Saving Private Ryan Essay

Authors Avatar
30th April 2005

Saving Private Ryan Essay

Saving private Ryan was first released on September 11th 1998 and was directed by Steven Spielberg, a famous director widely known for his other outstanding films that prove for him to be great at his job. Some of these famous titles include Jaws(1975), E.T(1982), Jurassic Park(1993), Minority Report(2002) and many more.

Saving Private Ryan is a war film set in the period of World War II , rather than concentrating on the aspects of heroism and action-adventure this film portrays closely to realism as throughout we witness scenes of an intense magnitude, scenes of death the way it was, actual weaponry used and the setting in Normandy where the war really did take place. The film is brought together strongly by the actors of the film who performed their characters and roles very well. Possibly the main character of the film Captain Miller is played by Tom hanks and plays a very important role in the storyline of the film, leading his 'squadron' on a mission to find the private Ryan and as the film goes on it has much to tell about Captain Miller which keeps the audience interested and focused on the movie. The role of Private Ryan is played by Matt Damon, he is a soldier whose three brothers have died in combat and as such has been requested by a higher authority to be pulled out from the war and sent back home to his mother. Other main roles include Sergeant Harvath played by Tom Sizemore who we come to understand is close to Captain Miller and is quite loyal to his duty at war. Private Reiben played by Edward Burns whom has some conflict with the others in the film when his feelings anger him and he does not agree with a decision by Captain Miller. Private Jackson played by Barry Pepper, a sharp-shooter with the sniper rifle he is a strong catholic who believes he serves the will of God and that God is his aid on the battlefield. Lastly Private Upham played by Jeremy Davies who is a late addition to the squad, he accompanies them on their mission for Private Ryan when they require a translator, he is very panicky and clearly not one for combat in the film, more of a technical person.

The film achieved five academy awards including best director in 1999.

The techniques used in the film include realism through handheld cameras, an example of this being when they stormed the beaches of Normandy, the camera was shaking about as though handheld and this made us feel as though we were there in the middle of it like another soldier was holding the camera, recording the battling themselves. And battle scenes seemed very realistic too through blood and death occurring at anytime to anybody, at one point in the movie Captain Miller was speaking to another about tactics to get around the oppositions defences when he turned back to the man to see his face concaved gruesomely. Another technique was the film used unsaturated colour which had the effect of making events that were perhaps saddening and disturbing seem more-so colourless, lifeless and cold.
Join now!


The film opens showing an elderly man pacing forwards ahead of a group of people who we immediately imagine to be his family members. We see both American and French flags at this scene symbolizing a peace between the two. The music accompanying this scene is a calm patriotic melody which would make us think more-so that there was a peace now, making the viewer feel calm. We're then shown that the man was rushing toward a gravesite as we see a breath taking number of graves, rows and columns which we recognize to be the gravesite of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay