Spielberg used all the different techniques he could making it his very goal to make the whole film; but especially the opening sequence as realistic as possible. We can see this in this quote “the last thing I wanted to do in this picture was use war simply as a springboard into a action adventure, I was looking for realism the whole time “.
We know that he did accomplish his goal as many of the veterans who went to see this movie where really heart-stricken to watch the whole thing through. Sadly it must have brought back a lot of memories .he uses a wide range of techniques to shock the audience ant put them into a state of realism . One thing he used was desaturated colour. This very much lowered the mood bringing the level of emotion down; it added quite a dark and gloomy atmosphere. It stopped the experience of watching from being a bang flash boom kind of movie, it made it seem so much more gory and disturbing.
Another technique he used which is perhaps one of the best ones is the follow camera, which follows behind tom hanks through the whole of the first scene , this is done to give the perspective of the soldier running up the beach and to seem like one of the many news reel camera men that did go up those beaches .by using this effectively it completely immerses the audience in the movie , they feel like they are on the beach witnessing al the things happening , again this emphasises the shock of the movie . You will easily notice throughout the whole opening sequence that often water or blood will be splattered onto the lense, again this give a real sense of realism to the whole scene. Again by doing this it puts the camera in constant motion, giving a feel of panic and restlessness making it impossible for the watcher to relax out of the movie.
Already there are some effects that are used that have been stated, and there are many more camera techniques and sound tracks.
In the first scene it shows Ryan with his family in the present tense, immediately the audience is put into a state of realism knowing that if the man was not alive none of his family following him would be alive. We then see him approach the grave stumbling as he sees the grave of captain miller, the man who saved him. This puts the audience in a real state of emotion. As this is happening the camera pans around the older Ryan, illustrating the sheer amount of graves there. We can also see that there is near to no dialogue in this whole scene, this is like a sign of respect. The mix of all these techniques put the audience into a state of thought. Then we see the quiet noise of the graveyard change as there is a extreme close up on Ryan’s eyes, they fade into waves as we get closer,as does the sound track , the audience is very effectively pulled out of the graveyard into the stressful and anxious position of one of the Higgins boats as it charges its way onto the beach . The sound becomes diagetic.
From here I will go to the scene of when captain miller is on the actual beach, at this point miller is experiencing shell shock, sound is muted to a point where we can just here the rumbling of mortar hitting the beach and the screaming of men dying, the colours at this point suddenly deepen and become very slightly darker. At this point we see different perspectives from captain miller as he looks around seeing his comrades being slaughtered, for example we see a man carrying a flamethrower quite literally be blown up by his own weapon, and Spielberg makes this scene so much more horrifying by not allowing us to see this man explode but to see the spray of his blood spatter millers face. This effectively depicts shell shock to us, the sheer confusion and awe it shows sticks the audience into their seats we see captain miller put his helmet on his head , paying no attention to the bloody water that pours over his face , this really illustrates the fact this is war there is no time to care about things like that.
We then see miller make his accent up the beach, we get a sort of over arm shot here following miller precisely, giving a intense feeling of realism, along the way we see more gore. Such as a man attempting to pull his guts back into his stomach whilst crying out “MOMMA”, this actually makes the audience feel sorry for the characters eventually miller reaches the top of the beach taking cover. Straight away he asks who is in charge; a man turns around and tells him that he is. This shows a real state of confusion. All this while the men are shouting to each other trying to speak over the explosions and gun fire.
Throughout the whole movie all these techniques are used effectively and give a real authentic feel to the movie . it makes it very emotional , and also very intense , it is action packed from start to finish
These are the scenes that I personally think shock the audience the most and give a feeling of realism.
A mix of sounds and different camera techniques as well as some gruesome sights make this opening sequence perhaps one f the most realistic war movies to date
