The next scene is as the men are being let out of the troop carriers, about three quarters of the men are killed in seconds, many do not make it out of the boat, and this scene shows the soldiers trying to get out of the sea and onto the beach. Overall it is very difficult, a great struggle getting onto the beach. As the front of the troop carrier opens there are close up shots of the soldiers as a barrage of bullets hits them, there is just the sound of bullets and artillery fire as the men get out of the boat and the effect of this is saddening because it ruins spirits because of the amount of people that die. After this the following carriers try sending troops over the side of the carriers into the sea, this is when the cameras fall under water, these cameras are shaking around, showing long shots of men struggling out of the water. As the men are thrown out of the boat there is still the sound of bullets and artillery fire but as the camera follows the men the camera submerges and the sound is muffled creating an uneasy feeling of peace. Then bullets begin to fly into the water and we hear a whistling sound as they do so, killing men whilst they are in the water generating another sense of failure no matter which route they take. Then men begin to get out of the water and onto the beach sitting behind beach traps and sitting in holes created by artillery fire, the sound of bullets and artillery fire continues on, but then dialogue comes in, orders are being shouted around, a sense of confusion, chaotic battle, but still more die and this gives a felling of pointless battle, showing that war is not glamorous. Now that a lot of men have made it onto the beach Spielberg shows a different point of view, the cameras are sat behind the gattling guns of the Germans, the Germans killing the American troops like flies and this shows us the inevitability of death and then going on to showing pan shots of the beach showing the vast pointless death. Then it goes back to the men on the beach, the men are using handheld cameras as they move onto the beach showing you the rough terrain they faced. Throughout this scene they face an onslaught of bullets and such great loss.
The scene shows us Captain Miller’s confusion. In this scene Miller and his men have made it onto the beach. Captain Miller staggers along the beach and then stumbles; he sits in this position observing the things that is going on around him. At the beginning of this scene the cameras are taking close up shots of Miller, this helps us see his expressions so we can see the way he is feeling and his expressions show a confused mind. Then we begin to see shots of other people’s deaths from Miller’s perspective, it shows mass death and the confusion of other soldiers as they die. There are pan shots of the entire beach showing this. Throughout this scene the sound is muffled. Close to the end a soldier comes up and says ‘‘What shall we do?’’, this phrase has to be lip read as the sound is muffled, you can see in a close up shot of the soldier’s face that he is terrified and thinks he is going to die because his experienced captain is unaware of what to. Overall this scene has quite a strong effect on you, mainly because we see many people dying in such horrific ways and then the young soldier emphasises the terror they all must be feeling.
The final scene is by far the longest. At the beginning of this scene it is a continuation of the battle, Captain Miller begins to give his men orders and they progress up the beach, but there is the still the inevitability of death, in the end the soldiers make it to a small hill and they all stop at that, with the main plan being to all go over at once, when they do they make it to the top of the cliff and Captain Miller rests. At the beginning of the scene it shows pan shots of men moving up the beach, with the sound of bullets and the some dialogue, the dialogue mainly being cries of pain. Also Spielberg uses handheld cameras; this shows how rough the terrain was and the jolting and jerking of the cameras showed the difficulty of getting the beach. When the pan shots have been shown the camera focuses in on the men that were lying at the bottom of the small hill. Captain Miller is giving orders out, and then the camera shows the terror stricken faces of the young soldiers. Still there is a barrage of bullets hitting the top of this hill. Then men are told to collect ammunition from the dead or dying, one man is lying on the ground with no legs and a man rips the ammunition of him, and this man is screaming for his mother and as his bullets are taken the camera closes in on his face and shows his fear. He must have felt as if he had no chance, now he was vulnerable with no weapon, in a sense no pride. Then a smoke grenade is launched off this hill and the Miller shouts ‘‘Go!’’. As this happens the audience pray that they will succeed; The men jump up and run into a sea of bullets, this dampens our hopes with many of the men getting shot down, the groups split up, some sit out side of bunkers shooting men as they emerge but Miller and his men sit in front of one the large bunkers. Miller tells them that they are going he is going to give covering fire and they will move up the beach, the camera is panning around all of the soldiers, as they get ready to leave a man kisses his cross and smiles, Miller shouts ‘‘Covering fire’’ and they get up and move around and up the cliff, men using handheld cameras here showing the rough terrain and the immense difficulty getting up the cliff. When they have all got up and past the bunker the camera closes in on a sniper’s face, he is muttering and then the camera goes into the sniper scope and a man gets his head shot at; This gives us a feeling of victory as it one of the soldier’s first achievements. It shows a long shot of the back of his head ripping apart, then he shoots the sandbags and they collapse and the German men tumble down the hill and are shot at by the remaining soldiers, this gives a great feeling of progress and slight victory.
Then the camera follows the men up the cliff, now there is a sound grenades being thrown into trenches and bursts of gun fire from each side, the camera shows a shot of the all the trenches, the men clear out the trenches and then move onto the bunkers, a man with a flame thrower goes to the entrance of the bunkers and flames the whole interior of this bunker, the camera showing a view from the front of the bunker as flames burst out. Then the men check the last few bunkers, as they do so there is slight gun fire from far off, two men emerge from another bunker with their hands in the air, despite this they are still shot, showing a view that there perspective is a man for a man. The final part of the scene is Captain Miller resting, he sits and takes a drink and his comrade says to him ‘‘Quite a view’’
Captain Miller replies ‘‘Yes it is, quite a view’’.
The camera then begins to soar across the beach showing how many people were dead. There was melancholy music as it did so, the camera lowered and show men with no legs and the blood red sea. This is a very tragic feeling then the camera moves up to a man and on his back it says ‘RYAN’, reflecting the name of the movie as it is called ‘Saving Private Ryan’ but he is dead so early on.
In conclusion. The opening establishes that war is not glamorous. Spielberg does this by showing the sorrow of James Ryan by showing close up shots of his face and as he proceeds to the graves tears fill his eyes. Also Spielberg uses handheld cameras; this shows how rough the terrain was and the jolting and jerking of the cameras showed the difficulty of getting the beach and also the sound as the soldiers move up the beach is the sound of gattling cannons and artillery fire. And finally Spielberg achieves all of his goals in this moving by not storing boarding the feature, him not storyboarding it greatly contributes to the way the opening sequence goes on, it emphasises the events and how they can totally go a different way, from winning to losing and life to death.