Saving private ryan essay

Saving Private Ryan was directed by Steven Spielberg and was first released in September 1998, it was a joint production from Paramount and Dreamworks Pictures. The film lasts for nearly three hours and the opening battle on its own lasts for twenty four minutes. The film won five Oscars including best director in 1999. Steven Spielberg said “he was looking for realism all of the time” and “he wanted to put chaos up on the screen” in the form of the battle. The film has many famous actors including Tom Hanks as Captain Miller and Matt Damon as Private Ryan.

The film starts in the present with an elderly veteran at a gravestone, it then quickly flashes into the past to the beginning of the invasion of Normandy, with American soldiers landing on Omaha Beach and struggling against dug-in German infantry and machine gun nests. One of the soldiers who survives the initial landing, Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, patches together a makeshift squad of soldiers and slowly penetrates the German defenses leading to a breakout from the beach.

In the United States, General George.C.Marshall discovers that three of the four brothers of the Ryan family have all died and that their mother will receive all three notices on the same day. He learns that the fourth son, Private First Class James Francis Ryan of the 1st Battalion 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment is missing in action somewhere in France. He orders that he be found and sent home immediately.

Back in France, Miller receives orders from Lieutenant Colonel Walter Anderson to find Private Ryan, and assembles an eight-man squad to accomplish this task. With no information about Ryan's whereabouts, Miller and his men move from town to town, rendezvouing with other American units and trading information while venturing deeper into enemy territory. Following several false leads and the loss of one soldier in his squad, Miller locates a friend of Ryan’s, who reveals that Ryan is defending a strategically-important bridge over the Merderet River in the town of Ramelle. The unit suffers another casualty on their journey, finally arriving on the outskirts of Ramelle where they destroy a German reconnaissance unit with the help of some American soldiers, one of them Private James Ryan.

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The battle scenes throughout the film are filmed in a really realistic way, they did this by using hand held cameras which enabled them to get up close and right amongst the soldiers, in one scene you can even hear the panting of the cameraman as he runs between the soldiers using a hand held camera, this created an elusion of being in the battle. Spielberg also used dull colouring throughout the film to create realisism and a sombre mood for the battle.

From the film I have taken four scenes from the opening battle of which I’m ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

From the film I have taken four scenes from the opening battle of which I’m going to write about focusing on the effects of the camerawork and the soundtrack.

Scene one “The transition from present day to he past”

In this scene an elderly James Ryan visits the graves of US soldiers, the camera pans across all the graves to show the vast amount of soldiers that lost their lives in the battle, as the elderly James Ryan moves towards Captain Miller’s grave and he starts to read the wording the camera zooms into his face giving a big close up of his eye. This shot flashes back into the past through his eye, it gives a deep focus of the beach with iron hedgehogs both in the foreground and stretching into the background, there is also a long shot of the boats as they approach the shore, the camera cuts to a shot of Captain Miller’s hand shaking (recurrent image) also showing close upshots of soldiers with terrified expressions on their faces.

The sound effects are of waves gradually increasing as the soldiers stand silent, there is no dialogue at first, you can hear the sound of the engines from the boats, men vomiting and then instructins being shouted to the soldiers.

This scene establishes a connection between the elderly man in the graveyard and D-Day and also enables the date and setting to be established, as well as introducing some of the main characters of the film.

Scene two “The instant chaos“

In this scene as soon as the boats reach the shore and the doors open the soldiers are shot at and killed by German machine gunners. This scene is quite lengthy as soldier after soldier is killed within seconds of leaving the boats. It shows medium and close up shots of the soldiers being killed. This scene also shows over the shoulder shots of German machine gunners looking down upon the boats and US soldiers which gives a sense of power and advantage. As soldiers plunge into the sea the camera follows them giving the soldiers prospective to the audience as they struggle both below and above the surface. As the soldiers advance up the beach the use of hand held cameras suggests that we (the audience) are making our way up the beach.

As all of this is going on you can hear dominating gun fire, instuctions being shouted, the sound of zipping bullets past the camera and a muffled sound track as the camera keeps going underwater.

These various perspectives give an overview of the carnage created in this scene, the camerawork enables the audience to be close to the action. As the Germans slaughter the Americans it gives a perspective that they are fighting a lost cause, it gives a sense of confusion and hopelessness and the audience feels as if no-one could survive, it also indicates the immense difficulty of the mission.

Scene three “Captain Miller’s confusion”

In this scene Captain Miller staggers out of the blood filled scene. He stumbles and falls as explosions go off all around him. We witness his shock and confusion at the carnage and distuction that is all around him. This scene enables us to see the battle from his perspective.

As Captain Miller emerges from the sea there is a close up of him. The camera moves in a slow and jerky motion and shots of Miller’s shocked expression are shown with images of the horrors that are taking place around him, an over the shoulder shot gives the audience Miller’s perspective. There is also a close up shot as he tips bloody water from his helmet.

Most of the sound has been muted and is accompanied with slow motion camerawork, the explosions can be heard but are muted as well are the words of a soldier shouting silently asking Miller for instructions. The sound eventually returns very noisily and the audience can now hear the soldier’s words above the loudness of the gunfire and the explosions. The audience are given a good insight into the horror of war by being plunged into D-Day alongside Captain Miller, they also experience the senseless carnage through his eyes. Finally Miller comes to his senses and resumes his responsibilities.

Scene four “The end of the battle”

In this scene Captain Miller and Sergeant Horvath rest as we are shown large numbers of dead soldiers as the bloody sea washes over them. Horvath comments, “ That’s quite a view”, this sentiment is echoed by Miller.

The camera zooms in to a big close up of Miller’s eyes and then cuts to show the audience his viewpoint, it also shows a shot of his hands shaking. There are long shots of bright red bloody water washing over the dead and close ups of the soldiers’ boots. There is a long shot of the beach and the camera pans slowly left and gradually zooms in on the wording on the backpack of soldier Ryan.

As the scene starts gentle music quitely fades in, the waves sound peaceful after the prolonged chaos and destruction. The music also adds to the solemnity of the images. The peace is a relief for the audience after all the exhausting tension and horror of the battle. The audience are shocked by the sheer number of deaths and the enormity of the event. The final shot shows the name “Ryan” on the backpack of one of the fallen soldiers, this establishes a link between the sequence just seen as well as the title and the plot of the film.

The opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan prepares you for the rest of them film because it shows you what is to be expected from the rest of the film and the some scenes in the opening sequence are so shocking that not much could be more worse than what has already been seen. I found the film shocking and realistic because it showed what war was really like. Steven Spielberg succeed in putting chaos up on the screen in my opinion, he didn’t try to glorify war or hold anything back.

I thought the film was a really good film because it told the audience what war is really like, it showed that both sides of the war are evil not like other war films where they show the US and British armies are the good side. The film also contains horrific and shocking images ( peoples insides being ripped out by bullets ) where in other films they would clear it up. As a whole Saving Private Ryan was a good film.