Saving Private Ryan earned its awards for bringing the realism of the World War 2 and for portraying the shocking chances of survival were at the battle of Omaha beach on the D-Day in June 1944. Steven Spielberg chose the battle of Omaha beach as the beginning of the movie because Omaha beach was the bloodiest battlefield and it took 15000 lives of young, ignorant and uninformed Americans soldiers to capture the beach.
At the beginning of the film, an old man who was one of the soldiers who was sent to capture the Omaha beach walked to the graveyard. He was the old Private Ryan and he was looking for captain miller, however he could not find it due to there were no names on the gravestones. Moreover, uncountable of gravestones was shocking since we did not expect it could cost so many lives to win in a war. Captain Miller just ended up as another unnamed cross on the graveyard.
The America flag was see through in the movie and this was informing us that the government lied to its citizens in order to persuade more people to fight for the country, which is not right to do it to other people’s children.
When we entered the battle, we instantly saw many soldiers waiting on the boat and they were all nervous, uncomfortable and terrified since it was their first real battle. Most of them had no experience and knowledge of combats. For example, some people were vomiting and praying, whereas some remained calm and planning how to capture the beach. Spielberg shows the shocking reality of war by showing us not all soldiers are brave and willing to sacrifice themselves for their country since they did not believe it was an honour to die in the war.
When the doors of those boats open, many men were shot instantly and most of them were dead. All the camera shots were short and quick, this informs us that lives were taken away in a short period. This creates the beginning of the shocking and unknown reality of the war due to most audience did not expect lives could be taken in such a short period.
When the camera went into water, everything including the time was slowed down. It started to imply us how the atmosphere and condition was like at the Omaha beach. During that period by showing us soldiers were shot in the water, the blood started to spread around in the water and the movement of soldiers made. Moreover, Red; Blue; white were the only three colours that were showed at that scene. This implies the American soldiers are sacrificing themselves for their country and this inform us America was being dominated at the start even though they managed to capture the beach at last. The reason Spielberg had chosen red; blue; white is these are the colours of the America flag.
Furthermore, countless of dead bodies; people yelling for medic; sea turned red are creating the sense that the reality of the battle is unbelievably crucial and brutal.
After that, we came back to the old man at the start when he was at the battle. He was young and terrified since his facial expression was suggesting us he had never expected and experienced this kind of shocking situation in the past. There is one word to summarise his sophisticated feelings: appalled. We saw horror, tears, hardship and pain surrounding him. In his mind, the impact of war forces him to think everything was slowed down. Additionally, it was so real that makes us think this is realistic and shocking.
Suddenly, the camera shots went fast again and all the Americans were running to the nearest cover in orders to protect them from the rainfall of bullets. One medic was dragging an injured soldier to cover and suddenly half of the injured soldier’s body was blown up but he did not notice until he looked back. Moreover, there were blood on the camera to create the mood of hell and the film is demonstrating us how shocking the reality is. In addition, one of the main characters was talking to a man and a second later, he died. This clearly implies a subtext of the shocking chances of survival on the D-Day.
Retaliation was another important element that makes the opening sequence shocking. This was showed when one of sub unit captured one of the defend settlement and they found some surrenders but they did not capture them. Instead of capturing them, they shot them and gloat about it. This is both extremely realistic and shocking because this scene symbolizes the madness and evilness of human. Consequently, this would lead the audience to think what they would do if they were in that situation. In addition, it demonstrates us the negative side and evilness of human.
The introduction of the movie clearly shows how terrible the situation was and the shocking chances of survival on the epic D-Day by showing the audience how the American soldiers try to capture the beach bravely; the negative side of human; the evilness of human. It proves them to the audience by presenting different scenes of all human behaviour.
