Ed Burns talks about the historical significance of making Saving Private Ryan during 1998 interview

You know, as an actor, I mean, you can work your whole life and everyone have an experience as rich as this is that, am I overstating? No, we all knew, you know, I mean, you knew from day one that we were a part of something special, something that was gonna have uh his historical significance. And when we ramped, um Tom Tom Hanks took us around back of the, the church where, where we had the last scene uh along with Captain Dale Dye, the military advisor and he said, look, you know, uh a generation from now, people are gonna, you know, come up to you and say, what was it like to be a part of that film? You know, we had such a sense that we were a part of something, uh that's bigger than, than us in the movie business. I mean, I don't know if that's overstating it but um that's kind of how we felt. So I don't, I, I can't imagine I'll ever have an experience that, that could duplicate this. You know, I have, I have a movie going experiences. I see 350 films a year and I and I really just review films in an interview every once in a while. And III I really do my job for films like this because in its simplicity, in its complex simplicity in the making of the film, it's a very simple concept and it, and it has so much dignity to it that, that, that, that I leave wanting to thank all of my parents and grandparents who fought in that war. Well, we were saying, you know, I mean, a great thing we got was, um, you know, mentioned Captain Dale died before, before we started shooting when we were at boot camp. He said, look, you guys represent uh my fraternity and the fraternity of soldiers and you represent everyone uh that has died for this country and everyone more importantly, that died on the beach on June 6th. He said, I'm not gonna let you disgrace their honor. You guys are going to be soldiers and you're gonna do the right thing by them. And that was a real eye opener for us. And from that point on, I think all of a sudden, you know, we really have a responsibility here to do the right thing by all of all of those men. Yeah, it's really interesting. You can be as earnest as you wanna be and still make a bad film, but there's a difference here. What, what's the difference? I, I I'm gonna say, I think Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Um And you know, they care so much uh cared so much about this material, uh just watching them on the set. You know, I learned so much as an actor and a filmmaker or as any uh any part, anyone who's part of the filmmaking process, they're uncompromising, they never give up. They always wanna make sure is this the best way we can do it? And is this honest, is this accurate? Are we being truthful? Uh That was the most important thing that was being said on the set? Um I, I want to vicariously live through it for a minute. But that, that opening the opening scene where you, you get off the boat is a, a defining moment in, in history, especially in war history. But as an actor, what was that like? You know, my character, I, I, my stuff was picked up, I didn't actually jump off the boat, so I didn't have that moment except when we did training, we had to do it. Um So I can only speak of, you know, sort of the walk or, you know, there really was a walk across the beach, which was one thing that I, I found strange from the research is they said when guys got off the Higgins boats and actually got on to the, the sand, nobody ran. There was such a sense of shock these guys had that they just kind of walked towards, towards the bluff there. Um, for me. You know, you got some sense, I think of what it may have been like and, and there's no way for anyone who, who's never, who never served during wartime to know what, how horrific and frightening that must be. But, you know, you would do those scenes and you're firing your weapon which is very loud. There, explosions going off, there's blood all over the place. Stuntman is flying by, your arms are flying by, uh you know, explosions are going off and you're getting a hit in the face with stuff. So you definitely forget that you're on a movie set and you are scared and you don't think you're in a war but you're scared so I can and your blood is pumping and the adrenaline is going. Um So that's as close as I think any of us got, you know, we, we experienced some kind of fear and there was no real life threat. Um So, you know, you'll, you'll, we can never know no movie. Uh either acting or uh you watching experience is gonna, you know, touch on what, how horrific that must be. I'm really proud of you. Thanks. Nice job. Thank you. Very nice. Thanks. Good to see you.