D-Day filming - For real. A comparison of 'truth' and 'reality' in Saving Private Ryan and combat film by the British Army's Film and Photographic Unit

Film History: An International Journal

Volumn 14, Issue 3-4, 2002, Pages 332-353

  Haggith, Toby ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 33947224957     PISSN: 08922160     EISSN: 15533905     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2979/FIL.2002.14.3-4.332     Document Type: Review

References (75)

1. During a trailer for a programme about the film (War Stories. Mark Cousins Talks to Steven Spielberg), the BBC television continuity announcer said: 'There was a time when we could only imagine war. In Saving Private Ryan Steven Spielberg recreates history', BBC1, 7 September 1998
2. The first illustrated lecture 'D-Day Filming - For Real', was held in the cinema of the Museum of the Moving Image, on the 19 May 1999. A slightly different version of the lecture, this time including sequences from The Battle of San Pietro and film of the battle of Tarawa, took place in the cinema of the Imperial War Museum on the 6 June 2001. I am particularly grateful on both occasions to the projectionists who helped me to prepare and screen these complicated programmes of film
3. The formidable German defences at Omaha comprised '8 concrete bunkers with guns of 75mm or larger calibre; 35 pillboxes with artillery pieces of various sizes and/or automatic weapons; four batteries of artillery; 18 anti-tank guns; six mortar pits; 35 rocket-launching sites, each with 4×38mm rocket tubes; and no less than 85 machine gun posts'. Quoted in Cornelius Ryan, The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 (London: Gollancz, 1961)
4. Between the landings of the first wave of American soldiers at 6.30am and nightfall on 6 June, 34,250 troops had landed at Omaha Beach at a cost of 4,649 casualties, of which 3,000 were killed. On Sword beach 28,845 men were landed at Gold 24,970 and Juno 21,400. The cost in casualties on these beaches was undoubtedly lighter, approximately 3,000 in total
5. Thomas Doherty, Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 242
6. My thanks to Jerome Kuehl and Thomas Doherty for this information
7. American combat cameramen mainly used the Bell and Howell 35mm Eyemo, a camera with three turret lenses designed to be hand-held. The British designed 'Vinten Normandy', was supposed to be modelled on the Eyemo, but was inferior in most respects as was the American made De Vry camera, most widely used by British cameramen. However, the features and design of the staple British and American combat cameras were the same: 35mm, loaded with a loose spool, clock-work driven and carrying the same amount of film (100 feet). In addition to the Eyemo, American cameramen also used a magazine loaded Kodak Cine-Special and the Bell and Howell 16mm Filmo, but not at Normandy
8. Quoted in an interview with Mark Cousins on BBC2 in a programme titled War Stories. Mark Cousins talks to Steven Spielberg, broadcast on BBC2 on 13 September 1998
9. Steven Spielberg discussing the film while on the set in a programme called Return to Normandy, broadcast on BBC1 on 7 September 1998
10. Geoff Brown, The Times, 10 September 1998, p.37
11. Fit. Lt. Jon Nichol, 'It's The Brutal Truth', Sun, 11 September 1998, p. 30
12. Nick Hopkins, 'Wrong number lands navy expert in Spielberg's war'
13. In this article Hopkins quotes Sgt. Major Ken Murgatroyd, a Royal Marines veteran who helped recreate the beach scenes: 'The lads who fought in the Falklands war said the filming brought back Bomb Alley'. Guardian, 6 August 1998, p. 5
14. Neal Ascherson, 'Missing in Action', in the Observer, 6 September 1998, p. 7
15. John Wrathall, 'On the beach', Sight and Sound 9 (September 1998): 34-35
16. Quoted from the interview with Mark Cousins in War Stories. Mark Cousins Talks to Steven Spielberg, broadcast on BBC2 on 13 September 1998
17. Notably Stephen Ambrose, who has written one of the authoritative accounts of D-Day. Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (New York: Simon Schuster, 1994)
18. This training was apparently similar to the kind that would have been experienced by US soldiers during the war, and was supervised by the US Marine Corps veteran Captain Dale Dyer. Publicity notes for Saving Private Ryan (London: UIP, Paramount, 1998), pp. 7-8
19. Stephen E. Ambrose claimed in the publicity for the film that 'The film catches what happened exactly. It is, without question the most accurate and realistic depiction of war on screen that I have ever seen, not only in terms of the action, but the actors look, act, talk, walk, bitch, argue and love one another exactly as the GIs they are pretending to be did in 1944'. Publicity notes for Saving Private Ryan (London: UIP, Paramount, 1998), p. 15
20. Similar comments were made by the Englishman C. Berry Cavory who had been a member of General Eisenhower's staff: 'He (Spielberg) has faced up to facts, I think he was the only producer that I have seen make a wartime film who was really prepared to show the public what took place and that, to my mind, was the most cardinal effort in Saving Private Ryan. It is a factual film with the horrors of war clearly and fearlessly explained'. Quoted from an interview in the programme Return to Normandy, broadcast on BBC1 on 7 September 1998
21. Much of the escalating budget of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), can be attributed to Milestone's desire for realism, which led him to reconstruct a First World War battlefield in California and purchase large numbers of original uniforms from Europe, as well as armouries of surplus military equipment, rifles, machine guns and even artillery pieces. See Andrew Kelly, Cinema and the Great War (London: Routledge, 1997), 45
22. See also John Whiteclay Chambers, 'All Quiet on the Western Front: The anti-war film and the image of Modern War', in Whiteclay Chambers and David Culbert (eds.) World War II, Film, and History (New York: OUP, 1996), 18
23. Anthony Asquith's film Tell England (1930), about the campaign at Galipolli, although not on the scale of The Big Parade or All Quiet on the Western Front, had remarkably realistic trench scenes for the time and received assistance from the Admiralty in the form of the loan of ships and extras which helped to create realism
24. Abel Gance's film J'Accuse (1919), included 2,000 French soldiers, who were provided by the army during a period of leave from the fighting at Verdun. During the production of The Big Parade (1925), King Vidor was advised by veterans who had served with the US Expeditionary Force in France as well as being lent 4,000 soldiers and 200 trucks by the US Army for the battle scenes. When making La Grande Illusion (1938), Jean Renoir was assisted by a number of veterans of the First World War. A number of members of the production team on Tell England also had direct experience of the First World War, including the dialogue writer A.P.Herbert, who had fought at Galipolli
25. In order to achieve historical accuracy and authenticity and to help him rehearse the army of real soldiers he had at his disposal, Zanuck called on the expertise of thirty-seven high-ranking veterans of the German and Allied forces to advise him on the battle in Normandy. As part of his strategy to achieve authenticity, all the actors were required to speak in the original languages of the combatants. He even went as far as to arrange for a Horsa glider to be built from the original designs, for the scenes of the attack by British parachutists on Pegasus Bridge. Stephen Ambrose, 'The Longest Day (US, 1962) 'Blockbuster History', in John Whiteclay Chambers II and David Culbert (eds.) World War I1, in Film, and History (New York: OUP, 1996), 99-103
26. Location filming for Theirs is the Glory began in Arnhem in August 1945, approximately a year after the real battle had begun on 17 September 1944. As an indication of how little the landscape had changed since the battle itself, the parachutists performing in the film had to clear some of the locations of mines before filming could begin. The site was still so undisturbed, that the Graves Registration Unit had only just begun removing bodies from the battlefield graves and transferring them to the Airborne cemetery at Oosterbeek. See Trevor Popple, viewing notes for Theirs is the Glory (London: After the Battle, 1987)
27. The camera work in the Gallipoli landing scene in Tell England (1931) contains a number of sequences simulating cinema-verite, including a striking 'hand-held' point of view sequence on the beach which seems to anticipate the Omaha beach scene from Saving Private Ryan. When Stuart Cooper was making Overlord (1974) about D-Day from the British perspective, he worked closely with the Imperial War Museum to try to recreate the combat film shot by AFPU cameraman. In fact many of Spielberg's predecessors in this field, notably Milestone and Zukor, had been very familiar with this genre as their own war service had been as cameramen, editors or producers with official military film agencies
28. Steven Spielberg during an interview with Mark Cousins on a BBC2 programme entitled, War Stories. Mark Cousins Talks to Steven Spielberg, broadcast on 13 September 1998
29. The Battle of San Pietro (1945), IWM film catalogue no. MGH 3664
30. Steven Spielberg discussing the film while on the set in a television programme entitled Return to Normandy, broadcast on BBC1 on 7 September 1998
31. Steven Spielberg during an interview with Mark Cousins, in the programme entitled War Stories. Mark Cousins Talks to Steven Spielberg, broadcast on BBC on 13 September 1998
32. I plan to return to this topic in another essay, which will concentrate on the differences between American and British combat filming during the Second World War
33. 30a. The shot sheets of these out-takes are reproduced in Volume III, Part 2, of David Culbert (ed.) Film and propaganda in America: A documentary history (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990: e.g. Document 82 ADC 906 February 1944, Captain John Huston's Team, coverage: Re-enacted footage. V.S. troops fire rifles from behind rock. Troops move across field towards farmhouse; two men fall as if hit. L.S. American soldiers move up mountainside as white phosphorous shells explode near them
34. In filming these remarkable scenes at Tarawa the US Marine cameramen put themselves in great danger (two were killed and one was wounded), however the filming was not as suicidal as it may seem. Firstly, the fighting on Tarawa lent itself to combat filming as the action took place over a highly compressed area. Secondly, the cameraman's depth of field was greater than normal on a battlefield because the Japanese defenders had cut the undergrowth back on the beaches. One should also stress that the majority of the filming suggests the cameramen took all the normal precautions that one would expect of men filming under fire: they keep very low out of the line of fire and remain a safe distance behind the advancing soldiers. The scenes in which the viewer is shown simultaneously the Marines firing their rifles and flamethrowers and the target of their firing (bunkers, dugouts, trees, etc.), were filmed when the Japanese defenders were sheltering in underground bunkers or forts and not actually engaging the Marines
35. Out of 106 pictures shot by Capa at the 'Easy Red' section of Omaha beach, only eight were salvaged. Apparently the excited darkroom assistant had turned the heat on too much when drying the negatives and the emulsions had melted. Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus (New York: Henry Holt, 1947), 151
36. Sergeant Ian A. Grant, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 3865/19, reel 10
37. The capacity of the De Vry was 100 feet of film, which runs for approximately one minute and seven seconds. One winding of the clockwork mechanism would advance the film 40-55 feet. The Vinten Normandy could take 200 foot spools. The film was Kodak Pan X film, and the exposure was very slow
38. Coverage of the commandos' sports day in Swaythling on 29 May 1944, can be found in the IWM Film Archive (reel no. A70 21), filmed by sergeants Walter and Leatherbarrow. Scenes of the 1st battalion South Lancashire regiment receiving French money and examining a model and pictures of the Normandy beaches are on the same reel and were shot by Sergeant O'Neill
39. Sergeant Ian A. Grant, AFPU cameraman in a recorded interview in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 3865/19, reel 10
40. Imperial War Museum film catalogue number A70 29-30, (Rolls 1-2)
41. Imperial War Museum film catalogue number A70 31-32 (Roll 2)
42. Imperial War Museum film catalogue number A70 31-32 (Roll 3)
43. Herbert James Peach served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War and was a coxswain with the Combined Forces during the D-Day Landings. Mr. Peach carried Canadian soldiers in his landing craft and put them ashore at St. Aubin on Juno beach. As well as steering the craft to shore, he was responsible for turning on the automatic camera via a small button at his side. The sequence taken in his craft appears in the film The True Glory (1945). We are grateful to the late Mr. Peach and his son Philip Peach, for writing to the Museum with this information
44. Colonel Hugh Stewart explained in a recorded interview 'Arrangements were made that half a dozen cameras would be mounted in the aft end of a landing craft' as it was realised that a steady camera shot could not have been taken with 'an ordinary hand-held camera' with the ramp going down and all the soldiers jumping out. Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Stewart, MBE, Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 4579/06, reel 3. We do not know if Herbert Peach's landing craft was one of the boats cited by Colonel Stewart. However, most of the automatic cameras did not produce film, probably because the coxswains forgot to turn on the cameras' as they were so preoccupied with ensuring that their men were landed safely
45. James Barker, 'D-Day: Fact of Fiction?', Focal International 13 (Autumn 1994): 6
46. Other official US films released in colour are At the Front in North Africa (1943), produced by the US Army Signal Corps and supervised and partly shot by Darryl F. Zanuck; The Memphis Belle (1944) and most of the films of the Pacific campaign
47. Sergeant George Laws, AFPU cameraman in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 14839/13, reel 3
48. Sergeant Ernest Walter, AFPU cameraman in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 8299/07, reel 3
49. There are many other examples, such as the moment when the ramp drops on the landing craft and the camera takes the position in the line of fire, in front of the Rangers who are being shot by a machine gun
50. Sergeant W. Greenhalgh's otherwise excellent coverage of the landings on Sword beach was marred in a couple of rolls by an unidentified blur which appeared at the bottom of each frame, possibly caused by an obstruction in the lens. See Imperial War Museum film catalogue no. A70 36-1
51. Sergeant Ernest Walter, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 8299/07, reel 3
52. Lt. Colonel Hugh Stewart, AFPU, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 4579/06: reel 1
53. Twenty-five members of the AFPU were killed in the war. Sergeant Ian A. Grant, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 3865/19, reel 6
54. Sergeant Palmer's Dope Sheet A700 113/1, August 1944. Showing various shots of the 15th Scottish Division East of Beny-Bocage
55. Sergeant Ian Grant, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 3865/19, reel 6
56. Sergeant Ernest Walter, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 8299/07, reel 6
57. Sergeant Desmond O'Neill, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 3971/04, reel 1
58. Sergeant Desmond O'Neill, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 3971/04, reel 2
59. Geoff Dyer is the author of The Missing of the Somme (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1994). This quote comes from an interview with Dyer in a television programme about the film Regeneration (1998), entitled Regeneration-History and Culture, broadcast on BBC2 on 27 March 1998
60. Sergeant Ian A. Grant, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 3865/19, reel 10
61. James Barker, 'D-Day, Fact or Fiction?' FOCAL International No. 13 (Autumn 1994): 6
62. James Borken in 1977. Imperial War Museum catalogue notes A70 29/1-2
63. Sergeant William Lawrie, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 7481/03, reel 1
64. Sergeant Desmond O'Neill, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 3971/04, reel 3
65. Sergeant Richard Leatherbarrow, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession No. 8253/3, reel 1
66. Sergeant George Laws, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 14839/13, reel 5
67. 'M/s shot 3. Canadians of North Shore Regiment killed by mortar and mg fire on initial landing. Blazing landing craft in background'. Sergeant Richard Leatherbarrow's Dope Sheet no. A700 37/1. Film and Video Archive, Imperial War Museum
68. Sergeant Ernest Walter, AFPU cameraman, in a recorded interview held in the Imperial War Museum's Sound Archive, accession no. 8299/07, reel 7
69. 'The Road of Death', 24 August 1944. RAF Film Unit, cameramen Sgt. Hick and Sgt. Baker. Imperial War Museum film catalogue numbers: ACB 143, ACB 144-146
70. War Pictorial News No. 174 (4 September 1944) Imperial War Museum catalogue no. WPW 174
71. and the Gen No. 9-The Voice of the Service. 'Gen Special' -RAF Warfront: The Battle of Normandy (September 1944) Imperial War Museum catalogue no. GEN 9
72. Movietone News-'Allies apply squeeze to the Falaise Gap' (17 August 1944), Imperial War Museum film catalogue no. NMV 793A. This footage was also not used in an item on the destruction of the German 7th Army at Falaise in British Movietone News No. 795, released on 28 August 1944. Imperial War Museum catalogue number NMV 795
73. Peter Neushul and Second Lieutenant James D.Neushul, 'With the Marines at Tarawa', Proceedings (April 1999): 74-79
74. James and Sara Combs, Film Propaganda and American Politics: An Analysis and Filmography (London: Garland Publishing, 1994), 78
75. The Big Parade also received praise for the realism of its battle scenes; in Life Robert Sherwood called it 'spectacular, harsh, raw-meaty ... I could not detect a single flaw ... nor one error of taste or authenticity', also quoted in Andrew Kelly, p. 35. The Longest Day had mixed reviews, but at least one reviewer was struck by its 'documentary' style. See Stephen E. Ambrose, 'The Longest Day: Blockbuster History', in Whiteclay and Chambers (eds.) World War II, Film, and History (New York: OUP, 1996), 104