What 1998 war film directed by Spielberg features the D-Day invasion?

The 1998 Spielberg war film featuring the D-Day invasion is Saving Private Ryan. Set during World War II, it opens with an intense depiction of the Allied landings at Omaha Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944.

The story follows Captain John Miller, played by Tom Hanks, and a small group of soldiers sent to find Private James Francis Ryan, portrayed by Matt Damon. Ryan’s three brothers have been killed in action, so the military orders the unit to bring him home. The premise was inspired partly by the Niland brothers and other real cases involving multiple family members killed during wartime.

Spielberg pursued an unusually realistic style. The main cast completed military training, and the Omaha Beach sequence used 1,500 background actors. The film’s handheld camerawork, muted colors, sound design, and graphic combat made it a landmark of modern war cinema.

Saving Private Ryan earned 11 Academy Award nominations and won five, including Best Director for Spielberg. It lost Best Picture to Shakespeare in Love, an outcome that remains one of the Academy’s best-known upsets.