News culture “Neither profound nor insightful”: everyone hated this actor’s scene during the filming of this cult film by Steven Spielberg, but he let him improvise until the end
“Saving Private Ryan” is undoubtedly one of the most iconic films in cinema history. And yet there is one scene that initially didn’t convince anyone…
childhood memories
It was 1998 when Steven Spielberg blew everyone away with “Saving Private Ryan”: an extremely realistic, raw war film, sometimes difficult to watch, but also terribly human and still awarded five Oscars. We will remember many iconic scenes, like the landing, which required more than a thousand extras. Only that.
Supported by a number of leading actors such as Tom Hanks or Edward Burns, Private Ryan, mentioned in the title, is played by Matt Damon. There is a particular scene in particular in which this young soldier tells Tom Hanks’ character about a childhood memory: He and his brothers who died in the war watched their older brother kissing a girl in a barn at night. A passage that remained in the audience’s memory as innocent and quite moving, especially because of the fact that our protagonists find themselves in the midst of the horrors of war.
An improvised speech
What you need to know is what This speech was completely improvised by Matt Damon. Producer Peter Bart reveals this in his book The Gross: The scene didn’t impress anyone on set, not even Steven Spielberg. And yet the filmmaker decided to keep this sequence even though it was “neither profound nor insightful.”
Why ? For this scene, against its will, depicted “a simple-minded child who was well informed about the nature of war and its mission.” And for once, Spielberg wasn’t wrong… and this passage was admirably integrated into the overall tone of the film, which isn’t too silly.
Remember that Saving Private Ryan quickly established itself as a huge success: critically, certainly, but also commercially, grossing $482.3 million at the box office. This makes it the second highest grossing film in the year of its release.
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