Is Saving Private Ryan based on a true story?

Answer 1

Somewhat. It's based on the story of the Niland Brothers during WWII.
Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan never existed as he was portrayed in the movie. His story, however, was based on an actual event that happened to a member of Easy Company from the 506th regiment of the 101st Airborne. (This is the same company featured in the book and mini series Band of Brothers)

According to Stephen Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers, a few weeks after D-Day, Easy Company went into defensive positions south of the French city of Carentan. One day, one of the company's members, a man named Fritz Niland, came down the line to say goodbye to his buddies because he was flying home.

The story he related to his friends was tragic. Niland had had a brother named Bob in the 82nd Airborne, a division that also parachuted into Normandy with the 101st. Upon arrival at the 82nd, Niland learned that Bob had been killed on D-Day while manning a machine gun.

So Fritz Niland went to the 4th Infantry Division to see his other brother and tell him of Bob's death. Upon arrival there, he discovered that that brother too had been killed on D-Day after landing on Utah Beach.

By the time he got back to Easy Company, a priest was looking for him to tell him that his third brother, a pilot in the Chinese-Burma-India theatre, had been shot down in that same week.

Fritz's mother had received all three telegrams on the same day.

Thus, the Army decided, under their 'Sole Survivor' policy to remove him from the combat zone as soon as possible. There was no search and rescue mission to find Private Niland as portrayed in the movie.

There is some disagreement about how the story actually played out. Members of Easy Company seem to remember it as Ambrose relates it and how I explained it above, but the priest who told Niland of his third brother's death relates the story in his own memoir and says that it was he who told Niland of all three of his brother's deaths, and that Niland's mother was not a widow and did not receive all telegrams on the same day.

Nevertheless, Hanks and Spielberg were fans of the memoir and liked the story enough to turn it into a fictional movie, and most of what happens is completely made up. However, in the movie, Private Ryan is still a member of the 101st Airborne. Hanks and Spielberg later took the novel "Band of Brothers" and made it into a 12-part mini series.

And, to answer the original question, Private Niland was from Tonawanda, New York.

Answer 2

Several of them did: most obviously the landing at the beginning of the movie, known as D-Day. The story of Private Ryan's 3 brothers being killed in combat was loosely based off the story of the Niland Brothers. To quote: "Of the four, two survived the war, but for a time it was believed that only one, Frederick Niland, had survived. Frederick was sent back to the United States to complete his service and only later learned that his brother Edward, missing and presumed dead, was actually captive in a Japanese POW camp in Burma. Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan is loosely based on the brothers' story."

Answer 3

The Normandy storming was a historical fact, and so were most of the other battles in the film. But the incident of a squad of soldiers sent to find a particular Pvt Ryan is very unlikely and is probably fiction.

Answer 4

You mean the assault on the beaches of Normandy, yes that did happen.

Director Steven Spielberg went to great lengths to make this scene authentic. He even filmed the landing using actual landing craft and not a fake computer image. He strived to make the beach landing scense as authentic to the smallest details, such as plastic bags used to protect their weapons.

However, the movie plot is not a true story. So, the events of the characters is totally fictional.

The one thing that was not realistic is the part where the soldiers under the water were shot. Discovery Channel "MythBusters" TV show tested to see if bullets would penetrate even 8 inches under water. The high velocity of the bullets used in WW2 rifles and machine guns will cause the bullet to fragment when it hits the water. So, I don't believe that scene is authenitc.

Good reference on-line encyclopedia link of movie facts and details.

Actually the movie was based off of the true story of the Bedford Boys. 19 young men from Bedford, Virginia were killed in the opening minutes of the D-Day invasion and 3 more were killed in later fighting. The plot about pvt Ryan is made up but the idea was taken from this story. The entire D-Day scene is actually nearly identical to the description given by the men who survived. The US version of the D-Day memorial is in Bedford, VA also. The other D-Day memorial is the one in France that the intro to the movie is filmed at.

__________________________________________________________________

The essence of Saving Private Ryan does come from a true story, that of the Niland brothers of New York, of whom two were KIA in Normandy, and a third who was MIA in the Pacific, presumed dead, leaving one of four the lone survivor. See the Wikipedia entry next under. While the movie does include elements of the 29th Infantry Division to which the 'Bedford Boys' were assigned, it is the Niland/Ryan analalog that provides the true drama and poignancy of a story well told.Niland brothers From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Niland Brothers were four American brothers from Tonawanda, New York, serving in the military during World War II. Of the four, two survived the war, but for a time it was believed that only one, Frederick Niland, had survived. Frederick was sent back to the United States to complete his service, and only later learned that his brother Edward, missing and presumed dead, was actually captive in a Japanese POW camp in Burma. Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan is loosely based on the brothers' story. The brothers

• Sergeant Frederick "Fritz" Niland (1920-1983), Company H, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Fritz was close friends with Warren Muck and Donald Malarkey, from Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division ("Easy Company"), who were both featured prominently in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.
  
  The Army tasked Father Francis Sampson, a chaplain attached to the 501st, to find Fritz and ensure his return to the States. Fritz was shipped back to England and, finally, to the U.S. where he served as an MP in New York until the completion of the war. Fritz was awarded a Bronze Star for his service.
  
  Fritz died in 1983 in San Francisco at the age of 63.

• Technical Sergeant Robert Niland (1919-June 6, 1944), Company D, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Killed in action June 6, 1944 in Normandy. He volunteered to stay behind with 2 other men and hold off a German advance while his company retreated from Neuville-au-Plain. He was killed while manning his machine gun; the other two men survived.

• Second Lieutenant Preston Niland (1915-June 7, 1944), 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. KIA June 7, 1944 in Normandy, near Omaha Beach.

• Technical Sergeant Edward Niland (1912-1984)[1], U.S. Army Air Forces. Imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp, captured May 16, 1944; liberated May 4, 1945. Edward had parachuted from his B-25 Mitchell and wandered the jungles of Burma before being captured. Edward lived in Tonawanda until his death in 1984 at the age of 72.

Answer 5

It is based off of true stories and World War II, but no, not really.

Answer 6

The movie Saving Private Ryan was not based on an actual story. While there were probably numerous Private Ryan's in World War II, the movie was not based on them.

Answer 7

It does is real.

Answer 8

France.

Answer 9

No

Answer 10

yes