The Diesel in Saving Private Ryan

A couple weeks ago I went through a Tom Hanks binge which included, among others, the powerful Spielberg WW2 epic, Saving Private Ryan. I was actually surprised by how many movies Hanks and director Steven Spielberg have teamed up on, Saving Private Ryan was only the first, and four more big screen hits followed: Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies, The Post. (They also teamed up for the TV series Band of Brothers.) I was also surprised by how many other familiar actors were part of this production, people I didn't expect.

So it was fun finding an article about Saving Private Ryan this weekend, the day after Christmas, and the writer made the same observation that I did. The article by Jerrica Tisdale is titled Saving Private Ryan: 10 Actors You Probably Forgot Were In The Movie.

I remembered Matt Damon as Private Ryan, of course, and Hanks, but was quite surprised how many other familiar faces there were. Ted Danson, Bryan Cranston, Tom Sizemore (A standout in Black Hawk Down), Paul Giamatti (Surprise! Yes, he was there), Joe Farina (Great roles in two Elmore Leonard flicks, Get Shorty and Out of Sight) and several other recognizable names and faces. 

SPOILER ALERT

Vin Diesel as Private Adrian Caparzo

The big surprise--only because he was such an unknown then and is anything but that today--was seeing Vin Diesel as Private Adrian Caparzo. Now working on his 10th Fast and Furious flick, he's been versatile on a range of projects that have made him diesel-powered truckloads of money.

If it's been a while since you saw the film, you'll remember Vin Diesel's last scene, surprisingly early in the film. Hanks, as Captain  Miller, has been tasked with a mission, to locate locate Private Ryan, played by another familiar name, Matt Damon, to send him home because his three brothers have been killed in other action. Hanks and his small band of men are looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

As they pass through a bombed out city, Hanks and company are pinned down by a sniper. A French family in a semi-demolished apartment complex is pleading with the soldiers to bring their daughter to safety. Hanks says "No, this is not our mission." 

Soft-hearted Vin Diesel ignores the Captain's orders. He defends his decision because she reminds him of his niece. Tragically, he gets picked off by the sniper and bleeds out right in front of the others who must watch helplessly from behind walls and debris.

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German Panzers were not diesel powered as you might have supposed.

Another surprise for me was learning that Vin Diesel was the only diesel in this film. That is, until researching for this blog post I always assumed that the German tanks in WW2 were diesel-powered. It would have made sense for this to be so, but in reality (according to my research) they, like the America-made Sherman tanks, ran on gasoline or petrol. This made being a tank driver quite hazardous, as gasoline is much more volatile than diesel fuel. Hence, when you see tanks get shelled and men leaping out covered with flames, that's a pretty accurate portrayal of a common hazard for tank drivers and their passengers.

In the final battle, we see a pair of German tanks similar to these Panzers above and a half-track, that hybrid transport vehicle that is half-truck, half tread. By utilizing a single fuel source, all the equipment could be kept powered from one stock pile.

Interestingly enough, the Soviet army did have diesel-powered tanks, supplied by the United States via lend lease. U.S. Sherman tanks and British tanks were all gasoline powered.

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LINKS
Jerrica Tisdale's "Saving Private Ryan: Actors You Forgot Were in the Movie"
Adrian Caparzo @ Saving Private Ryan Fandom  
Which WW2 Tanks were Diesel Powered?