Empire UK

film and Hanks together it is their shared

fascination with and respect for World

War II. As chance would have it the pair

were separately sent Robert Rodat’s

Saving Private Ryan screenplay on the

same day. At this stage it was a more

straightforward adventure movie with

jingoistic clichés action set-pieces and

wisecracks. Spielberg committed to

the concept but not the script and

called Hanks who was then editing

That Thing You Do!.

“Steven said ‘We’re going to throw

all that out and it’s just going to be

completely authentic’” recalls Hanks.

“‘We’re going to show what it was really

like to be on Omaha Beach. It’s going

to be the bloodiest place you’ve ever

seen.’ I said ‘Thank you. Am I still

in the movie?’”

The result earned Spielberg a Best

Director Oscar reinvented combat on

film spawned two HBO mini-series

(Band Of Brothers The Pacific) and

became a touchstone for what D-Day

means to an entire generation. Its

‘making of’ is a story of constant

reinvention a towering testament to

Spielberg’s ability to think on the fly and

never settle. He enlisted Frank Darabont

to expand the D-Day opening from six

pages to 28. Screenwriter Scott Frank

faxed Spielberg new material from LA on

a daily basis — “Remember the fax

machine?” says Hanks — adding among

other things the “Earn this” notion that

Miller utters with his dying breath.

“There was a lot of improvisation

in terms of the story structure” says

Spielberg. “I totally made up the

whole thing about Upham the young

translator not being able to make it up

the stairs to save Mellish. It’s always fun

and a little risky to change character and

make up dialogue. But to materially alter

the structure of the movie that’s the

“Yea t at’s e an

the oral ce tre f

everything. o ls!”Tom Hanks

45

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