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In the D-Day landing sequence, there are anti-landing obstacles all along the beach. One type, nicknamed "Czech Hedgehog," was short
and prickly and designed to rip open the hulls of the landing craft as they approached. There were also long poles pointing at an angle. Officially called Hemmbalken, they were made out of wood or metal and angled towards the beach, most being topped with a Teller mine (anti-tank mine) and placed in rows. The Germans expected the Allies to land at high tide, to minimize the open space that the infantry had to cross, and the beach obstacles were designed with this in mind. The plan was that the landing craft would ride onto the poles, which, at high tide would be underwater, and detonate the AT mines, causing death and destruction. However, the Allies landed at low tide, making the obstacles visible and, therefore, useless.
The Omaha Beach scene cost $11 million to shoot, and involved up to 1,000 extras, some of whom were members of the Irish Army Reserve. Of those extras, 20-30 of them were amputees, issued with prosthetic limbs, to play soldiers who had their limbs blown off.
All the principal actors, except for Matt Damon, underwent several days of grueling army training. Damon was spared so that the other actors would resent him and would convey that feeling in their performances.
The two "German" soldiers who are shot trying to surrender were speaking Czech. They were saying, "Please don't shoot me, I am not German, I am Czech, I didn't kill anyone, I am Czech!" They were members of what the Germans called Ost [East] Battalions, men, mostly Czech and Polish, taken prisoner in eastern European countries invaded by Germany and forced into the German army. The closed captioning for the film on VHS and DVD/Blu-ray bears this out with the language being labeled as Czech.
Steven Spielberg cast Matt Damon as Private Ryan because he wanted an unknown actor with an All-American look. He did not know Damon would win an Oscar for Good Will Hunting (1997) and become an overnight star before the film was released.
The Omaha Beach scene was shot in the south of Ireland, in an area called Curracloe.
Ted Danson: This film resurrected Danson's career, as Cheers (1982) had been off the air for five years, but he had been in a number of commercial and critical flops since then. His short appearance proved he could do drama every bit as well as comedy and he's worked steadily ever since.
Steven Spielberg: [Fathers] In Neuville, a father pleads with the soldiers to take his kids with them. After being endangered by this, and then being reunited with her family, the daughter then slaps the father repeatedly for putting her at such risk.