The hand held cameras cause the film to have a rocky motion, this adds to the feeling of sea sickness that the audience feels along with the soldiers. As the camera moves among the men we feel and see the dread within the soldiers
Spielberg continues to use the hand held camera when the soldiers arrive on the beach. The movement is erratic and we experience the panic, chaos and mayhem that is all around. The soldiers are bewildered, terrified and there appears to be no control.
When the boats get to shore they are immediately being shot at from the German strong holds in the hills. Some of the men are diving into the water and trying to swim to safety, but their kit weighs them down. This sequence is very muffled as it has been filmed, and the sound recorded, under water. You can hear the sound of the bullets ripping through the water and thudding against the struggling bodies. Spielberg uses the sound and soundtrack very well using both digetic and non-digetic; for example when you can hear the sound of the waves lapping against the hull of the boats, you can see what is making the sound so that is non-digetic, but when you can’t see the source of the particular sound that is digetic.
An extremely powerful scene that follows all the action is when the main character Captain Miller, played by Tom Hanks, abruptly loses control of the situation and it is evident he is in shell shock. Again Spielberg uses the very effective technique of making the sound muffled and only letting you see the action and not hear. The camera gets a close up of Millers focusing on his eyes and you can see the fear in them, the camera then pans across all of the action so that the audience can see Captain Miller’s point of view. The viewer then starts to realise why Miller is in this state. The images at this point are extremely graphic, in the battle field you can see soldiers being struck by mortar and other soldiers running around frantically looking for lost limbs, you can hear the muffled screams of soldiers lying on the floor in agony. In the background you start to hear a whistling sound such as a kettle or a descending bomb getting louder and louder, gradually building more and more suspense until you finally hear a bomb go off close to Captain Miller, he then regains control of himself. Captain Miller is pulled out of this shock because he has to face reality, he is looked upon as the most senior person present and he is there as a representative of his country and is responsible for other peoples’ lives.
To get the lighting correct is essential in a film of this nature, Spielberg uses low key lighting which shows the gritty realism that he is trying to portray. This is very authentic because in the war this is how it would have been, all of the constant gun fire would have made clouds of smoke, the exploding bombs would have scattered mud and sand everywhere. The film had to be represented this way because so many men and women tragically lost their lives.
Mise- én-scene has been used effectively in this film, for example the costume represents the war and the setting of the scene, Spielberg also had to take special notice of the guns, boats, dialogue etc to make sure that they all fitted in with the 1944 setting.
The visual images and sound and sound effects used were so powerful that some of the audience reacted physically to the shock generated by the cinematography. The limited dialogue enhanced the already powerful piece of imagery that was brought to our screens by Spielberg, and therefore gave a very realistic portrayal of the war.
