Saving Private Ryan

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.

The most often asked question on war movie forums is what did the German soldier say while he was in a hand-to-hand knife fight with the American. This scene has been debated for various reasons----this answer will address some of the questions.

A common mistake made by viewers of Saving Private Ryan is assuming that the same German who was captured and released by Captain Miller's squad, referred to as "Steamboat Willie", is the same German that kills Private Mellish in the knife fight in the building next to the bridge fight scene. However these two Germans are not the same. The German in the knife fight was a Waffen-SS soldier and the one captured at the radar site was not.

This mistake in identity is easy to make because all the Germans in the movie have shaved heads (not historical). The physical features of the two German soldiers are similar but the first one has a wound over the eye and 2nd doesn't and the 2nd one has a point in his hairline.

As the German soldier stabs Mellish to death, he says:

"Gib' auf, du hast keine Chance! Lass' es uns beenden! Es ist einfacher für dich, viel einfacher. Du wirst sehen, es ist gleich vorbei."

This translates:

"Give up, you don't stand a chance! Let's end this here! It will be easier for you, much easier. You'll see it will be over quickly."

The words are spoken in accent free German.

The end of the movie results in more confusion. During the ending sequence when Corporal (CPL) Upham (the translator) emerges from hiding, he speaks in German and orders the retreating Germans to surrender. Roughly translated, he says, "Hands high! Lay down your weapons!" The German says, "I know this soldier. I know this man." Upham responds, "Hold your snout!" The German soldier responds, "Upham," then after a pause Upham shoots him. Then, to the rest of the soldiers he says, "Scram! Vanish!"

So, this short scene appears to confirm that he recognized this SS soldier to be the same soldier captured at the Radar site. Maybe CPL Upham made a mistake in identity.

How did the German know Upham's name? The soldier that killed Mellish is not the same that was released nor is he the one that recognises Upham. The soldier released was the one that recognized Upham and it is inferred in the visuals that he is the one that shot the captain as he attempted to blow up the bridge.

[The above description is correct. But someone explain to me why the German stabber guy doesn't shoot the U.S. soldier holding a rifle on the stairway?]

The German stabber didn't kill Upham because he recognized that Upham was not a threat(he was broken and sobbing). This shows that not ALL the German soldiers were not cruel and heartless killers. The soldier walks down, and even looks back to make sure that Upham does not do anything. Even the enemy can show mercy.

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THis part continued by me, Christian:

No, Sorry. That's not what this was about. It had nothing to do with mercy. Any soldier would've shot the sobbing SOB on the steps. The ONLY reason he begrudgingly allowed him to live is that he made a deal with him. He saved his life and he allowed him to live...of course he also made him shut up while he went upstairs and killed Upham's friends. If anything "Willie" felt contempt for Upham and thought he was such a WUSS that he should live with his guilt...and maybe such a weak person being in the enemy force would be a good thing for the Germans. No soldier sees an enemy who's sleeping or crying and feels like "that guy's not a threat so I don't have to kill him". So what? He's upset now...doesn't mean he won't shoot some of your friends tomorrow. Just the opposite in fact, you'd see it as a lucky opportunity for an easy kill. I'm not saying some people or soldiers have no capacity for mercy or compassion...but this fictional account was not one of those examples, I think. In the end, Upham saw that in this situation with this person, his compassion was misplaced and resulted in the death of two fellow soldiers, plus his commander who also spared "Willie"...when Upham saw "Willie" shoot his Captain, there was no more dilemma for him and he immediately fixed the situation. Seeing Willie for no more than he was....a soldier who saw an opportunity to save his own life. Cheers.

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After reading the top answer saying that there was a mistaken identity between the radar German soldier that shot their medic and the SS soldier that stabbed Mellish while Upham was downstairs unable to move, I played the movie and paused it on two media players (Windows media player and VLC). After pausing both scenes and comparing the character, its no mistake that they are both the same character. There for, the "common mistake" that people make when watching this movie is not a mistake at all.

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Agreed, the fact that the supposed SS-Waffen soldier let Upham go after killing Mellish, also no signs of him baring any SS marking proves that the original poster is completely wrong.

The two bottom posters are completely wrong. The original poster is correct. If you research the actors in the film you will find that the German Wehrmacht (regular army) soldier captured then released at the radar site, a.k.a "Steamboat Willie" is played by a German actor named Joerg Stadler. The Waffen SS soldier who kills Pvt. Mellish is played by a German stuntman named Mac Steinmeier. If you look at pictures of the two real men on Google images or IMDB and compare them to screen shots on your VLC or Windows media player you will see what I am talking about. The Waffen SS soldier (Mac Steinmeier) was uncredited in the film most likely because he is a stunt coordinator and not an actor. The German sniper who gets shot in the eye through his scope by Jackson is also a stuntman named Leo Stransky. As for the mercy debate..you might both be somewhat right. There was obviously no deal made between Upham and the SS man because they didn't see each other until the SS man looked down on Upham from the top of the stairs (when the group of Germans went up the stairs, Upham was hiding behind a pillar). I think the Waffen SS soldier was completely appalled at what he had to do to Pvt. Mellish to survive and didn't want to kill someone that he didn't have to....obviously Upham was incapacitated with fear and even rose his hands in surrender. You can see the look of discontent on the Waffen SS man's face as he is panting with fatigue after he kills Mellish and looks down on Upham. This mistake would not have been so widespread if the filmmakers had given the German actors historically correct haircuts instead of shaved heads. Germans in WW2 often had the sides and back of their heads with a faded cut, much like modern soldiers, but the top was kept longer and slicked back or parted with brille cream. The Waffen SS trooper does look back at Upham to make sure he's not up to anything, but ultimately returns to his duty, and if it were a real life fight as intense as the one in the movie,he would probably have been killed shortly after this incident during the remaining combat, or almost certainly during the rest of the Waffen SS's fighting in France, Belgium and ultimately Germany. If he would not have been killed, I'm sure the memory of stabbing a man to death in hand to hand combat would haunt him forever.

P.S. the Waffen SS soldier clearly has SS collar tabs on his uniform

I am the biggest fan ever of this movie. There is no question that "steamer willie" (the one upham shot) and the one that knifed mellish are 2 different guys. NO QUESTION, LOOK AGAIN.

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.

His shaking hands reveal the psychic damage he's undergone in the year and a half since he and his men landed in North Africa. Miller must overcome this trauma, must suppress his fears, must show no sign of doubt, must act decisively while under fire.This is heroism of a different order than the macho death cult personified by John Wayne. Miller's is the heroism of an ordinary soldier following impossible orders. Like so many of his generation, Miller is merely doing his job. The casting of Hanks, our Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda--the unremarkable, yet uncommonly decent average Joe--reinforces this non-heroic heroism, as does what little we learn of his background: he's that least likely of heroes, an English teacher. Vietnam has taught us that real heroism isn't John Wayne taking out a machine gun nest; it's a man who can't keep his hands from shaking (a man who should be home marking comma splices and sentence fragments) yet who instead is bravely leading men into battle.

This was from an interview with Spielberg...