The storyline is like no other war film of the same genre, people die realistically that in other, less real, films would have survived. One of the main differences to other war films is that the main character or ‘hero’ does not survive again adding to the realism. The sadness of the story and tragedy of war is made all the more clear through the use of de-saturated colour. This is when the brightness of the colours is removed to make them look grey and dull. The toned down colour is effective in representing the darkness of war this also links to the fact that death is often associated with darkness. The desaturated colour is most forceful during the battle scenes where death and pain are seen in extreme realism and graphic detail.
In the first scene there is a simple yet effective transition from present to past. An elderly James Ryan is seen visiting the graves of US soldiers. He, along with his family, walk along a path by the sea, the sight and sounds of the sea are continued and are the main link in the transition because they are bringing back memories. As Ryan enters the graveyard the camera tracks across to the left showing the massive amount of graves. The tracking gives an idea of the amount of deaths that occurred in just one place during the war. While all this is happening, in the background there is the sound of the sea as I have already mentioned. As well as the sound of the sea there is also a bugle playing, the bugle gives a patriotic and sombre mood to what is taking place. After Ryan has looked at one of the graves the camera begins to zoom in to his eyes from a low angle. The camera goes in to an extreme close up on Ryan’s eyes and then goes there is the effect that the camera is looking in to the mind of Ryan as the camera seems to go through his eyes; this is when the actual transition happens. The transition takes the audience back to June 6th 1944 as the US army are preparing to land on Omaha beach. This scene establishes a link between Ryan in the graveyard and the events that took place on D-day as well as giving a date and setting. The scene also creates a mood of fear and tension while introducing the main characters.
The fear and tension created in the first scene are then enforced in the second scene which is aptly named ‘Instant Chaos’. This scene is the first time that death is experienced by the audience and the way that it is shown is truly shocking. The scene begins with the camera tracking to show the many US boats on there way to land on Omaha beach. This angle then switches to a few close-ups of people vomiting and finally a close-up on Captain Miller taking a drink from a water bottle. Miller’s hand can be seen shaking. This along with the people vomiting shows the fear of soldiers as they prepare to go into war.
The boats draw closer to the shore and the sound of the sea, boat noise and the calling of instructions are very loud, the loudness gives the impression that you are sat in one of the boats preparing to go into war. When the boats reach the shore the task ahead of the soldiers looks to be impossible as the camera does a low angled shot looking up to the fortified cliffs that are controlled by the German army already the boats are being fired at from the top of the cliffs. As soon as the doors of the boats open the soldiers at the front are shot and killed instantly before they’ve even set foot on the beach. From this point the whole scene is simply chaotic with soldier after soldier being killed within minutes or even seconds of leaving their boat.
As the soldiers make their way from the boats up the beach the first use of the ‘hand held’ camera style is used. The effect that this style of camera work has is astonishing the audience experiences a different perspective of the carnage because the camera work brings you closer to the action. The camera angle keeps changing from low angle, to give the view of the soldiers attempting to complete ‘mission impossible’, to high angle, to show the view of a German soldier looking down the barrel of a gun picking off helpless men scrambling up the beach. During most of the battle sequence there is no music in the background all the audience can hear is the horrific sound of war. Although there is no music the sequence is made effective through the use of different sounds such when soldiers are seen falling into the water and the camera follows them the sound becomes muffled to make it sound as if you are under there with them, the way that the bullets penetrate the water and kill people shows how not even being under water is safe. All the different effects give a different perspective of the carnage of war.
The shocking reality of war is not only experienced for the first time by the audience, going into the battle at Omaha beach ninety percent of the soldiers had never experienced war and had only basic, if any, training. Even for the experienced soldiers the shock was no less devastating; this can be seen throughout the third scene, ‘Captain Miller’s confusion’. This scene focuses on Captain Miller and the way in which he reacts to the difficulty of the task ahead and his absolute shock. Again this reinforces the confusion that the raw recruits must have been experiencing and really makes the audience think. The scene begins with Captain Miller staggering out of the bloodied sea, the camera focuses on his face to show the reactivity of his expression and then zooms to a close-up and then extreme close-up as he is seeing the battle, the audience does not need to see what he is seeing because from the expression on his face you are able to realise the horror that he is witnessing. As the camera is focusing on Captain Miller the sound of war becomes muffled and quite. During the muffled period the camera gives different shots of the war in slow motion showing people being shot and killed, it shows the battle from Captain Miller’s perspective. The audience is plunged into the battle on D-day beside Captain Miller, this effect helps the audience to experience the senseless battle like one of the inexperienced soldiers would have.
The period in which the sound is muffled seems to be a time of reflection in which Captain Miller regains his senses and composure. When Captain Miller comes to his senses he begins to realise the responsibilities that he must take. At this point there is a barrage of different sounds that are being thrown at the audience. Soldiers are shouting at Captain Miller asking for instructions, this is when the experience of Captain Miller begins to show. The dialogue from this point is mostly declarative as Miller tries to organise his troops. Throughout the battle the dialogue is very emotional up to the end of the battle.
The final of the four scenes is after the battle has ended Captain Miller is with Sergeant Horvath assessing the battlefield after their victory. It is the simplest of the scenes but it has a very large effect on the audience. Sergeant Horvath makes a comment of ‘that’s quite a view’ to Captain Miller. The camera then tracks across the beach from a high angle showing the vast amount of deaths, this links back to the first scene when the camera tracks across the graveyard. Both of the tracking angles show the amount of deaths giving the audience an idea of the losses that were incurred by both sides. During the tracking again like the in the first scene the music is very slow and honourable to show respect for the dead. The piece and tranquillity is a total contrast for the audience after seeing the battle. The audience is now reeling at the magnitude of the event and the sheer number of deaths. After tracking along the beach the camera slows down and begins to zoom into one of the bodies lying on the beach. The camera continues to zoom on to the bag on the back of the body until the name Ryan can be seen. This final shot of the bag links the four scenes and mainly the final scene with the title and plot of the film. For the audience the final shot makes the four previous scenes sensible and gives a reason for them.
The making sense of the four scenes prepares the audience, and me personally, well because from this opening sequence you now know what to expect from the film. Making the opening sequence so realistic must have made making the rest of the film difficult because I found that I was expecting no less realism from every other battle scene. The extreme realism did shock me at first but I eventually realised that although it was a film the experience would have been very real for those involved, it gives me the feeling of fortune because many of the ninety percent of inexperienced soldiers would have been not much older than my self. The realism of the film makes me think that Steven Spielberg was very successful in putting chaos onto the screen and even more importantly he was able to successfully put war onto the screen without covering any factor up. I think that the war that is seen in the film is as real as it could possibly get without actually filming a real war. It is those factors that make me think that this film is amazing and probably one of the best I have ever seen. The methods used to shock the audience are like no other film, nothing I have ever seen has put across the absolute horror of war like this film. The realistic nature of the film is what makes it so effective.
