Saving Private Ryan

• It’s also the final film for its star, Michael Caine, as he has recently announced his retirement.
• In doing so, it marks itself as a British answer to Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Troubled homecomings

• From the troubled homecoming of Homer’s Odysseus to the spate of Hollywood films produced in the 1970s and 1980s focused on the angry and alienated Vietnam veteran such as The Deer Hunter (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979), the traumatised ex-soldier has long been a figure of cultural interest.
• This has especially been the case in the British film industry over the last 30 years.
• Or, more recent productions focused on returning soldiers, such as Outlaw (2007), The Veteran (2011) and, of course, Harry Brown (2009).

D-Day on film

• In the modern era, however, the D-Day film of most renown is undoubtedly Stephen Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998), which starred Tom Hanks and Matt Damon.
• Intended as a homage to the “greatest generation”, the film begins with an old soldier (the titular Private Ryan) searching the graves in the vast American military cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy.
• This was the scene of some of the deadliest fighting on June 6 1944.
• Whether or not Parker’s film goes on to have the same cultural impact as Spielberg’s award-winning production remains to be seen.

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Sam Edwards has previously received funding from the ESRC, the US-UK Fulbright Commission, the US Army Military History Institute, and the US Naval War College. Sam is a Trustee of Sulgrave Manor (Northamptonshire) and of The American Library (Norwich).

• With the help of two of our nation's top historians, Ferguson spent eight years researching the question.
• This month he releases his surprising answers in American Conquistador, published by Fragata Publishing.
• Ferguson discovered a document signed by Spain's King in 1557 that said, "I want my first North American settlement to be located on the Punta Santa Elena."
• They became the first country to establish a European settlement on North American soil in 1569.