Analyse The Method Used to Make The Opening Battle Sequence Of 'Saving Private Ryan' Both Shocking and realistic
Analyse The Method Used to Make The Opening Battle Sequence Of 'Saving Private Ryan' Both Shocking and realistic
'Saving Private Ryan'(1998) is just one of many successful films made by Steven Spielberg, arguably one of the best directors and producers we have known, he has presented us with many different genres and topics within his films which make them both enjoyable and sometimes even educational mixing a sense of realism and entertainment, that locks in the audience until the very end of his films. Films such as Schindler's list, Men in Black and catch me if you can are just a few of the many films S.Spielberg has been involved in producing or directing, The release of Steven Spielberg's 'Saving Private Ryan' has rekindled a lot of interest in the second World War, and in particular the real events which took place on June 6, 1944 - also known as D-Day. This film provided people with real historical information about WWII along with a realistic and extremely shocking look at what really went on leaving the audience with the awful truth of war.
'Saving Private Ryan' belongs to the War Film genre, yet seems to brake the traditional conventions of the typical war film, this is mainly due to the fact that it is clearly not there to entertain as other war films would. This film concentrates on the cruel and gruesome facts of war showing graphic death and bloody scenes, due to this we realise that the film is not there to entertain but to educate the audience, the use of the handheld camera throughout the battle sequence involves the viewer in the action almost making us part of the battle giving the audience a shocking point of view were we are able to see what a soldier would have seen and experience the emotion which can also be reasonably disturbing for the viewer. This also contributes to the realistic nature of the battle sequence showing the audience that this WAS in fact how it feels like to be in battle.
The opening scene of the film is primarily focused on a American flag flapping in the wind, the camera is at a close up slowly moving away from a low angle shot while ceremonial music can be heard, music is moving and extremely patriotic as the camera looks up on the flag giving the impression that the audience is looking up to the Americans. The camera then moves on to show a path and the feet of a man walking along it, eventually the camera retreats. As it does and moves on to a high angle sky shot it reveals the mans family walking not far behind him. The music of war and victory is consistent, we get the image of a soldier leading his troops yet with a slight melancholic feel to it. As the man carries on walking the camera focuses on a shot of the old man looking at the flag and then at the grave in front of him, we now know he is a soldier. As he walks we get the idea he is going to a particular grave. As he gets close to the grave he is looking for, a wide angle shot is shown to us of the grave yard, showing us the immensity of death. The music is still present.
As the man seems to find the grave he was looking for he pauses in front of it and his family stop behind him, then it is clear that he is overwhelmed by emotion, as he drops to his knees and victorious music begins to die out and sound of water. Waves and wind slowly begin to fade in, the camera then begins to close up on his face eventually moving on to an extreme close up of his eyes, giving the audience a sort of window into the mans thoughts, memories, feelings and emotions, as this happens ...
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As the man seems to find the grave he was looking for he pauses in front of it and his family stop behind him, then it is clear that he is overwhelmed by emotion, as he drops to his knees and victorious music begins to die out and sound of water. Waves and wind slowly begin to fade in, the camera then begins to close up on his face eventually moving on to an extreme close up of his eyes, giving the audience a sort of window into the mans thoughts, memories, feelings and emotions, as this happens the image begins to fade along with the sound. When the image fades completely we notice the change in the colour of the scenes, the images now have a saturated colour, from the old mans eyes the scene now becomes that one of a beach, yet the beach has battle hedgehogs all along the water edge, these objects are sharp and dark giving us an insight of the atmosphere which Spielberg is planning to build up.
The camera then moves on to an extreme close up of a soldiers hands violently shaking, vaguely attempting to open a bottle of water. At this point the audience is made to feel nervous by the confusion and overwhelming anxiousness of the soldiers, the shot then moves slightly away yet remains in close up mode, revealing the boat completely packed full of soldiers. The director uses a panning shot here going past each of the men's faces in extreme close up concentrating on letting the audience see what the soldiers are feeling at the time, the expression on their terrified faces, the distant shouting of sharp orders, the sound of men throwing up and the silent whisper of them praying all mount up to a shocking and nerve racking yet very real image of what soldiers would feel the last minutes before going into battle.
In contrast to the very first scene the film from here on is presented to us in a unsaturated colour giving the whole film an intense atmosphere and a dull and almost lifeless air to it, it reflects the sadness, and seriousness of this war situation making the statement that there is nothing colourful about war, also dark colours emphasise death, war and loss. By this time the sound is completely digetic, as they get closer to the beach we are shown a point of view shot from the boat to the shooting enemy, the sound of the shouting , confusion and shooting overwhelm the viewer with anxiousness. Here we are shown a close shot on the door of the boats being opened, as the wheel is being turned every rotation adds to the fear that the audience is sharing with the characters as we seem to be involved by the camera angle.
The immediate second the doors of the boats drop, the soldiers are blasted with a wall of bullets; this scene shocks the viewer immensely as the soldiers are taken down as if they were objects. This setting conjures up an image of seriousness of the war, the sound of the bullets hitting the metal work of the boats and the hedgehogs creates an alarming and realistic effect; the camera then moves on to show us a long shot of the beach mainly focusing on the instant death and tragic injuries suffered by these fighter. As the scene progresses the audience is shown a point of view shot from one of the German soldiers, in this shot it is evident that the Germans are in complete control of the situation.
When the camera moves back to the soldiers frantically coming off the boats with machine gun in hand and knifes on belts, the showing of these props enhance the message of what they are there to do: kill. The camera adopts a point of view angle, giving us the impression that we are involved in this battle, we see everything a soldier would see and also hear everything a soldier would hear. As the other soldiers go under water the camera imitates, as it does this we find ourselves involved in the underwater scene, we cannot hear what Is going on outside, the distant shouting and shooting can be slightly heard yet the close sound of the bullets piercing through the water is frightening giving this particular scene a sense of realism as the audience is involved in the action. We see these bullets hitting men underwater and the water suddenly changing colour to a faded red, this shocks the audience immediately as from all the death and slaughter the water actually changes colour, it becomes saturated with blood. As the viewer is made to accompany the rest of the soldiers through their struggle to get to the beach by the camera, we come back out into the open air now hit with the screams of pain, loud waves and overall general confusion. This scene in particular is particularly frightening.
As soldiers continue to struggle onto the beach you notice them communicating by hand signals or even simply looking at each other; this particular non verbal communication reinforces the professionalism, the camera changes angle, almost like changing sides and is now in a point of view shot behind German lines showing us that the Germans have complete control of this situation, concentrating on the cold and gruesome way the Germans killed of any soldier they saw.
As the captain reaches the land, even he seems confused by all the commotion, although he is in charge he finds himself asking his fellow soldiers ''who is in charge''. We also see the medical unit hopelessly rushing from here to there making an attempt to help injured soldiers, this often terminating in the soldier getting shot and killed or blown up; these scenes in particular show the audience that these soldiers really did have no hope once injured, it was their fate to die. As the Americans begin to gain more men inland, the camera angle starts to adopt a certain view which is almost showing us that they are gaining a small fraction of control of the situation. From where the camera is focused on now, it adopts a long shot of the soldiers taking cover on the beach.
Eventually the soldiers manage to gain some German territory as they do the viewer after all this time seeing the Germans as the cold blooded killers gain an insight into the horrifying truth that the Americans have the same killer instinct. We are shocked by seeing German soldiers coming out with their hands up begging for mercy, as the Americans get closer they simply make cold hearted jokes and shoot the men. Yet the director then shows complete contrast with a close up of a soldier crying on his knees with a young Jewish soldiers knife in his hand that he had just killed, this contrast presented to us by Spielberg gives the audience a shocking image of the two sides of war, that the killing is a job for the soldiers but they are also deeply disturbed by it. The camera closes up on the crying soldier and his companion and the shot becomes an extreme close-up focusing on the soldiers face and eyes giving us the audience a sort of window into the men's thoughts and emotions making this scene personal ,intimate and almost painful.
From this scene we are then moved on to an extreme close up of captain Millers hands shaking frantically. The camera moves up and concentrates on the captains face and a soft melancholic music begins to drown out the shouting and shooting. The music mimics the one heard at opening scene of the film. We also notice the link made by this shot in particular focusing on the captains eyes as the camera focused on the old soldiers eyes in the opening scene of the film implying that what the captain was seeing was once seen by the old man .
Eventually the camera fades into the sea red from all the blood spilt in the battle, showing us the shocking images of the immensity of the amount of scattered bodies laying injured or in peaces on the beach, such scenes make the viewer saddened and it seems almost unbelievable that such things could happen. We notice that as the camera is tracking along the beach it seems to find and focus on a specific body, as it does we read the letters spelling out RYAN on the dead soldier's back pack giving the audience the key clue to what the whole film is about.
At this point in the film we feel sympathetic toward all of the men killed in the war and relate to their courage and will to fight for their country. Captain Miller is shown deep in thought we are given that impression as the digetic sound around him become almost non existent, the loud shouts and screams begin to dies out giving the audience a feeling that it is over, the music then becomes melancholic and glorious as it gets louder the camera pans over the beach showing all dead bodies, showing us the real product of war.
While watching this film I felt it truly touch me, it made me feel deeply upset with its shocking and gruesome scenes that are unbelievable realistic, they are made so realistic by the directors method of filming using the handheld camera to give the audience an extremely unique involvement in the film. This certainly made me feel as if I were present there, and also combining this technique with the dull grey, white and black colours that the film is shown in, this makes it very effective as it expresses the fact that there is nothing colourful or happy about war, it is simply death. Spielberg also used this technique in an earlier film called "Schindler's list" which also concentrated around the genre of death and similarly both films are not films for entertainment, they are there to inform and educate audiences about real historical occurrences. The realness of this film is incredible and it is produced by mixing these methods with a real set, using the correct codes of dress and props which in themselves represent war such as guns, knifes or green and brown camouflage uniforms.
In my opinion the audiences that watch this film are most probably students studying history or even older more mature people who have interests in the genre of war. In terms of gender many people may believe and automatically relate war with men yet this is not the case, as this is not an entertainment film, it is to educate men as well as women. Overall the audience for this film is wide and varied. Social status or economical status is not an issue when studying the audience for this film, as everyone may be interested in this subject.
Laura Munera 10A English coursework
