket Press. ISBN 1-55704-371-X.
[30] "Combat Footage". Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 8, 2008.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saving_Private_Ryan

Other Resources

Classwork & Homework

Lesson Video: Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Homework: Assignments

Special Education Modifications

Teaching Model: Co-Teaching
Special Education Teacher will work with All students General Ed and Special Ed.
- Special Ed Students:
  - Teacher will read-aloud to students when necessary.
  - Teachers will break down assignments into smaller tasks.
  - Teachers will work with students on vocabulary acquisition by breaking down words into prefixes/suffixes and etymology.
  - Teachers will group students according to learning style inventory as a homogeneous group.
  - Teachers will keep students on-task by managing distractions and on-task behavior.
  - Teachers will modify note-taking by modeling notes from PowerPoint to chalkboard/whiteboard.
  - Teachers will differentiate lessons by using; verbal cues for auditory learners, graphic organizers for visual learners, and hands-on cues for tactile learners.