Editing Saving Private Ryan (section)

===Rewrite===
[[File:Niland brothers.jpg|thumb|alt=A collage photo of the four Niland brothers|The [[Niland brothers]] (1940s) were an influence on ''Saving Private Ryan''{{'s}} plot ]]

Spielberg's initial concept for ''Saving Private Ryan'' was a ''[[Boys' Own]]–''style adventure film in which the search for Ryan was a [[public relations]] effort by the war department. However, after interviewing WWII veterans for research, he found this idea inappropriate. He decided to embed the story within a realistic portrayal of actual events while portraying the conflicted morality of sending men into life-threatening situations to save one man.{{efn|Attributed to multiple references:<ref name="BuffaloNewsFacts"/><ref name="Privatespielberg"/><ref name="NYTimesTrue"/><ref name="EmpireEssay"/>}} He said, "I cannot tell you how many veterans came up to me{{nbsp}}... and said: 'Please be honest about it. Please don't make another Hollywood movie about WWII. Please tell our stories{{spaces}}...{{'"}} The surviving Niland family was interviewed, and the story was further influenced by other substantial family war losses, including the five [[Sullivan brothers]] killed during WWII, and the Bixby brothers during the [[American Civil War]]; the [[Bixby letter|resulting letter]] by [[Abraham Lincoln]] is quoted in the film.<ref name="BuffaloNewsFacts"/>

Spielberg described existing WWII films as "sanitized" and sentimentalized, focused on depicting honor and the glory of service in a manner that was "very safe and wholly untrue".{{efn|Attributed to multiple references:<ref name="BuffaloNewsFacts"/><ref name="Privatespielberg"/><ref name="ASCSpielberg98"/><ref name="NYTimesTrue"/>}} He wanted to present the courage of the soldiers in the face of "palpable terror, almost blind terror":<ref name="NYTimesTrue"/>  
{{blockquote|I remember one of the [veterans] telling me the entire charge up the beach was a blur—not a blur to his memory because he still remembered every single grain of sand when he had his face buried in it from that fusillade raining down on them from above. But he described how everything was not in focus for him. He described the sounds, and he described the vibrations of every concussion of every [[8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41|88 shell]] that hit the beach, which gave some of them bloody noses, rattled their ears. The ground would come up and slam into their faces from the concussions."<ref name="LATimes2018Spielberg"/><ref name="FarOutIntentions"/>}}

Ambrose served as a historical consultant. He disliked glorified depictions of the Normandy landings that ignored the reality of soldiers slowly dying in mud and water, wanting "their mothers, they wanted morphine. It took a long time."<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/><ref name="EbertHanks"/><ref name="SeattleTimesWriters"/> Spielberg believed the legacy of the [[Vietnam War]] had made his generation less interested in glorifying combat in film. Even so, he was influenced by early war films such as ''[[Battleground (film)|Battleground]]'' (1949), ''[[The Steel Helmet]]'' (1951), and ''[[Hell Is for Heroes (film)|Hell Is for Heroes]]'' (1962).<ref name="ASCSpielberg98"/>

Although Rodat's script came close to the ideal WWII project he had hoped for, Spielberg said it had "a few problems".{{sfn|Schickel|2012|p=182}} He hired [[Frank Darabont]] and [[Scott Frank]] to perform [[script doctor|uncredited script rewrites]].{{efn|Attributed to multiple references:<ref name="SeattleTimesWriters"/><ref name="VarietyDarabont"/><ref name="LATimesScottCredit"/><ref name="ScottFrank"/>}} The scene begins as the second wave of soldiers arrives on Omaha beach (Darabont's suggestion),<ref name="EmpireEssay" /> so they would be walking into "Hell on Earth" instead of empty beaches.<ref name="EmpireMakingOf"/> Scott Frank performed rewrites based on transcriptions of Spielberg's recorded ideas and two folders of historical facts about the Normandy landings; these gave Frank ideas but he found it difficult to parse the reality of events into original ideas.<ref name="CreativeScreenwriting"/>

The Normandy cemetery scene was based on Spielberg's own experience visiting the area as a youth; he witnessed a family accompanying a man who fell to his knees and began to cry at a grave marker.<ref name="BuffaloNewsFacts" />