engineering of the vehicles occurred elsewhere
(principally in Michigan or California with GM cor-
porate designers and engineers).
With the initial slogan of “A different kind of car,
a different kind of company,” Saturn dealerships at-
tempted to cultivate a relationship with their cus-
tomers that went beyond the sale, providing refresh-
ments and small children’s playscapes in service
waiting rooms. Service consultants were trained to
sit down with owners in a cubicle before and after
the automotive servicing, similar to a doctor’s office
visit. However, sales peaked at 286,000 units in 1994,
and in the remainder of the decade the lack of multi-
ple car lines caused sales to decline. In the first de-
cade of the twenty-first century, new car lines were
introduced, but only through building off other GM
or Opel platforms, mitigating the distinctiveness
that once characterized the marque.
Impact The creation of Saturn Corporation consti-
tutes a signature example of a large American corpo-
ration trying to “think small.” However, its products
often did not connect with the intended audience.
The heralded introduction of the Saturn electric
car, the EV1, in 1996 (as a 1997 model) was under-
mined by a lack of corporate vision, offering the ve-
hicle only by closed-end lease in California and Ari-
zona and in limited quantity. When the model was
discontinued in 2003, there was still a long waiting
list of prospective customers.
Further Reading
O’Toole, Jack.Forming the Future: Lessons from the
Saturn Corporation. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell,
1996.
Rubinstein, Saul A.Learning from Saturn: Possibilities
for Corporate Governance and Employee Relations.
Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press/Cornell University Press,
2001.
Richard Sax
See also Automobile industry; Electric car; Reces-
sion of 1990-1991.
Saving Private Ryan
Identification American film
Director Steven Spielberg (1946- )
Date Released on July 24, 1998A commercial and critical success, this World War II drama
honored U.S. soldiers.Set in German-occupied France in 1944,Saving Pri-
vate Ryanfollows Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks)
as he survives the Normandy invasion and then leads
a mission to locate and bring home Private James
Ryan (Matt Damon), a missing paratrooper. Ryan’s
three brothers had recently been killed in battle,
and military authorities did not want another war
death in that family. Miller’s squad questions the
worth of the mission, wondering why the life of one
soldier is worth risking the lives of eight other sol-
diers. Despite their resentment, the soldiers do their
duty. When they finally find Ryan, he refuses to go
home, preferring to continue to fight the enemy
with his brothers in arms.
The film’s twenty-five-minute depiction of the
D-day invasion of Omaha Beach is often praised for
its realism: graphic depictions of soldiers dying and
gritty details including men vomiting and body parts
flying, all seen in desaturated colors from the point
of view of a foot soldier and accompanied by sounds
of screaming and machine gun bullets. The brutality
depicted prevents the film from being a glorification
of war. The depiction of battle throughout the film
helps viewers understand how combat affects sol-
diers.
After the invasion, the film focuses only on the
squad’s mission, which undercuts the film’s commit-
ment to authenticity and leaves it open to historical
criticism. Very little of the context of the war is
shown; the film ignores the reasons why U.S. troops
were in Europe and the importance of the role of
America’s allies in winning the war.Impact The 1990’s marked the fiftieth anniversary
of World War II, bringing a revival in films about
the war. Americans had long been dealing with the
painful legacy of the Vietnam War and the contro-
versies of the more recent Gulf War, so a patriotic
film about World War II, “the good war,” was reassur-
ing. World War II has become a mythic moment sym-
bolizing American unity and both moral and mili-
tary triumph against an evil enemy; heroic soldiersThe Nineties in America Saving Private Ryan 743