Analyse the methods used to make the opening battle sequence of 'Saving Private Ryan' both shocking and realistic, and say how effective you find it as an introduction to the film.

Authors Avatar

Mitchell Ward     28/11/06

Analyse the methods used to make the opening battle sequence of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ both shocking and realistic, and say how effective you find it as an introduction to the film.

   ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is a war film directed by Steven Spielberg. It was first released on September 11th 1998. The film lasts for two hours and fifty minutes. ‘Saving Private Ryan’ won five Academy Awards (Oscars) including best director in 1999. The film has got a few well known actors starring in it including Tom Hanks who plays Captain Miller, Matt Damon who plays Private Ryan and many more. Steven Spielberg tried to get across the realistic view of the war rather than a typical heroic war film, where it all ends happily. Steven Spielberg said, ‘The last thing I wanted to do in this picture was use the war simply as a springboard for action and adventure. I was looking for realism all of the time’. Rather than being a heroic adventure film, you see a lot of deaths including some of the main characters which never really happens in the typical adventure war film. The deaths are very high detail, as you see soldiers lying on the floor with guts hanging out and soldiers getting limbs blown off, very close up and graphically. This makes you very shocking and the gory images stay in your mind a lot longer.

   To higher the sense of realism, handheld cameras was used in a lot of the scenes. This makes you feel as if you are actually there and are part of the war and watching fellow soldiers die by your side. The reason this works so well is because they are constantly shaking and following the path of a soldier, looking from a soldier’s point of view and his vision. In some of the more gory scenes, blood splatters onto the lenses of the cameras which shocks you also and adds even more to the realistic effect of the film.

   During the film, de-saturated colour is used in some of the scenes when blood is present. They pick out a specific colour so that most of the scene is de-saturated but one colour stands out. The colour they usually picked out is red so that the blood stands out even more than usual. The de-saturated colour also gives a sense of the footage being slightly old and more realistic. All of these techniques they have used to make the film realistic make the film almost seem like real footage of the war, which makes it so much more touching and shocking.

Join now!

I have studied the first 24 minute battle scenes and I have split this into four sections. The first part I studied is the present day and when the soldiers on the boats are approaching the shores of the war. An old man who I do not know is walking with his family through what looks like a park. The camera pans along as the walk and switches between this shot and an over-the-shoulder shot as if you are walking with them. At this time music is playing in the background, it seems slightly royal type of music with ...

This is a preview of the whole essay