The same can be said for how Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan has become the go-to pop culture and even real-world reference for discussions about the World War II event, The Invasion Of Normandy. A cinematic recreation of that event kicks off Saving Private Ryan, as an assortment of characters are thrust into this hellish battle where gunfire rains from the sky and explosions are constantly going off beneath the feet of these soldiers. Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) looks on at the horrors going on around him and can't even fathom what he's saying and neither can the viewer. It's a horrifying sequence that never once cuts away to another location to give the viewer even the briefest reprieve from the horrors these soldiers are going through.
It's a powerful opening sequence that establishes the level of unrelenting violence that we can expect from the rest of the movie, which deals with Miller leading a squadron of men into the surrounding foreign countryside on a rescue mission. Their target for rescuing is Private, First Class, James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), whose three brothers have been killed in combat and now the U.S. government wants to bring him home to his grieving mother. Finding one guy in the middle of a war zone is, obviously, a massive challenge, and it's one that Miller will have to summon all of his courage to properly succeed at.
Steven Spielberg was widely considered for many years to be the maker of light and frothy movies families can enjoy, a perception that continues to this day even if recent widely circulated internet memes are to be believed. It's an odd thing to be associated with given the darker touches his earlier PG-rated fare had (remember the melting heads in Raiders of The Lost Ark or the death of E.T. in E.T.?), but it's especially odd given the number of intense R-rated dramas he's directed in the years since, a category of cinema Saving Private Ryan most certainly belongs to with its gruesome depiction of ceaseless bloody wartime combat without a hint of extravagant grandeur in the way it's presented.
This isn't a situation like David Ayer's Fury where a deeper supposedly introspective drama devolves into a dull first-person shooter in its third act, no, Saving Private Ryan constantly maintains this more realistic approach to the world of being a soldier in the middle of a war zone. The various soldiers under Miller's command are prone to having their own vulnerabilities and why wouldn't they? Robert Rodat's screenplay (whose only real flaw comes in a handful of pieces of clunky dialogue exchanged by Miller's men that doesn't fit the grim tone of the movie) is clearly placing a great emphasis on these World War II soldiers as being people, one who are capable of being understandably terrified at the life-threatening injuries they've received as they are at exhibiting moments that can be accurately described as textbook examples of courage and heroism.
Reinforcing the humanity of these men-on-a-mission isn't just a good move from a thematic standpoint, it also helps create a sense of uncertainty in the story as to whether or not Miller and his crew will actually survive this rescue mission they've been assigned. Leading this mission of course is John Miller as played by Tom Hanks, making his first collaboration with Steven Spielberg. Hanks proves to be a perfect lead for a movie bent on humanizing the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy, as he's perfectly able to exude a likeable confident air wrapped in easygoing confidence that makes it perfectly clear why his own men would lay their lives down on the line for him while moments where Hanks is required to depict Miller in more susceptible moments (like Miller's frequent shaky hand) manage to land with real impact thanks to Hanks performance.
Speaking of the cast, it should be noted that even in a movie as appropriately somber as Saving Private Ryan, momentary glee can be found in noticing a wide assortment of actors before they got famous in small roles. Paul Giamatti, Nathan Fillion and Walter White himself Bryan Cranston all pop up, looking oh so young and showing glimmers of the talents they'd get to heavily showcase in then-future leading roles. Moving on to more dour topics worthy of praise, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski does a fantastic job with framing the harrowing experiences of these soldiers and the camerawork in the opening Beach Of Normandy sequence, which places the viewer in the middle of the battle, is particularly commendable.
Taking that all into consideration, it's quite easy to see why Saving Private Ryan has become a go-to reference point for the Battle Of Normandy. That opening scene is so visually distinctive and instills such a powerful sense of horror in the viewer that's difficult to shake, it'd be hard to imagine it not becoming so iconic. It's also super easy to see that a large share of war movies in the 21st century (even ones that didn't specifically take place in World War II) were hewing super close to Saving Private Ryan in terms of tone and style of filming. Many have imitated it but few have come close to the level of intensity and quality achieved by Saving Private Ryan.
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