The setting is established with a panning shot of both the flag and the overwhelming enormous graveyard down below it, powerless bodies being looked upon by the entire country. The uniformity of the crosses is almost like the soldiers are in marching order, a sign of unity. The gloominess is emphasised with a low to high-angle panning shot of the mass graves showing the mightiness of death. The graves are also very bright and stand out in white, a symbol of peace and reflection. Not only Christian crosses are there, but the Jewish star of David and not only the American flag is there but the French flag. Death unites people, it does not discriminate. If they fought together, they must have fallen together. The huge extent of graves is horrifying, simply mind-blowing, stirring up emotions in the audience of sympathy towards Ryan and the soldiers, with this film being based upon a true story. The formerly strong and active Ryan walking towards the graves then falls to his knees once he reaches them and cries tears of guilt and appreciation as they saved his life and risked everything to bring him to safety; he now has time to pay his respects properly after all these years of peace at home. Ryan never had time to thank the soldiers straight away as they immediately went back into action, making this occasion even more emotional for him. The shot of him amongst the graves makes all of the deaths heartfelt, creating sympathy and empathy for those who have also experienced war. The first word of the film is spoken here and it’s the only word heard in the graveyard scene, ‘Dad’. This makes the audience realise the connection that Ryan has with his family; how they also sympathise with him and care about him. The lack of speech forces the audience to reflect on the emotive pictures and solemn music accompanying them, emphasising the seriousness of the occasion for Ryan. Many veterans and relatives of veterans watching this scene would appreciate the dedication the actors portrayed in the character’s emotions. It’s very hard to create such a realistic reaction if you have never felt or experienced something like this before. There is an extreme close-up of Ryan’s eyes (the actual transition from the present to the past). This is used to show his deep sorrow and is a window into his memories, the next scene being the D-Day battle. He has dark eyes, a symbol of death and lack of hope, no view into a dark future. As the camera zooms deeper into Ryan’s lifeless eyes, the sound of waves fades in, gradually increasing in volume as time runs.
The scene immediately changes from the present, peaceful graveyard to the historic, dark and gloomy coastal invasion. There is firstly a long, deep focus shot of the beach scattered with iron hedgehogs in the foreground accompanied with the information: ‘June 6 1944, Dog Green Sector, Omaha Beach’ to let you get your bearings and establish a connection between the elderly man in the graveyard and D-Day. In the background, there are a few rusty boats coasting towards the shore. You are thrown into boats of the D-Day landings with the American soldiers fearing for their lives; vomiting on the boats, praying and saying their rituals for hope and courage (many turning to God before death and even for the non-religious God is the last hope), shaking out the fear inside them through nervousness and preparing for battle. This would make the audience realise how much stress soldiers go through before entering a battlefield and makes them feel sympathetic towards the soldiers suffering. It’s a very dark and overcast day at the battlefield location. Spielberg chose to do this on purpose as Normandy in June would normally have the sun shining brightly and therefore he created a gloomy atmosphere that affected the rest of the scene. He wanted to create a darkened, more fearful atmosphere which dragged the audience into the seriousness of the occasion and lets them relate to the souls of the soldiers. Everything is dark, yet visible enough to distinguish all the colours, again Spielberg has used desaturated colours to emphasise the ‘dark day’.
Captain Miller is next seen in a close-up shot inside the boat and we get to see clearly how scared the soldiers are; Miller’s shaking hands whilst drinking from the canteen showing this fear and this is a recurrent image throughout the opening sequence. This recurrent image is used to emphasise the importance of fear during war and how it can affect even the most experienced. A few other soldiers are introduced in close-up shots (these being the rest of Miller’s squad), each with similar fear-stricken emotions to those of Miller. ’30 SECONDS’ is shouted by one of the squad leaders, the noise of the waves begin to increase, the monotonous tones of the boats’ engines increase in volume, tension rises amongst the audience as the pressure builds. The boat slowly creeps towards the frontline. More soldiers are seen vomiting with very convincing sound effects and further commands are shouted by Miller this time, each with credible authority. The handheld camera shakes as waves crash against boat, just as if you are in the action and facing the ‘stormy seas’ the soldiers are approaching on land. The boats are very close to land, soldiers begin to breathe more heavily and shake even more vigorously, they know these could be their last moments of life. This sets the mood of the battle and prepares the audience for terror, another realistic aspect Spielberg has considered that war contains, the fear and anxiety violence brings. The dimmed colour enhances the overall experience of the event. The silence of the soldiers emphasises their fear and vulnerability.
The appropriately named ‘Instant Chaos’ scene starts as the boats reach the shores. The boat doors slide open and many of the soldiers you had just become familiar with are immediately splattered with bullets, their blood flying everywhere and body parts start falling off. The noise of bullets erupts over the waves and is almost deafening, a further realistic aspect Spielberg has considered. The soldiers are quickly falling to the ground like rag dolls, unable to get out of the way or find protection. Screams are surrounding you as you watch each person die one by one, the first person perspective making you feel as if you are fighting the battle with them. Spielberg has used handheld cameras throughout this opening sequence to give the audience a more realistic experience. You feel every shake, hear every bullet and every scream, run every metre towards safety. The reason for the usage of these cameras was that he ‘… wanted to hit sets much like a newsreel cameraman following soldiers into war.’ Many men struggle to escape from the boats unharmed and go overboard into the sea. The handheld cameras come into great effect here as well as the sound effects, the sound disappears much like real life and the pace slows right down making you feel as if you are struggling with them to escape to safety. Everything moves in what seems like slow-motion as the bullets ripple through the water, some hitting soldiers, their blood darkening the surrounding water. This increases fear amongst the already terrified audience due to the intense realism of the film.
As you crawl out of the water towards the iron hedgehogs, the sound goes in and out of earshot as the camera bobs in and out of the water, the men struggling for energy. There is then a high-angle long shot of German soldiers firing down mercilessly upon the Americans. We don’t see the German’s faces, giving them a cold character. The high-angle makes the Americans look minute and powerless, symbolising the large struggle they have to overcome and the immense difficulty of the mission. There are multiple long shots of the carnage unfolding as we see men being shot from all angles, every bullet hit brings loud screams that are hardly recognised above the piercing bullets flying all over the place. The special effects really come into their own with men missing limbs, all with horrible looking muscles and veins on them, and organs, splattering themselves and the ground with blood. There is no music during the battle to emphasise the realism of the battle and what it would sound like if you were there. Few commands are shouted but they are also drowned out by gunfire. Each man you see killed sickens you and you feel as if you have lost a great friend (synthetic personalisation). Everything is happening so fast that it’s hard to keep with the action, a bomb exploding to your left and a man dying to your right. How do you focus and keep aware of what is happening? The camera is tilted at most parts in this scene to provide disorientation to the audience just as the soldiers’ perspective would have been.
The chaos of war is perfectly presented here by Spielberg. The desaturated colour continues in this scene and everything seems to be dull, the sea, the soldiers’ uniforms and even the white sandbags have a dreary appearance. The only bright colours are the explosions of bodies and the blood pouring out, emphasising the horrors of war. The violent imagery stands out in the slow-motion effect, making each death feel longer and more emotional. ‘I wanted to put chaos up on the screen. I wanted the audience to feel the same as those green recruits that were just off those Higgins boats and had never seen combat before, 95% of them hadn’t. It was complete chaos’ Spielberg summarising the point of this scene, the first person perspective really makes you feel as if you have been forced to fight with them, just like all World War II soldiers were forced into battle. This allows a complete audience connection and understanding of what it must have been like.
Captain Miller is seen approaching the beach after coming out of the water as the third section, ‘Captain Miller’s confusion’, begins. We see him stagger out of the now blood red sea. He stumbles across the sand and drops to his knees in complete shock as he realises the ghastly event he is experiencing. Everything slows down as Miller reflects on what he is witnessing, the loss of so many lives and the speed at which it’s occurring; he can’t take it all in. There is an extreme close-up of him dazed and shell-shocked by his surroundings, this being emphasised by the lack of sound leaving the audience to focus more on the picture. With someone of his experience and stature left in such a state, imagine how the young Privates are feeling? He is supposed to guide them through and inspire them yet he is the one needing motivation! The first person perspective (as Miller) puts the audience in his shoes and makes them experience his confusion.
A young soldier is shouting to Miller, ‘What do we do now Captain?!’ yet he still cannot hear, he is still in his state of shock, his ‘confusion’. After a second attempt, Miller regains his bearings and returns to normal commanding duties. The fact that he had to call the Captain twice emphasises Miller’s state of confusion and shows how severely affected he is. Spielberg directly placed this scene in to make the audience aware of the effects of war on the people who take part in it, from commanders through to privates, demonstrating that even the toughest of men can be extremely distressed. The skies are still gloomy and the colours still dull, indicating the struggle the soldiers faced. Yet in Miller’s confusion, a man is seen exploded in flames and the bright orange colours really contrast against the dullness in the background. It really grabs your attention and is one of the only moments that distract you from the chaos surrounding the flame, seeming as the action is moving so fast this section provides a ‘breather’, so to speak. Yet this flame is horrible to watch, you see the men slowly disintegrate into the sand and is a sickening moment. There is so much going on that the audience is unaware what to focus on, someone dying or the movement of the group or the commands spoken by the characters. Each time you watch it, you become more aware of how much dedication to detail Spielberg put into this film to make it the spectacle it is.
After recovering, Miller and his men rush towards the sandbanks for cover. The camera really shakes as if you are running for your life with them, looking down at the soldiers struggling as you pass them yet too worried about your own safety to do anything about it. You are immersed in the battle and are desperate to reach safety. The colours are now beginning to get brighter as the soldiers progress further and further up the hill and towards victory. The once dreary impossible looking mission is given life and hope, a chance to win. The soldiers are communicating more, all of them passionate about winning and protecting their fellow countrymen. Captain Miller especially carries the story from here as he guides each of his men through battle, forcing them to concentrate and boosting their confidence. The battlefield now seems less frantic.
As the ‘End of the Battle’ scene commences, the soldiers slowly begin to finish off their opposition one by one. They move from the beach to the hillside with bright green grass emphasising the loss of desaturated colour, the calming of the war. Yet the Americans, once heroes, are now showing a barbaric side when they shoot many surrendering Germans, making sure they paid the price and suffered for what they did to their comrades. Some German soldiers in a bunker are set on fire, one American shouts, ‘Don’t shoot, let them burn.’ He wants to make them suffer as they are his enemy; he is generically annoyed at the Germans even if they don’t know who they are killing personally. This was very brave of Spielberg to show this, shocking many - Saving Private Ryan provided a different perspective, the truth!
Captain Miller is seen drinking from his canteen, a recurrent image from when on the boat earlier, his hand shaking. He is sitting on top of the hill with some of his fellow soldiers of which one says, ‘That’s quite a view,’ to which Miller replied, ‘Yes it is, quite a view.’ This is an ambiguous yet ironic ending; does he mean that it’s beautiful or that it’s shocking? The audience is forced to think about this sentence, making their own opinion on what he means. Miller also has no distinct facial expression when saying ‘Yes it is, quite a view’ making it difficult for the audience to distinguish what he means. We see a close-up of Miller similar to that of Ryan in the graveyard, we become familiar with his emotions and how stressed he has become due to the war. His eyes are dark, he has lost his innocence and an establishing shot is revealed. It’s a high angle long shot showing the effects the war had on the coast of France, the battlefield full of bodies and explosives. The sea is blood red, calm waves brushing past the soldiers’ bodies, emphasising the price of peace. It’s a shocking image that shows the true effects of war, it’s destruction of the landscape and the utter loss of life. The music that was in the graveyard earlier in the sequence gently fades in, calming the audience down after such a torrid and exhausting battle. The solemnity of the images is deepened by the melancholy music. The camera tracks one soldier through the countless dead bodies, a man with a backpack on which ‘RYAN.S’ is written. This now establishes the link between the title of the film and the graveyard scene earlier on, enabling the audience to familiarise themselves with the plot.
‘The last thing I wanted to do in this picture was use the war simply as a springboard for action-adventure. I was looking for realism all the time.’ Spielberg stated; he undeniably did what he set out to do. His masterpiece’s opening sequence is one of the greatest of all-time, capturing the audience’s imagination and throwing them right into the action. It shocks, amazes and saddens you with great effect. Your heart pounds through every bullet fired and you feel as nervous as the soldiers. It eclipsed the war genre and has set the next benchmark standard for the genre. It brought so much realism into it, many war veterans thinking they were watching what they had experienced. The intensity of the action is overwhelming, setting it apart from every other film and providing a true insight into the horrors of war.