“I wanted to hit the sets much like a newsreel cameraman following soldiers into war.”
Spielberg uses haphazzard cameras to follow the soldiers into the battle. This shows the whole battle scene more as an actual battle to the audience. It has the audience feel like they’re apart of the action because they can view and experience the battle to themselves and have their own sense as if they’re there. It lets the audience feel as if they’re following the soldiers, and taking part in the war themselves. This technique coupled with the idea of blood or water splatters hitting the camera went well together. Spielberg thought that the idea of having blood or water splashed onto the camera lens would make it seem more real, and rather than having the cameramen wipe it from the lens, which a cameraman in wartime wouldn’t have the time to do, they left it on. This would create more of a dramatic and realistic effect to what the war was like, with blood and the water from the sea splashing about in every spot up on the beach. Also, having the handheld cameras in action following the actors around the set shows how chaotic the battle actually is, especially with it being shaky.
“I wanted to put chaos up on the screen. I wanted the audience to feel the same as those green recruits that were just off the Higgins boats and had never seen combat before. Ninety-five percent of them hadn’t. It was complete chaos.”
Already there are some techniques already used throughout the film that have been stated, Steven Spielberg uses more and more techniques through the camera angles and also through the soundtrack. These affect the atmosphere and the reality of the first four scenes in a huge amount and add many effects, which grab the audience in easily and thoroughly. There are many types of camera angles that Spielberg uses in the film, mainly in the first couple of scenes. This gives parts of the scenes different perspective and makes every little bit different but even more realistic.
In the first scene, at the very beginning, it shows Private Ryan in the present tense with his family. This adds a big effect to the beginning because if you think about his family being there you’d think about the fact that if he hadn’t have survived then they wouldn’t exist. This adds to the greater effect of him visiting Captain Miller’s grave that had actually saved him, which is shown later on in the film. The camera angles begin relaxed as nothing much has really happened in the film yet, but as Ryan walks over to the grave of Captain Miller, the camera pans across and upwards to show all of the grave yard. As this is happening with the cameras, the music in this bit is patriotic and proud, which gives an effect that he had taken part in something that happened with the graveyard or something similar. While in the graveyard at the beginning, there’s no dialogue at all. This is because it’s a respectful scene, and silence shows the respect. It also adds more thought to the audience and lets the thought become bigger and wider.
But there’s a transaction between the respectful silence in the present, to the very harsh past. The present changes to the past as there is an extreme close-up of Ryan’s eyes while the music fades and the waves slowly begin to get drift louder and louder. The sounds become diegetic as there are waves, but no dialogue at first, and boat engines along with vomiting and distant explosions. The camera as it shows the iron hedgehog at the bottom of the beach is a deep focus shot. As the camera starts to lead out towards the whole beach, panning across, it begins to introduce the beach to the audience.
As the camera turns away from the iron hedgehog and sets to a close up of Captain Miller’s shaking hands, the camera zooms out from the canteen. The canteen is shaking which shows a recurrent image. This is to show how nervous Captain Miller is. Also, as the camera zooms away from the single image of Captain Miller, which shows how important he is, and also shows that he is the leader of the soldiers, it also shows all the other soldiers’ faces individually. The close ups of these men show how individual they are to each of the other men. With the sound effects raising, such as the clanging of the bottle and the man being sick at the front of the boat, it adds the tension and makes the people feel the tension rising.
What’s most effective about the scene where the soldiers are still on the engine boat is that as soon as the boat door opens, chaos has suddenly entered the film. Sudden chaos takes over as German soldiers fire their guns at the only recently arrived Americans. At this part, Spielberg has the cameras being set over the German soldier’s shoulder. This is also effective as it gives a view of their actions. As the soldiers are suddenly taken down one by one with the diegetic sound of the rushing bullets, the handheld cameras are immediately brought out. They follow a few of the surviving soldiers, such as Tom Hanks, into the sea below the boats at the bottom of the beach. This is a great effect of the chaotic atmosphere. As the camera drifts above the water the chaos is back, but as it goes underneath the water, in a way there is even more chaos than there is above the water. This is because the sounds become muted, as to be a soldier’s perspective, and it separates you from what is happening above the water. In my point of view the camera underwater is more sinister as you’re not sure what’s happening above and anything could happen down there, but in this case it is more calmer. It shows a contrast between above, where there is hell with all the shells and gunfire, and below, being peaceful.
In the third scene, Spielberg shows the idea of being shell-shocked. As a shell loudly crashes into the beach near where Captain Miller is walking, the soldier’s are shaken about. This is greatly shown by the camera shaking to add more chaos and shows that there is more destruction in this scene. As Captain Miller is shell-shocked, the cameras zoom into a close up of him in jerky slow motion. This creates the idea of helplessness, and that he can only just kneel there looking around at every other soldier. This gives us an idea of them being helpless, and it shows all the chaos happening around him – not just focusing on a few soldiers as it may seem later in the film.
The sounds while he is shell-shocked become muted, and you can only faintly hear the destruction of the shells, and the shouts from men screaming from all of the pain they’re going through. The colours become sort of darker, but clearer as confused and helpless men search around for their missing arm, or lay on the sand holding their wounds in great anger and pain. There is also a lot of aggressive shouting, as men, drowned out by gunfire and bombing shout words such as “fucking”. It shows the anger and the desperation that they are feeling. The repetition of phrases such as “Grenades! Grenades!” shows the desperation and franticness that they’re feeling in the battle. It also tells us that the noise is too much to only shout it once, and having to repeat may make it easier to hear.
What’s also effective is the way the cameras are set out, such as an over-shoulder camera. This shows the beach scene from his angle - showing what other people are doing as he looks round at everyone. It gives the audience a chance to view things from his perspective, and to view all the wreckage that is happening. It also gives us an idea about what the shell shock is like. The atmosphere that is being shown during Miller’s shell shock is the horror of war. It shows all the damage, and all the pain that the soldier’s are feeling. Miller tipping the bloody water out of his helmet on to the ground can also show that it a horror. He just simply tips it over and places it on his head, without really showing a care. This is because it’s war, and there’s really no time to care about what is in your helmet.
There is quite a lot of gore in this scene, as men are trying find the one arm that had been blown off just seconds before, and as men lay on the ground with their guts hanging out. This image is shown with a mid-shot, where the injury is at the opposite end of the shot to where his head is. The other soldier’s faces are not shown in any scene because they’re not as important as the main stars in the film, although they are equally as important in war terms. Another reason why it is shocking and gory is where the medic is injured. He is an important character and an important soldier, and a few other men are attempting to help him with his injuries, but as they’re just helped him he’d been shot. This is shocking as they’d only just helped him survive basically and all their work had been for nothing. Also, there are a lot of men shouting helpless things, such as ‘mamma!’. This helps to make us feel sorry for them, as they are helpless and need to see they’re family back home, but clearly are incapable of it.
In the very last scene on the beach, there is yet another image of Captain Miller’s hands shaking.
This adds to the tension a lot more because again, he’s shown as very nervous and his hands are very frantic because of past warfare. There is a big close up of Miller’s eyes. This is to replicate the close up of Ryan’s eyes at the beginning. This shows that they actually have a connection in the story, and that there’s a reason why Miller and his team are fighting there.
After all of the fighting has come to its end for now, there is a long shot of the beach at the end. This shows all of the bloody seawater washing over all of the bodies laying on the beach still and helpless, with no more purpose for them. While this is happening, Miller’s team are still able to have a laugh about their own lives, and what’s happened. A soldier jokes around with Miller, saying “if your mother saw you do that she’d be upset”, and he replies with “i thought you were my mother”. This shows that they can still have a laugh with each other even after what has happened to all the other soldiers. Although they still joke, it’s still pretty tense. This is suggested by one of the soldiers praying. The background sound of other soldiers talking had been muted, and only Private Jackson’s prayers could be heard. This causes the viewer to focus on him rather than everyone else ad creates a tenser atmosphere. There is also a man crying. This gives the effect of shock to what’s recently happened, and makes you feel sympathy for him, creating a more realistic effect to the film.
The scene eventually ends after Miller has a dialogue saying “Quite a view” about the surroundings. It ends with a long shot of the beach, slowly zooming into an image of Ryan’s backpack cramped in with everything else on the beach, squashed in between numerous dead soldiers. The waves begin to sound calmer as the fighting has ended, and only distant gunshots can be heard from a different place. The sounds of the waves begin to become faded out as the gentle music takes over. The music is the same as the music at the begin, which gave a patriotic feeling for Ryan. This gives relief as the battle here has ended, and that’s it for now. The scene transcends to where it left off from the graveyard, with Ryan slowly walking back from Miller’s gravestone.