Stories from the set

Due to circumstances, the main part of the film's shooting was moved from the territory of Great Britain to Irish lands. The British Ministry of Defence refused to provide the film crew with the necessary assistance, offering its soldiers as extras. That was when Irish soldiers (about 250 people) came to Spielberg's rescue.

Director Steven Spielberg began considering inviting Matt Damon to the project after watching the film "Courage Under Fire," but for a long time considered the actor too scrawny. Thanks to a nudge from Robin Williams, Spielberg met Damon on the set of "Good Will Hunting" and changed his mind.

The role of Caparzo was written specifically for Vin Diesel after Spielberg reviewed the actor's previous work.

All the lead actors were forced to undergo several days of army training; an exception was made only for Matt Damon, who, despite the surname of his character present in the title, was nevertheless given a secondary role.

In the original version of the script, the speech of Tom Hanks's character addressed to the other members of the combat unit was much longer (in it the hero talks about what he is ready to do to get back home). Hanks himself objected, saying that his character should not make such speeches. Spielberg agreed, and the monologue was heavily cut.

Despite the fact that Steven Spielberg deliberately reduced the color saturation of the film by about 60%, counting on the fact that the action of the picture takes place at a time when color television did not yet exist, two leading American cable companies (DirecTV and Dish) restored the real colors when showing the picture on their channels. After the first two days of broadcasting, the data support centers of these channels were flooded with a barrage of calls from dissatisfied citizens who complained about the absence of color in the transmitted picture.

The film is based on real events that happened to the Niland brothers during World War II.

Many war veterans expressed gratitude to Steven Spielberg, who, in their opinion, made a truthful film. It was they who advised Steven to show numerous naturalistic moments on screen and thereby bring the narrative closer to real events.

In Singapore, the film received an unprecedented NC-16 rating (from 16 years old). On the one hand, the film was quite violent, which ruled out receiving a PG rating; on the other hand, the film had no hint of sexual themes, and therefore an R rating could not be obtained either. That was when a compromise rating option was found.

The film shows 206 corpses.