D-Day Filming - For Real. A Comparison of ?Truth? and ?Reality? inSaving Private Ryanand Combat Film by the British Army's Film and Photographic Unit

Abstract

S teven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998) is acclaimed for its realistic battle sequences. In part Spielberg achieved this realism by mimicking the style of combat film shot by Allied cameramen. But how does this representation compare with the real thing, taken by men under fire using basic, cumbersome cameras? The purpose of this article is to explore these differences and evaluate how these two different cinematic approaches contribute to our understanding of the Normandy campaign and warfare in general. The release of Saving Private Ryan is regarded as a landmark in the history of war films, because of the visceral power and brutal realism of its treatment of combat, particularly in the opening 26 minutes which covers the landing of US soldiers on the 'Omaha' sector of the Normandy beachhead. For film archivists and historians privileged with an intimate knowledge of the film and photographs taken by official cameramen serving with the soldiers at Normandy, the hyperbole surrounding the release of Saving Private Ryan offered a fascinating opportunity to compare the feature film version with the 'real footage'.1 Not only was this an interesting exercise in itself but it provided a context in which to screen this extraordinary official film in its unedited and mute state. Most members of the general public are scarcely aware that cameramen filmed at D-Day and their only opportunity to view this film would have been when it was incorporated in wartime newsreels or, more likely, in short and oft-repeated sequences used in television documentaries. The public was given this opportunity at two lectures I presented on behalf of the Imperial War Museum, at the Museum of the Moving Image and the Imperial War Museum, entitled 'D-Day Filming for Real'. 2 These lectures involved screening the first 26 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, followed by sequences of official combat film taken by American and British cameramen, concentrating on the reels shot by the British cameramen of the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) who landed on the Sword and Juno sectors of the Normandy beachhead. As with the lectures, this paper will begin with a discus-