Steven Spielberg Was Worried He Made ‘Saving Private Ryan’ “Too Tough” For Audiences To Endure

It was ranked #10 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time, #8 on their list of the 10 greatest films in the “Epic” genre in 2008, it’s one of Quentin Tarantino‘s favorite films, it’s consistently ranked among prestigious “top” lists of greatest war films, it is currently ranked 29 on IMDb’s list of its 250 top-rated films, and it won five Oscars including one for Best Director for Steven Spielberg. Suffice it to say, “Saving Private Ryan” was, and still is, a pop culture hallmark. Almost exactly 20 years after its theatrical release on July 24, 1998, its visceral style still influences war films today. And, to think, at one point, Spielberg didn’t think anybody would show up to the theater to see his film.

“I didn’t anticipate the success of the movie,” Spielberg told the Los Angeles Times. “In very early screenings, certain associates and other people in my life were saying that I made it too tough. I feared that almost nobody would see it because the word of mouth would spread quickly after the first 25 minutes.”

It was scenes like the U.S. landing on Omaha Beach and the siege of the French village of Ramelle, especially, that would influence such films as “The Patriot,” “Black Hawk Down,” “Letters from Iwo Jima,” “Fury,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” and “Dunkirk.”

“Saving Private Ryan” is a film close to Spielberg’s heart.

“I picked World War II because, growing up, it was the seminal conversation inside my family. My parents talked about the Holocaust and they talked about World War II. And I was born knowing this. My dad was a veteran — he’s still with us, thank God, 101 years old — he was in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to the beginning of 1945,” the director continued.

It’s no wonder many of the legendary director’s films cover that era with such intricacy. Still, aside from the Oscar-winning Best Picture “Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan” just might be Spielberg‘s finest World War II-era film.