..the story line was completely Hollywood. While it’s true that, after the Sullivan’s, we didn’t want to endanger entire families in the same battle, the movie doesn’t capture the uncertainty of success that engulfed the entire invasion at the time portrayed. Knowing the outcome of the battle, Hollywood can write good feeling stories after the fact that never would have happened.

In the movie, George Marshall made the decision to save private Ryan. By D-Day private Ryan belonged to Eisenhower and Marshall could not have touched the forces that had already been allocated to Eisenhower. Ike would have had to do it and the weight of the world was on Ike’s shoulders at that point. The success of Overloard was very much in doubt and his forces could have been pushed back into the sea. He had the weight of two hundred thousand parents as well as a country on his shoulders. Having a valuable asset like a Ranger company commander lead a fire team sized element to relieve a private who could have been providing a valuable function in blocking German reinforcements of the beachhead.. well that’s just pure Hollywood. Relieving Pvt. Ryan when practical? ..sure, but that doesn’t make a good movie.