Saving Private Ryan.
Level 6
9781405882712
Pearson Education Limited
Edinburgh Gate, Harlow,
Essex CM 20 2JE, England
and Associated Companies throughout the world .
-
ISBN: 978-1 4058-8271 -2
First published in the USA by Penguin Putnam Inc 1998
First published in Great Britain by Penguin Books 1998
New edition first published 2000
This edition first published 2008
12
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Contents
page
Introduction v
Part One St . Laurent Military Graveyard
Chapter 1 A Family Visit 1
Part Two Omaha Beach, Normandy
Chapter 2 On the Landing Boat 3
Chapter 3 Landing 8
Chapter 4 On the Beach 12
Part Three The Pentagon, Washington, DC
Chapter 5 A Problem 21
Part Four Normandy
Chapter 6 The Mission 27
Chapter 7 On the Road 31
Chapter 8 Neuville-au-Plain 37
Chapter 9 Private Ryan 44
Chapter 10 New Hope 51
Chapter 11 Germans 57
Chapter 12 The Prisoner 65
Chapter 13 Ramelle 77
Chapter 14 The Bridge 85
Part Five St . Laurent Military Graveyard
Chapter 15 Memories 99
Activities 101
L
Introduction
Boys became men as they crossed the killing zone of Omaha Beach —
often dead men , but men. Running, shouting, screaming, crawling on
hands and knees, they moved toward the sea wall. Men whose rifles had
sand in them , or who had lost their weapons in the water, grabbed guns
from the dead . Shell holes provided temporary shelter; a tank provided
cover. As some men were hit, other soldiers picked up the wounded and
carried them . Others could not be helped . The sound of wounded and
dying men filled the air: “Mama! Mother! Mom!”
Thousands of kilometers from this Normandy beach , a mother
in Iowa will soon receive terrible news. Three of her four sons
are dead, victims of war. The Pentagon comes to a quick decision.
The fourth brother must come home safely, if it is not too late.
The task of bringing him home from the killing fields is given to
Captain Miller and his men. But can they save him? And can they
save themselves? This is a story of the real horrors of war, but also
of courage and self-discovery.
The story takes place during the first days of the Battle of
Normandy in 1944. On June 6 , 1944 (often called “D Day”) , -
American , British , and Canadian forces landed on the beaches
of German-occupied France. With the help of land-based Free-
French and Polish soldiers, the long batde to defeat Hitler’s
forces in Europe had begun . The attack involved almost three
million soldiers crossing the English Channel from England to
Normandy-
Praised by audiences and reviewers around the world , Steven
Spielberg’s prize-winning movie Saving Private Ryan (1998) is
an unforgettable achievement. The story was written by Robert
Rodat. He had the idea for it after a visit to Putney Corners,
L
New Hampshire, in the United States, where he saw a stone in
memory of eight brothers who had died during the American
Civil War in the 1860s. Rodat decided to write a similar story set
in World War II .
While he was doing some background reading about the
Normandy beach landings of June 1944, Rodat discovered the
story of Sergeant Frederick Niland . Niland was an American
paratrooper who had been dropped in the wrong place in France,
behind enemy lines. He eventually made a safe return to his
unit headquarters, where he learned of the death of his three
brothers—two in Normandy and one in Eastern Asia. According
to recent War Department rules, the last surviving member of
a family in a war was allowed to return home. Niland was told
that he could return to New York to be with his parents, but
he decided to stay and fight in Normandy. He did not return
to New York until three months later, in September 1944. It
was later discovered that the brother who was believed to have
been killed in Eastern Asia was , in fact, a prisoner of war, and he
returned home at the end of the war.
The movie of Saving Private Ryan is famous for the reality of its
war scenes, particularly the opening twenty minutes, which show
the attack on Omaha Beach in Normandy by American soldiers
on June 6, 1944. Before making the movie, Steven Spielberg
had already made several movies on the subject of World War II,
including 1941 (1979) , Empire of the Sun (1987) , Schindler’s List
(1993) , and the three movies of the Indiana Jones adventure series
—
(1981 89). While he was making Saving Private Ryan , Spielberg
told an American film magazine, “ I think that World War II is the
most important event of the last 100 years . .
After the success of this movie, Spielberg helped to produce
(with actor Tom Hanks, who played the role of Captain Miller
in Saving Private Ryan ) , a popular but thoughtful TV mini-series
about soldiers during World War II called Band of Brothers.
vi
Steven Spielberg is one of the world’s most famous and successful
movie directors. After working on several American TV series,
he directed his first full-length movie, Duel , in 1971. This movie
about a car that is chased across the desert by an enormous truck
won special praise from many important movie critics. Spielberg
became internationally famous as a director of adventure and
science-fiction [Link] include Jaws (1975) , Close Encounters
of theThird Kind (1977) , E . T. :The Extra- Terrestrial (1982) , the three
Indiana Jones movies of the 1980s, Jurassic Park (1993) , Artificial
Intelligence: A.I. (2001) , and War of the Worlds (2005) .
While he has always enjoyed making exciting adventure and
science-fiction movies, Spielberg has also become increasingly
interested in more emotionally powerful subjects. He surprised
many people in 1985 with a quiet, thoughtful movie about the
struggles of black people in the southern states of the United
States , The Color Purple . He then dealt with other serious subjects
like the suffering of Jews during World War II ( Schindler’s List ) ,
slaves ( Amistad , in 1997) and ordinary people at war ( Saving
Private Ryan ) . A recent movie is about the terrorist attack on
Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympic Games: Munich (2005) . i
The novel based on the movie of Saving Private Ryan was written
by Max Allan Collins. He has written thrillers, film criticism,
short stories, songs, and other novels from movies and TV series,
including In the Line of Fire , Waterworld , and Air Force One. Collins
has also written, directed, and produced independent movies .
vii
1
PART ONE ST. LAURENT MILITARY GRAVEYARD
JUNE 6 , 1998
Chapter 1 A Family Visit
The pathway was lined with hedges high enough to block
everything else from view. Grandpa walked quickly ahead of the
others through the tunnel of green. Jimmy, the youngest of the
two brothers and two sisters, could hardly stay with him. He
couldn’t believe that an old man like Grandpa could move so fast.
Mom , Dad, and the rest of the family were almost running to
keep up with him.
Suddenly Grandpa stopped . He fell to his knees.
“Dad ! ” Mom called from behind Jimmy, and her voice was full
of concern.
But Jimmy knew now that Grandpa hadn’t fallen ; he was . . .
kneeling. Praying.
Soon Jimmy knew why. When he came up beside his
grandfather, who was staring at the landscape at the end of the
path, Jimmy saw an amazing design. It had surely been created by
both God and man: the green grass was God’s work , and the sea
of white crosses was man’s .
Jimmy, who was seven , had seen only one other cemetery, and
it was much smaller. This one looked like everybody on earth
had died and been buried here. As far as he could see, there was
only green, white, green , white, green , white.
Then Mom and Dad ran to Grandpa, put their arms around
him, and held him tightly; Jimmy’s brothers and sisters were
coming, too, and finally his grandmother. There was an odd
expression on her face; Jimmy couldn’t tell whether she was
happy or sad.
1
Grandpa ’s face had no expression at all . His eyes were open
wide as he stared at the crosses. Those eyes must have seen a lot of
things in all those years, Jimmy thought.
The boy wondered if Grandpa was thinking about people
—
who were buried in this place people who had been his
friends. Dad said Grandpa had fought in the war here, but Jimmy
—
didn’t understand not really. He had heard of that war in
Vietnam. But this was France.
Maybe a war was fought here, once, too.
