10/07/2022
The cast of "Saving Private Ryan" (1998) endured a grueling, week-long course at boot camp instructed by technical advisor Dale Dye. Tom Hanks, who had previously been trained by Dye for the Vietnam war scenes in "Forrest Gump" (1994), was the only one of them who knew it would be a hard and uncompromising experience: "The other guys, I think, were expecting something like camping in the woods, and maybe learning things while sitting around the campfire." All the principal actors, except for Matt Damon, underwent several days of grueling army training. Damon was spared so that the other actors would resent him and would convey that feeling in their performances. All but one of the principal actors voted to quit, as they found it too arduous. The one dissenting voice was Hanks, who thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Naturally, his vote counted the most, so the rest of the actors were obligated to complete their training.
Hanks revealed that the film captured only a fraction of Omaha Beach's importance "We were interlopers, of course," Hanks said. "We had the audacity and the hubris to think that somehow we could capture some of what that place means in the history of the world. It turned out we sort of did, but at the end of the day, all you can do is kind of like bow your head in understanding of, you know, the great providence that had happened there." "I don't think anybody who has some semblance of historical knowledge, or even without it, can go to a place like that--and they are scattered all over France, they're scattered all over Europe--and not take pause there, and think, 'What would I have done if I had been a 19-year-old kid there on that day?'" Hanks recalled feeling like he'd visited a "holy place" when he went to the real Omaha Beach.
In 2006, Hanks was inducted into the US Army's Ranger Hall of Fame as an honorary member, largely thanks to his portrayal of Captain John Miller. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Tom Hanks!
