American Military Cemetery, Normandy, France (Present Day)
On Omaha Beach, Normandy, June 6, 1944 -- 0630 Hours
At the Farm House
In the Countryside
In A Village
In the Town
 
 

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Comments on Miller (Hanks)

• The captain bars on the front of his helmet are incorrect... they shouldn't even be there, but if they were, they shouldn't have those small lines connecting the 2 vertical bars. The horizontal lines were only for the clothing insignia to keep the 2 vertical bars straight and parallel to each other. K Verzijl
• In Captain Miller's death scene at the bridge there is a helmet that is upside down next to him. In the next scene the same helmet is right side up. I also have seen SPR close to 50 times and have many books and documentary videos on D-Day. I have walked Omaha Beach and stood in the cemetery above it and toured the other beaches and etc. Of all the so-called boo-boo's listed above... that's Hollywood. But I find this film most accurate in so many other ways that negates mistakes during filming. I suggest reading "Spearheading D-Day" by Jonathan Gawne. There you will find authenticity to the fullest as depicted in the film like no other war movie. Chuck Conn
• In the scene where Captain Miller is following Sergeant Hill through the ruins of Neuville, Hill halts and crouches down. Miller comes up beside him. Sergeant Hill says, "Pass the end of the block to the left, those are the gates to the square." And Miller response with a simple "Good." As Hill stands and walks away, his emergency parchacute rope falls from his mussete bag on his back. And if you watch Captain Miller, he actually looks at the rope as it falls. And the next shot where we see Hill, the rope is back in the bag. N Waller
• Miller talks of Rommel massing his Panzers for a flank attack when the Allies "make the big right turn to Cherbourg." The Germans had practically no armour, nothing over battalion size anyway, on this part of the front. Moreover, they had nothing even remotely capable of driving the Americans back into the sea in this sector. There would have been elements of 91, 709 and eventually 243 Infantry Divisions plus assorted non-divisional units. Djcentore
• [Reply to Djcentore: The reference to Rommel was somewhat correct. Rommel was in Germany for his wife's B-day assuming the bad weather would prevent an invasion. Has Speidel, his chief of staff, reached him by phone at midmorning. Rommel at once started for Normandy. There was one panzer division within immediate striking distance of the beaches, the 21st, south of Caen. Two others were fairly close: the Panzer Lehr in the vicinity of Chartres, and the SS Panzer Hitler Jugend west of Paris. If they had moved at first word they would have almost certainly have crushed it. Army Group B controlled the 21st, but Hitler controlled the other two. Jodl refused to wake the Fuehrer questioning whether the landings were the main effort. It was 4p.m. before the divisions were released. K Hatler]
• I'm surprised that no one else seems to have picked up on what I thought was one of the most glaring "errors" in the movie, the time line. When Capt.. Miller shows up at the CP to receive his orders to go looking for Ryan, the on-screen graphic plainly identifies it as D +3, three days after the landings. There is no way in H*ll that the casualty reports from D-Day could have been compiled and sent all the way back to Washington, the deaths of the 3 brothers discovered, the orders cut by Gen. George C. Marshall and sent all the way back to France to Miller's CO in just 3 days! Pat DeMoss
• Miller (Hanks) has Captain bars on his helmet. He would have scraped those off years before the invasion. He would be making himself a huge walking target. D Carroll
• [Reply to D Carroll: The stripes on Captain Miller's helmet are correct. Photos of the 2nd Ranger Battalion shortly before embarkation show the officers wearing the rank insignia. Michael Dorosh]
• [Reply to Michael Dorosh: This may have some reality to it but some common sense (and 2 years of warfare) would have told Miller to remove them if he wanted to survive. If this failed he could always get advice from Jackson. Neil Holmes]
• When they are all arguing about whether or not to attack the machine gun nest, one of them says something like "we left those 88's" and Hanks replies "we left them for the Air Force" - there was no "Air Force" at this time. He should have said the Army Air Corp. David M
• [Reply to David M: Incorrect - the USAAF was the correct term - United States Army Air Force - In the field, this was often shortened to "Air Force".  Soldiers do not speak in jargon all the time, and the majority of US soldiers in WW II were really civilians (like Miller) who were only in uniform for the duration of the war. Miller's use of the term "Air Force" is 100 percent correct. Michael Dorosh]
• [Reply to David M: There was NO Army Air Corps at that time, but there had been a moratorium on finalizing the process of fully constituting the Army Air Forces, and it seems that because of the War, and the fact that the "Old Army Air Corps" was to re-constitute after the War as a separate and independent service. The Army Air Forces were constituted in June, 1941 (I think it was June 23, but please don't hold me to the day). Bill J]
• When the wall falls down and there's that big stand off, if you look for a second, Hank's Thompson sub-machine gun has no clip. L. Peterson
• When Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) encounters a German soldier on the street, they are both out of ammo and throw their helmets at each other. Then each pulls his pistol and fires. After Miller apparently kills the German and is himself wounded, he curses and throws his pistol. Later, wounded again on the bridge, he pulls a 2nd pistol to begin firing at the oncoming Tiger tank. While it is possible that a soldier could carry 2 pistols, I have not seen in previous scenes where Capt. Miller had 2 side arms. fatstrat
• [Reply to fatstrat: It was Sarg Horvacs who threw the helmet. ChunKs707] 
• [Reply to fatstrat: The reason why is because that scene is not of Tom Hanks, it's of Tom Siezemore. MP40stg44]
• When Capt. Miller is shooting at the tank and it blows up. Then you see a P-51 fly by. That is all wrong. The P-51 didn't have a nose cannon to shoot tanks and when it flies over there are no bomb racks on the underside of the plane. Mike O.
• [Reply to Mike O.: The P51 could be loaded with armour piercing bullets, watch any gun camera action from the period and you will see steam trains blown to atoms by these. Spencer Reeves]
• This may be somewhat controversial, but Tom Hanks, while he had given a good role, is a bit too old for an army captain. Most captains assigned to active combat duties then were likely to be in their late 20s or early 30s while lieutenants were even younger with most being in their early to mid 20s. Even the majors and the colonels then, and including a few brigadier generals, were below 35/40 respectively. I guess the problem was Tom was too old to be a lieutenant (but assuming a leading movie star would have to be used for the movie) while giving him a rank of major would seem overdone in view of the mission and the number of men he was going to lead. Hence, the rank of captain, though still somewhat unconvincing, was used as a compromise. W.K. Chung
• I was amused to observe in one sequence Capt. Miller's guys struggling to dig graves with their helmets while Miller had an entrenching tool on his back. Richard T. Ellis 
• Did anyone notice that after Hanks lies dying after he gets nailed by the kraut soldier, that the bullet hole in his side was barely noticeable, like a small tear in his uniform. But when the camera returns, he has a big gaping bloody hole showing! I guess they were low on fake blood on the first take. Cyrus Clennon
• My father, a WWII combat vet, pointed this one out: Captain [NOT Lt.] Miller is wearing a helmet with his Captain's bar's on the front. This would be asking the Germans to make him their prime target, as an officer, and would never happen in combat. GSHEEHAN
• When Miller and Ryan are throwing the rockets, Captain Miller has two grenades on his belt. Why not use them? Alison