Saving Private Ryan

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English Coursework

Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is a action packed war film based on World War II. It was first released on September 11th 1998; it was directed by Steven Spielberg whose other famous films include: Jaws, E.T, Jurassic Park and Shindlers List. Saving Private Ryan breaks some of the traditional conventions of the war film genre as its first twenty four minutes recreates the US troops landing at the Omaha beach in Normandy and the search for James Ryan and to get him back safe begins. The one hundred and seventy minute long action film was a joint production by DreamWorks and Paramount. The film won five academy awards (Oscars) including best director 1999. The leading cast include Tom Hanks (Captain Miller). Tom Sizemore (Sergeant Havorth), Berry Pepper (Private Jackson) and Matt Dawman (Private Ryan). The film recreates life as a soldier in World War II. The opening battle sequence consists of twenty minutes of chaos and horrific blood splatter, the opening battle sequence was also very realistic as everything was happening very fast people dying and screaming continuously added to the confusion and devastation as their were soldiers running and gunshots being fired in all directions this made the whole opening battle sequence very destructive. The use of the handheld camera in the battle sequence increases and emphasises on the impact caused and makes the opening sequence very lively and this makes us the audience feel part of the action and as if we are making our way around the beach. Spielberg used the effect of desaturated colour in the film as it made it look more like a World War II newsreel footage and this then added to the realism and that Spielberg wanted from the start “I was looking for realism all the time”.  In interviews when the film was released Spielberg was questioned upon the opening sequence “ I wanted to put chaos upon the screen. I wanted the audience to feel the same as the green recruits”

As the film opens you can see an old man (James Ryan) walking towards the Coleville SurMer memorial graveyard a graveyard made for the remembrance of the people who died in the Second World War .As James stops at a gravestone the camera slowly zooms into Ryan’s face and then to a big close up of his eye, the camera carries on zooming in onto the eye creating a very tense mood. Finally the camera fully zooms into a big close up of James Ryan eye and within his eye we see a blazing fire. Next the camera cuts to a deep focus shot of the beach of iron hedgehogs in the foreground and background this is a flash back to June 6th 1944 as the U.S army prepares to land at Omaha beach in Normandy. Next we see a long shot of boats as they approach the shore, there is no dialogue in the beginning of the transition but we hear the sound of waves gradually increasing and the loud of roar of the boat engines, this sets a mood of tension and fear for the audience and we are also then given a cursory introduction to some of the main characters Captain Miller etc. As the camera cuts to a close up of Captain Millers hands shaking we also see shots of the other soldiers and their terrifying expressions and continuous sounds of vomiting and nausea whilst the clear instructions are being shouted out this shows us the audience how nervous the soldiers are and the fear inside them is fully shown with their expressions.

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As the boats approach Omaha beach the U.S army are greeted with massive German artillery bombardment and immediate rapid gunfire which creates a sense if confusion because of people running around unpredictably and dying one after the other this increased the chaotic drama. As soon as the boat doors open U.S mass murder begins as before even getting off the boat many of the soldiers are being killed and shot. The camera cuts to a medium and close up shots of soldiers being killed with the background sound of very loud gunfire this shows us the true welfare of ...

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