It probably comes as no surprise that most mythology and folklore and works of fiction are, well – fictional. Figments of creative imagination. However, sometimes myths and folk tales, and even fiction, have a kernel of truth and real people and events within. Take the movie Saving Private Ryan. A fictional story, but one whose premise is actually based on real-life events. Following are thirty things about that and other well-known fictional characters and stories based on real people and events.
30. The True Facts Behind a Great Fictional Movie
Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed 1998 war epic, won five Oscars, including a Best Director. It is widely regarded as one of the best war movies, and indeed, as one of the best films of all time, period. It depicts the travails of a fictional team of American GIs assigned a special task in the midst of World War II’s Normandy Campaign. Their mission: to find and recover the eponymous Private Ryan of the 101st Airborne Division – the missing but presumed still alive last of four brothers, the rest of whom were killed in combat.
As the GIs tramp through the chaos of war-torn Normandy, they meet, overcome, and survive a variety of obstacles and dangers, until they finally locate Ryan. Although upset by the news, he refuses to abandon his comrades who are about to come under German counterattack, and his would-be-rescuers are all but wiped out in battle against the Nazis. Although the story is fictional, it is nonetheless fiction based upon a real wartime tragedy: the fate of the Niland Brothers, below.