One of the Most Sinister MAN IN HOLLYWOOD is the reason Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998) lost Best Picture at the Oscars. The 23-minute D-Day landing scene in Saving Private Ryan (1998) cost $12 million, about a fifth of the film’s budget. Filmed over a month with 1,500 actors and 400 crew, it remains one of the most visceral and powerful scenes in film history. ‘Saving Private Ryan’ losing Best Picture was a massive shock because the film was considered one of the greatest war movies ever made. Made on a budget of around $70 million, it grossed over $482 million worldwide, became the highest grossing movie in America in 1998, earned 11 Oscar nominations, and won 5 Academy Awards. The portrayal was so realistic that many World War II veterans reportedly had to leave theaters within the first 20 minutes just because of the D-Day landing scene. One Vietnam veteran reportedly dropped to the floor and crawled out of the theater when the battle began. The reaction became so intense that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had to set up a nationwide hotline for veterans suffering PTSD episodes after screenings. Veterans later said it was not just the visuals, but the sounds the whizzing bullets, screaming soldiers, and metallic clack of tank treads that felt horrifyingly real. One veteran famously said the only thing missing was the smell of the battlefield. But what won that year was actually ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ a film that was produced by Harvey Weinstein’s company, Miramax. Weinstein launched an extremely aggressive Oscar campaign for ‘Shakespeare in Love’ while attacking Saving Private Ryan behind the scenes, saying it's way too bloody, it's way too gruesome for the first 15 minutes, historically inaccurate, and emotionally manipulative. When somebody told Spielberg about Harvey Weinstein's tactics, and what he's doing, and Spielberg stated, "No matter what, I do not want you to get down in the mud with Harvey Weinstein." When press asked if Spielberg was sure about not fighting back, he said "I don't want any negative campaigning." Decades later, Spielberg called the industry-wide focus on Harvey Weinstein's later downfall a "watershed moment" and an "imperative", though he famously clapped politely when he lost the big prize that night in 1999.