Score : Saving Private Ryan (1998)

[Antony from Paris 0]

Hi,

Here is the complete tracklist of Saving Private Ryan soundtrack, indicated for a 80:00 length CD.

1. REVISITING NORMANDY 4:06 (OST track 2)

This track is used as main title.

An American flag back-lighted by the afternoon sun gently flaps in the breeze. The camera pulls back to reveal the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. An elderly man (Harrison Young) approaches the cemetery and walks among the rows of gravestones, which are mostly marble crosses, with an occasional Star of David marking the grave of a Jewish soldier. He is accompanied by his wife, his son (Rob Freeman) and his wife, and a grandson (Thomas Gizbert) and his 2 teenage sisters (Abe and Nina Muschallick). He searches the crosses and stops at a specific one, where he falls to his knees, crying. His family walks up behind him and tries to comforts him. The camera slowly zooms in on his face, into his eyes. The scene shifts instantly to a beach at Normandy called "Omaha, Dog Green Sector". Welcome to the D-Day : June 6, 1944...*

2. OMAHA BEACH 9:15 (OST track 3)

In fact, this very long gentle track don't happens during the hard bloody fight on the beach. It begins just after.

At the War Department in the US, rows of secretaries are typing death notices to be sent to the families of the men killed in various battles around the World. One of the women typing discovers 3 letters for 3 men of the same family. The 3 men are all brothers from the Ryans of Iowa and their mother will receive all 3 letters at the same time. The 4^th and youngest son of Mrs. Ryan, James Francis (Matt Damon), is part of the 101^st Airborne division, dropped into Normandy ahead of the beach invasion and his whereabouts are unknown. The letters are brought to the attention of Gal George Marshall (Harve Presnell) who, after reading a poignant letter sent by Abraham Lincoln to a family under similar circumstances during the Civil War, orders his officers to find James and have him brought home immediately.*

3. FINDING PRIVATE RYAN (Part 2) 1:10 (from OST track 4)

Separatly of the 1^st part, this cue (3:28-end) appears twice in the movie : here and as last part of End Credits. For this section, it happens when the squad begins searching private Ryan.

The squad sets out in the Norman bocage. Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies) tries to talk to Pvt Mellish (Adam Goldberg) and Pvt Caparzo (Vin Diesel) but finds them unfriendly and even insulting.*

4. FINDING PRIVATE RYAN 4:37 (OST track 4)

This track begins just after the morbid like poker - using dog tags taken from dead soldiers.

T-4 Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi) starts picking up the tags, muttering that his comrades are acting rather coldly in front of the passing soldiers. Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) concludes that Ryan isn't among them and in a minor fit of desperation, beings to question the passing soldiers, asking if any of them know Ryan. He gets lucky with one man who is from Ryan's unit and has lost his hearing from a grenade blast, so he yells his answers. The man tells him that Ryan was assigned to a mixed unit that's guarding a bridge across the Merderet River in the nearby village of Ramelle.*

5. WADE'S DEATH 4:30 (OST track 7)

This track covers the death of Wade.

After the attack of a German radar dish, when Upham reaches the squad, he sees that Wade has been shot several times in the chest and is bleeding. The men frantically try to save his life but Wade dies, saying he wants to go home. One of the Germans (Joerg Stadler) is captured alive and in retribution, the squad rushes around him, beating him. Miller is undecided how to dispose of the German POW, and orders that he dig graves for Wade and the 2 GIs they saw in the field. When Upham protests that prisoners aren't to be treated like slaves, Miller orders Upham to help the German. As the German digs the graves, Miller sits off to one side where he cries, his right hand shaking again. He slowly recovers his composure and returns to the squad.*

6. HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER 11:03 (OST track 8)

In fact, only 2 parts were used for this sequence : Part 1 (0:00-2:39), just following by Part 3 (9:30-end). Part 2 (2:39-9:30) was unused. You can isolate Part 2, to put in the end of the CD.

Miller reveals that he's an English composition teacher in a small Pennsylvania town. The men stop arguing, surprised by Miller. Miller says the war has changed him (tribute to The Longest Day ? - it was saying by Red Buttons near the end of the movie) and he's not sure if his wife will recognize him and if he'll be able to resume his former life when he returns home. He reasons that if finding and bringing Ryan back ensures that he'll be able to get home sooner, then it's his job to complete the mission. The exhausted squad approaches Ramelle. While crossing a field, they spot a German half-track.*

7. DEFENSE PREPARATIONS 5:54 (OST track 6)

Last minute of this track is dialed out on the movie.

Miller inventories their few remaining weapons and supplies. Miller outlines a plan to bottle up German tanks on the main street of Ramelle, where the rubble creates a narrow choke point that will channel the German troops into a bottleneck and allow the soldiers to flank the Germans. Their plan includes Pvt. Reiben (Edward Burns) riding out on a German half-track motorcycle to lure the German unit into the bottleneck. Miller suggests they improvise "sticky bombs," socks stuffed with Composition B explosives and coated with grease. They'll use the sticky bombs to blast the treads off a tank. They retrieve some spare Comp B from the demolition charges on the bridge. Upham is given the job of running ammunition to the 2 Browning machine gun positions manned by Mellish and 101^st paratrooper Parker (Demetri Goritsas). Pvt. Jackson (Barry Pepper) and Parker take position in the church tower.*

8. TU ES PARTOUT 2:48 (from Anthologie de la chanson française : 1943)

This song, written by Edith Piaf and Marguerite Monnot, is performed by the "Môme" Edith Piaf. It was originally used in the movie Montmartre-sur-Seine.

The men wait for the Germans to arrive, listening Piaf's song on a record, while Upham interprets lyrics.*

9. C’ÉTAIT UNE HISTOIRE D'AMOUR 4:27 (from Anthologie de la chanson française : 1942)

This song, written by Henri Contet and Jean Jal, is performed by the "Môme" Edith Piaf.

Ryan tells Miller that he can remember his brothers but he can't see their faces. Miller suggests he "think of a context", something they've all done together. Miller tells Ryan when he wants to remember his wife, he thinks of her trimming rosebushes. Ryan tells the story of how he and his brothers nearly burned down the barn on their farm when they snuck up on their oldest brother, Danny, while he was trying to have sex with a local girl in the hayloft. James laughs and stops when he realizes that the incident was the last time they were all together, over 2 years ago, before any of them had gone to basic training.*

10. TU ES PARTOUT 2:48 (from Anthologie de la chanson française : 1943)

When Ryan asks Miller to tell him about his wife and the rosebushes, Miller politely refuses, saying that memory is for him alone. The squad feels the ground beginning to rumble, indicating that the German column has arrived.*

11. THE LAST BATTLE 7:57 (OST track 9)

As for Omaha Beach, this track begins just after this awful bloody hand-to-hand fight, when British planes arrive as western's US Cavalry.

As Miller lays dying, Ryan tells him that the planes are "tank busters." Miller calls them "Angels on our shoulders." He beckons Ryan closer and with his dying breath, tells him "Earn this... earn it." In a voiceover, Gal George Marshall's voice reads a letter to Ryan's mother, informing her that her son is returning home. He quotes a passage from Lincoln's letter about the cost of war. Ryan stands looking at Miller's body. The camera focuses on Ryan's young face as it morphs into Ryan in the present. He is standing at Capt. Miller's grave. He tells Miller that he hopes he's lived up to Miller's wish and been worthy of all that Miller and his men did for him. He asks his wife to tell him that he's led a good life and that he's a good man. The elder Ryan salutes Miller's grave. An American flag back-lighted by the afternoon sun gently flaps in the breeze.*

12. HYMN TO THE FALLEN 6:10 (OST track 1)

This track is used as 1^st part of the End Credits. Album version is quite different on the beginning than the film version.

13. FINDING PRIVATE RYAN (Part 2) 1:10 (from OST track 4)

This track is used as 2^nd part of the End Credits.

14. APPROACHING THE ENNEMY 4:31 (OST track 5)

This track is unused.

15. HYMN TO THE FALLEN (Reprise) 6:10 (OST track 10)

As for other soundtracks albums (7 Years in Tibet, Amistad...), JW ends the album with a reprise of the 1^st track (often used for End Credits in fact).

* Plot synopsis are partly taken from imdb.

[filmmusic 1,829]

Has anyone ever tried to identify the musical themes in this score?

apart from the hymn to the fallen and the theme that starts Omaha beach and is repeated in the track and in a couple of other tracks too (and I consider this to be really the main theme), I can't isolate another theme.

There are those trumpet or brass duos with the 5ths, but they change constantly.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I don't know about identifying themes, but I just listened to "Omaha Beach" last night and marveled at the beauty of the opening string chord.  I think I figured it out on piano too.

[filmmusic 1,829]

15 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I don't know about identifying themes, but I just listened to "Omaha Beach" last night and marveled at the beauty of the opening string chord.  I think I figured it out on piano too.

Does this help?

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Thanks!  Hmmm, I had it down as D Minor, my ear didn't pick up on the B flat that makes it B flat major.