Private james francis ryan biography

1998 film by Steven Spielberg

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epicwar film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), on a mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) and bring him home safely after his three brothers have been killed in action. The cast also includes Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg and Jeremy Davies.

Inspired by the books of Stephen E. Ambrose and accounts of multiple soldiers in a single family, such as the Niland brothers, being killed in action, Rodat drafted the script, and Paramount Pictures hired him to finish writing it. The project came to the attention of Hanks and Spielberg, whose involvement, due to their previous successes, secured the project's development. Spielberg wanted to make Saving Private Ryan as authentic as possible and hired Frank Darabont and Scott Frank to do uncredited rewrites based on research and interviews with veterans. The main cast went through a week-long boot camp to help them understand the soldier's experience. Filming took place from June to September 1997, on a $65–70 million budget, almost entirely on location in England and Ireland. The opening Omaha Beach battle was the most demanding scene, costing $12 million to film over a four-week period, and using 1,500 background actors.

Saving Private Ryan became one of the year's most successful films, earning critical acclaim for its graphic portrayal of combat. WWII veterans described the combat scenes as the most realistic portrayal of their own experiences they had seen; some said they had been unable to watch it due to their traumatic memories. The film earned $481.8 million, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1998, and went on to win many accolades, including Golden Globe, Academy, BAFTA,

American brothers who served in World War II

The Niland brothers were four American brothers from Tonawanda, New York, who served in the military during World War II. They were sons of Mr. and Mrs. Michael C. Niland. Two survived the war but, for a time, only one, Frederick "Fritz" Niland, was believed to have survived. After the reported deaths of his three brothers, Fritz was sent back to the United States to complete his service, and only later learned that his brother Edward, missing and presumed dead, was captive in a JapanesePOW camp in Burma.

Brothers

• Technical Sergeant Edward Francis Niland (December 22, 1912 – February 28, 1984),U.S. Army Air Forces: Imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp in Burma, he was captured on May 16, 1944, and liberated on May 4, 1945. After Edward's B-25 Mitchell was hit, he parachuted and wandered through the Burmese jungle before being taken prisoner. Edward lived in Tonawanda until his death in 1984 at the age of 71.
• Second Lieutenant Preston Thomas Niland (March 6, 1915 – June 7, 1944), 29, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, was killed in action on June 7, 1944, in Normandy, at the Crisbecq Battery.
• Technical Sergeant Robert Joseph "Bob" Niland (February 2, 1919 – June 6, 1944), 25, D Company, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division was killed in action on June 6, 1944, in Normandy. He volunteered to stay behind with Corporal James Kelly and hold off a German advance while his company retreated from Neuville-au-Plain. He was killed while manning his machine gun; Corporal James Kelly survived.
• Sergeant Frederick William "Fritz" Niland (April 23, 1920 – December 1, 1983), H Company, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division: Fritz was close friends with Warren Muck and Donald Malarkey, from E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regi

Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan may include some of the most horrific fighting scenes ever produced on film. But that isn’t its only element of realism. The film draws on the story of an actual soldier named Fritz Niland and a U.S. War Department directive designed to keep families from losing every one of their sons.

The film tells the story of Captain John H. Miller (played by Tom Hanks), who leads a platoon of GIs during the D-Day invasion of Normandy near the end of World War II. Their initial mission, along with nearly 175,000 other Allied service men, is to liberate France and defeat the Nazis.

After getting themselves off Omaha Beach (yes, those horrific fighting scenes), Miller is able to push his platoon up over the ridge and into the French countryside.

Just a few days into the invasion, Captain Miller receives revised orders from high command. His new mission: locate and rescue Private First Class James F. Ryan (played by Matt Damon), whose three brothers had been killed in the war within a few months of each other. Private Ryan was what was known as a “sole-surviving son” and the War Department wanted him back with his mother.

The problem was, the U.S. Army didn’t know exactly where he was. In the film, Captain Miller and his platoon search for the wayward soldier in house-to-house fighting. Eventually, they find Private Ryan and send him back home—but at great cost to Captain Miller and his men.

The real-life story that inspired Spielberg’s film began more than two years before the rescue depicted in Saving Private Ryan.

On the morning of November 13, 1942, Japanese torpedoes sank the American cruiser USS Juneau during the battle of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. Onboard were five brothers: George, Francis, Joseph, Madison and Albert Sullivan, who had all enlisted into the U.S. Navy after the death of a friend at Pearl Harbor.

Th