As James Ryan views the headstone of Captain Miller, there is a close up on his face; this is to show his emotions which are sad. The camera then zooms into his eyes to tell us that what we are about to see is him telling a story from his point of view it is also a clearer picture of his emotions, which gives a mood of tension and fear.
At this point the soft music starts to fade as the sound of the sea starts to blend in. The effect of this is to bring us to the next scene and prepare us for what is about to happen.
The next scene is the instant chaos which takes place on the beach. Most of the footage in this scene was shot with hand-held cameras in which the camera man/woman had to jump, duck, dive and slide around. This gives us the feeling of confusion all around and makes it most realistic and pulls us into the scene with the soldiers. In this scene many high and low angle shots are used to make the Americans look weak and the Germans strong. Also the cameras in this scene were knees to waist height this gives the effect of the soldiers crawling and crouching down to protect their heads getting shot off.
Also this scene is not storyboarded, which mean it is not all planned out. This makes it seem more realistic any thing can happen when filming and all the guns and bombs are going off randomly. Spielberg also uses camera shots as if we were one of the soldiers, for example is placed on the boat so we feel as if we are one of the men driving the boat and viewing the soldiers on the boat getting instantly shot.
Throughout this scene there is hardly any speech and the speech that there is, is not very clear to us. The only noises we can hear are gunshots and bombs. When the soldiers go under water the camera goes too, the sound is then muted. Spielberg takes us under the water with the soldiers so we can feel how they are feeling: that there’s no escape.
The next scene is Captain Miller’s confusion. In this scene we are plunged into the horror of D-day along side Captain Miller and experience the senseless slaughter through his eyes. The sound is constantly changing from muffled to gunshots and shouting. The reason Spielberg muffles the sound is so we can feel how Captain Miller is feeling. So we can see what Captain Miller is seeing. Spielberg then muted the sound, we can then see many soldiers being shot and every thing seems to be in slow motion. A soldier then silently shouts to Captain Miller he asks what to do now, but as the sound is muted we have to lip read the soldier. This then brings Captain Miller back to reality. Also it makes us feel like we were really there.
The next scene is the end of the battle. In this scene there are many close ups on specific things, such as Captain Miller’s hand shaking and a soldier kissing his cross. This is so we can identify who the main characters are going to be. There are very limited colours used, the one colour which stands out is the crimson red of the sea which was the blood from the soldiers.
We can start to hear soldiers speaking, so we now know the battle is almost finished. Gentle music quietly starts to fade in and the waves start to sound peaceful after the prolonged noise, chaos and destruction which is a relief for the audience after the exhausting tension and terror of the battle.
The opening battle sequence does not really prepare us for the death of the soldiers on the mission to save Private Ryan, after watching so many soldiers being killed in the first 24 minutes. Some might have thought that the rest of the film after the first battle sequence would not be as shocking. They would be wrong as I found it harder to watch the soldiers on the mission being killed, than the many deaths in the opening battle sequence. Spielberg allows us to know these characters, so it is more devastating when they die, than all the soldiers (who we did not know) die in the first scene.
The mission to save Private Ryan is a positive mission to save a life, this is a relief for the audience after just witnessing so much death in the first battle. When watching the film I thought that saving one man, Private Ryan, was not worth it. However at the end of the film I realised that they were saving more than just one man, they was saving a generation of Ryan’s. I realised this in the final scene, which relates back to the first scene, in the cemetery. Where James Ryan is viewing the tomb stone and behind him is his family.
Spielberg said he wanted to put chaos on the screen, I think he succeeded in this. As I watched the film I wished for the battle to end. This is how the soldiers must of felt. Spielberg succeeded in putting chaos on the screen by the use of hand held cameras and not storyboarding the battles.
