Matt has been preparing for this episode his entire life, so we're dedicating TWO PARTS to cover Steven Spielberg's epic World War II sad-venture film, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998). Alex and Rocco join Matt to discuss how Spielberg and writer Robert Rodat crafted the "documentary realism" approach to the true story of the Niland Brothers, why Tom Hanks decided it was time to take his friendship with Steve to the next level, the trial-by-fire boot camp that the military advisor Dale Dye put Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Jeremy Davies, Adam Goldberg, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, and Tom Sizemore through, which almost convinced a few of them to quit, and who almost played their roles instead.

Next week, we'll continue with Saving Private Ryan Part Two, kicking off with a behind-the-scenes breakdown of how the Normandy Beach battle sequences were created.

It's a new mini-marathon, folks! This summer, we're gettin' in the ring with Steven for the SPIELBERG SUMMER SLAM! We're hitting up his incredible run of blockbusters from the genre-defining JAWS (1975) up through his hand-wave screen technology-introducing MINORITY REPORT (2002)!

The NeverEnding Movie Marathon is a weekly podcastic celebration of cinema. Dive deep into fan-favorite films (#NoStinkers!), thematically curated to enhance your movie viewing by hosts Matt Detisch, Alex Logan, and Michael Rocco.

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