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.

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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’ was first released on September 11th 1998, a joint production from Paramount and Dreamworks Pictures. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, who had previously had worldwide success with Jaws (1975); Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981); E.T. The Extra-Terrestial (1982); Jurassic Park (1993) and Schindler’s List (1993) - to name but a few! The film went on to win five Academy Awards (Oscars) including Best Director in 1999. Some of the leading actors in the film were Tom Hanks (Captain Miller), Tom Sizemore (Sergeant Horvath), Edward Burns (Private Reiben), Matt Damon (Private Ryan) and Vin Diesel (Private Carparzo). Damon and Diesel have since gone on to establish themselves as major ‘A List’ actors with a number of big successes.

The movie begins and ends in one of those battlefield graveyards neatly lined with white marble crosses. An elderly man (who we later discover to be Private James Ryan) has come with his family to visit the grave of the leader of a platoon (Captain John H Miller) that had brought him home from the battlefield after three of his brothers were killed in other action in World War II. On finding the grave he is overcome with emotion and his memory sweeps back in time, the peace and tranquillity of the graveyard is then shattered as the film abruptly shifts from the veteran’s visit to the cemetery to the Omaha Beach landing in Normandy on 6th June 1944.

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It’s 6:30am and the landing craft with men led by Captain Miller is about to hit the beach. It is obvious that many of the men are very nervous and some are physically sick at the though of the impending action. The landing craft’s front is released, which then allows the soldiers to disembark. Most are instantly cut down by German machine gun fire. Captain Miller orders the few men still alive to jump over the side into the surf. Bullets continue to streak through the water and we see a soldier drown under the deep water due to ...

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