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?

GCSE Media Essay

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?

The touching emotional ‘Saving Private Ryan’ was directed by the world famous Steven Spielberg, who has directed many great films such as: the abominable Schindlers list the tension filled Jaws and the exciting Raiders of the lost ark, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ was a joint production between Paramount and DreamWorks a company that George Lucas owns. (Who happens to be another award winning director) ‘Saving Private Ryan’ has many known actors that include: the double award winning Tom Hanks / Captain John Miller, Tom Sizemore / Sergeant Horvath, Matt Damon / Private James Ryan to name but a few. The actual film was actually set in Normandy and that’s where it was filmed the rush up the beach was filmed where the real rush happened a mere 54 years before. Spielberg says in an interview not long after the film was released “I was looking for realism all the time” and if you watch the film then you can see he obviously achieved. Before any actors appear on the screen with an America flag on it but the colour sucked out of it so before anything happens you can see that this film isn’t going to be patriotic by that I mean the Americans aren’t going to defeat everyone without losing anyone but what really happens. During the first battle scene the main opening scene really shows what you would expect from war with basically a slaughter of the allied infantry and the Germans / Nazis having the advantage and really using it with the allies dropping like rain from the sky it looks like there is no hope. When Spielberg made ‘Saving Private Ryan’ you could automatically know from the directors name that its going to do something to you i.e. scare, touch or excite you and with ‘Saving Private Ryan’ Spielberg has out done himself with the highly trained stunt crews doing death defying stunts and the use of handheld cameras this really shows that Spielberg is willing to try difficult and exceed at them you really feel your running up the beach but without moving. Spielberg says in another interview on a documentary that “I always wanted to be a film maker” and since the age of thirteen he has been making films like: Escape to Nowhere, Fighter Squadron and in 1987 Empire of the Sun and he started using special effects at that age with simple things like a mine exploding or a shot into the ground would be displayed with a plank with sand on one end and a person stepping on the other and catapulting the sand into the air showing an explosion or shot. The introduction mainly gives out heavy emotion with the elder but weary James Ryan visiting Captain Millers grave buried in the uniformed ranks of headstones covering the ground of Coville-ser-mur in France as James collapses in front of his old friends grave he starts to cry with his family flocking around him the camera zooms in for a flash back to when it all started… D-day June 6th 1944 a historic day to be focused on in history forever more.

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The film begins with the American flag flapping in the light breeze showing patriotism but the flag has had the colour sucked out of it this desaturation of colour shows that the patriotism of the flag has also been sucked out as well and we know this is not going to be a gun hoe extravaganza like in the old John Wayne movies we know that there is going to be despair and loss for the Americans and we also know that the film will mainly revolve around Americans. Continually through this scene there is the sound of war drums and trumpets in the background and this triggers the emotion in you so you can feel like the soldiers of WW2 gave their lives for there country. The elderly James Ryan the first character who is shown makes his way to one of the many war memorial burial grounds this particular one is in France and is named Collville-ser-mur when Ryan enters the graveyard it just shows him walking but when the camera pulls out and pans across the cemetery it shows the hundreds of the dead soldiers that they could fit into this sacred place while Ryan walks towards Captain Millers grave we see the emotion that Ryan feels for this man that died for him to protect him from harm just his family could continue when his does not and with the relatives huddled behind Ryan we can see that Millers mission was a success. When we see Ryan break down in front of the grave he came to visit there is such a lot of emotion that he tried to bottle up but he starts to un controllable weep and when a man starts to cry you can see that something is wrong or their in pain and you can say that Ryan has so much sadness about this event that there must be something wrong almost instantaneously after Ryan collapses when he starts to weep we the audience can start to feel what war did to you and what your forefathers did for you and your family why the peoples of this world are now free that is what the soldiers did for us. It also allows us to take a changed and emotive look at the characters.

When the soldiers first get shown on the screen they are in a landing craft a Higgins craft what all the soldiers landed in, in 1944 on D-Day the soldiers in the craft are all scared about what’s going to happen to them and none of them want to step on to that beach because they are scared for their lives. When it first goes from James Ryan zoom in it shows the hedgehogs on the beach, which also help the Nazis because the allies cannot land heavy artillery onto the beach such as tanks etc. The sound of the crashing sea is an overwhelming sound almost deafening for the soldiers when it shows the inside of the Higgins craft we first see Millers hand which is shaking uncontrollably because of post climatic stress disorder (shell shock) and he takes a drink from the portable flask that all soldiers carry to try and ease the fear. We can see the fear in a blooded soldiers eyes and that’s not good for the morale for the troops because when the Captains scared your all dead unless he pulls it together. The colour of this scene is mainly dull and grainy to give the effect of a bad day in an almost impossible situation. When the camera comes out for a panning shot of all of the soldiers of the Higgins craft shows fear and unity between comrades by showing one green (new recruit) vomiting it starts off a chain reaction of a few others throwing up because of the unstoppable fear looming over them like a black rain cloud over the rays of the sun. When the Captain and Sergeant start to bark out orders they are hard to hear because of the overwhelming sound of the sea. Some soldiers believe that God will help them to overcome their fear by using rosary beads and crucifix chains. There are close ups of many of the young, thin, green soldiers all worried about what they are going to face. As soon as the door comes down there is absolute instant chaos and the first few rows drop dead as a wall of lead just rips through them when the Germans open fire. Captain Miller who has been made an officer because of his ability to think on his feet gets up and barks orders to get over the side to escape the bullets. This does not help for most of them because the person with the heavy machine gun drowns and others freak out and get themselves killed in the panic. The handheld cameras are also used here as well by following the soldiers into the water watching them die and bobbing up and below the water as if your there. During the time we are on the beach we see the slaughter of many Americans at the despair of many others.

Captain Millers confusion is first shown when he stumbles onto the beach sometime after the start of the battle as soon as he makes his way sufficiently undercover of a hedgehog and immediately goes into a sort of trance caused by shell shock during this Miller witnesses all kinds of disastrous events like green soldiers hiding not taking cover literally hiding under a hedgehog and starts to cry inadmissibly because of the fear of death has overwhelmed them crying for their mothers because of the warmness and loving way of the mother they cry for her. Close up of Millers face shows Worry and concern for these soldiers but also anger because of the soldiers not doing their job. Miller looks in a different direction and sees piles of bodies with a confused man looking for his arm and with finding it runs away with it under his attached arm from this you can tell that the confusion between the men was so strong they acted like there was nothing going on. The disaster continues with three men running and the front one with a flamethrower on his back gets shot and the bullet strikes the fuel tank and there is an explosion and all three men burn to death. Another Higgins craft lands and is set on fire all the men run out on fire this shows that Spielberg only uses the best the most advanced stunt men because a full body burn can be devastating for one man if it goes wrong but if multiple men agree to do it that’s a hell of a risk. There is an explosion and it must be quite close because blood spatters Millers face. A close up of Millers shaking hand again but this time to grab his helmet when he puts the water filled helmet on blood filled water streams down his face like he has been shot in the head. Just before Miller comes back to the real world out of the trance there are green soldiers wanting to know what they are to do now but the sound is muted as if there is no point in telling the soldier orders because there is no hope. But Miller comes back and normal time resumes and Millers starts the orders again making sure the remaining troops make it up the beach and all that wont will stay and die. Even a direct order from a Captain is no use to the green soldiers because they are to scared that they would take a charge of cowardice than die on the battlefield. Once Miller and Horvath make it up the beach with the troops and get up to the base of a German machine gun tower Miller sends troops up to try and take out a machine gun post but it does not go well until Miller and Horvath give covering fire for a sniper who is the first person to kill a German in this battle after this the Americans make their way up over the top of the beach the Germans are beaten and the allies have won.

The battle sequence ends with the looting of the dead German soldiers and one soldier finds a Hitler youth knife and hands it to a young Jewish soldier and he just breaks down and weeps for all the innocent Jews which Hitler had killed in their hundreds thousands even. As the soldier breaks down Horvath collects some dirt into a metal tin with Normandy written on the top and puts it in his sack with other tins saying France and Italy on them by this we can see that there are some serious campaigners out there that did everything that came up to stop the war and he had the dirt to prove it. It goes to a close up of Millers hand again shaking and he takes another drink to try and ease the shaking Horvath says “that’s quite a view” Miller replies “yes it is, quite a view” emotive music starts up again just to show you the amount of carnage can happen in one day. It goes to mid shots showing the immense numbers of losses that the allies suffered in the aftermath of D-Day the amount of losses there was, was incredible the amount of men that gave up their lives for their country was amazing. It then goes to a zoom in of a single man and in particular his pack on his back when it gets to it that it shows the name Ryan S indicating James’s brother Shaun and now we know why the eight men are risking their lives to save one because he is the last son in his family.

The opening battle sequence prepared the audience for what followed well because the shocking realism of the opening battle really shows you what you should expect from the rest of the film because if the first bit of the film was detestable for you then you know what’s coming. I did find the opening battle scene both shocking and realistic because of the amount of work and heart went into making this film realistic apparently it was so realistic that war veterans had to be escorted out of the area while watching it because it brought back memories and this helps me to realise what war looked like but “nobody could ever know what it felt like, never in a million years” quote Tom Hanks and this says that the D-Day landings will be a moment in history that can never happen again. I liked the film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ because of the lengths Spielberg went to, to make this the great film that it is today. The professional stunt work that he employed the fact that he set it on sight in Normandy the fact that he sent the actors to train with an ex war soldier Captain Dale Dye for a couple of days I mean the lengths a director goes to, to make their films the greatest they can be and with Spielberg that seems to be every single one because he in my opinion is the greatest director of his time.