This is what Steven Spielberg did to make the ‘Saving Private Ryan’ cast resent Matt Damon

Saving Private Ryan director Steven Spielberg used a pre-shoot boot camp to make Matt Damon’s co-stars resent him - mirroring a dynamic that was crucial to the story played out in the hit 1998 movie.

What is Saving Private Ryan about?

A film that scooped five accolades at the 71st Academy Awards - including Best Director - Saving Private Ryan follows a group of American soldiers who, late in the Second World War, are sent behind enemy lines in France to find Private James Ryan, played by Damon.

Private Ryan’s three brothers have all been killed in the war, so U.S. Army chiefs decide he should be sent home to Iowa, to spare his grieving mother the potential loss of all four of her sons.

However, the members of the squadron sent to fetch Ryan, led by Tom Hanks’ Captain John Miller, soon begin to express their displeasure at having to risk their lives for the sake of a single soldier.

That resentment then reaches a crescendo when the soldiers finally manage to locate him, having seen several of their number killed during the course of their mission: Private Ryan is by no means grateful to see them arrive. Indeed, he flatly refuses to be sent home.

“Having lost members of their squad along the way, they’re frustrated to discover that those sacrifices were made in the name of a hard-headed young soldier who doesn’t even want to return home in the first place,” explains CBR film critic Sean Alexander.

Damon given boot camp pass

To maximize the authenticity of the soldiers’ feelings of animosity towards Ryan - and, in general, to boost the realism of his film’s portrayal of war - Spielberg arranged a pre-filming, military-style training camp for the actors playing Miller and his squadron.

In addition to Hanks, these cast members comprised Adam Goldberg, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi and Barry Pepper.

According to an Entertainment Weekly story published in July 1998, the gruelling training involved “six days and nights in a stinging British rain, [during which] their lives became a dirty labyrinth of agony and abuse”.

They slept just three hours a night, were called “turds” by their training leader, and were limited to eating rations that Sizemore compared to “dog food”.

But Spielberg allowed Damon to sit out the boot camp, in a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge between the Good Will Hunting star and his fellow actors.

“These guys are lying facedown in the mud...”

“They started to harbor that kernel of resentment, ‘cause I wasn’t there,” Damon told an interview with EW. “These guys are lying facedown in the mud, and I’m, you know, in a bubble bath in America.

“When I showed up on set, a lot of that resentment just translated right onto the screen.”

The Screen Rant movie journalist Dhruv Sharma agrees: “It added a genuine sense of conflict and tension to Saving Private Ryan’s overarching narrative.”

Looking back on the moment Private Ryan refuses to cooperate with the mission to take him home, Alexander concludes: “Without having ostracized Matt Damon from the rest of the cast, those scenes wouldn’t quite pack the same emotional wallop as they do, as audiences can practically read the anger and frustration on the platoon’s faces once they realize how unworthy this kid is of their sacrifice.”

What other Oscars did Saving Private Ryan win? How much did it make at the box office?

In addition to Spielberg’s Best Director accolade, Saving Private Ryan also scooped Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing.

The movie was nominated for six other Academy Awards, including Best Picture; however, it was unexpectedly beaten to the gong by Shakespeare in Love.

Per figures compiled by Box Office Mojo, Saving Private Ryan was the third highest-grossing film in the U.S. in 1998, behind only Titanic and Armageddon. The movie took just over $200 million at domestic theatres, and boasts more than $480 million in worldwide receipts.

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