There were two mistakes in the film, "Saving Private Ryan"

Rating: 7/10 (10 June 2005)

The movie opens with an elderly man and his family visiting the allied cemetery in Normandy, France. He approaches the grave of Captain Miller and becomes very emotional. We do not know who this elderly man is. He then looks out toward the sea and then begins the flashback of the D-Day invasion. The next 29 minutes or so is a superb, factual, brutal and graphic account of the American landing on beach, code named "Omaha". The loss of life on "Bloody Omaha" was enormous and unimaginable. After the break through, we see a soldier collecting some soil in a metal container. Here is where the first mistake occurs. We see that this soldier has other containers with soil samples as well. On one of the containers the word, "Italy" is written. Well, my friends, there is no way that this soldier could have been in Italy and then called upon to take part in the Normandy invasion.
At the end of the movie, we learn that the elderly man is none other than Private Ryan. Here comes the other big mistake. In the story Private Ryan was parachuted behind enemy lines. He was NOT part of the seaborne D-Day invasion. How could he possibly envision the invasion when he was not there at all. Any flashback involves the person being physically present in any given situation.
Well, there you have it my friends. As much as I love Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, an awful blunder was made right from the beginning. Private Ryan was not there and therefore he couldn't possibly have visualized what happened there.