Saving Private Ryan released in 1997
Saving Private Ryan was released in 1997, a fact that surprised the hosts given how vivid and timeless the film still feels.
Where this was said
The Moral Logic of Saving Private Ryan and WWII Stories
At 19:16 · chapter starts 19:15
Will Arnett zeroes in on the quality he finds most powerful in Saving Private Ryan: Tom's character is a schoolteacher, an ordinary man who was called to do something extraordinary not because he was built for it but because that's what was required. This is the film's moral argument — the entire world was at war, and regular people rose to it. Will says this is what gives him reverence, not for war itself, but for the bravery of ordinary people in an extraordinary moment. Tom agrees and adds that the goal was always to make an anti-war movie at the same time as a war movie, holding both impulses in tension.
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While working as a hotel bellman in Oakland at age 18, Hanks struck up a conversation with a dry cleaner named Mike who casually mentioned taking a vacation every June — to Normandy, to visit the graves of the buddies who didn't make it home from D-Day.
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