Why were no Allied soldiers portrayed in the film?
According to Steven Spielberg, this was a film about an American squad looking for an American soldier in the American sector. It was not a documentary about the Normandy battle. That was done in “The Longest Day.” The Allied divisions that landed at Normandy had strict boundary lines, with the American troops on the right or West flank. The direction that Captain Miller’s squad took to look for Private Ryan took them northwest, even further away from the British and Canadian sectors. If it will make the Allied faithful any happier, Barry Pepper, who portrayed Pvt. Jackson, is a Canadian.
