Analysis

Saving Private Ryan

The film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ begins with an establishing medium shot of the beach, showing the weather and the violent waves; this is designed to create an atmosphere for the audience and put them in the right mood for this type of film. The establishing shot of the dull weather should make the audience feel quite depressed and gets them wondering what is going to happen.

The camera then starts to focus on the boat in which the soldiers are waiting in. The camera uses close up on the faces of the soldiers in the boat so that we can see their facial expressions more clearly and gives the audience the sense of fear that the soldiers are feeling.

A point of view shot is used when a low angle shot of the hill is shown, this is a point of view shot of the soldiers in the boat and makes the audience feel like they are one of the soldiers looking up the hill and realising what they are up against. A contrast is made when the camera then shows a point of view of the opposing army using a high angle shot of the machine gun. This high angle shot shows us that the opposing soldiers re looking down on the soldiers in the boat as if they are no threat to them.

A handheld camera is used in this scene and the camera is shaking as it follows the soldiers, this puts the audience in the point of view of one of the soldiers and makes them feel like they are there as part of the chaos.

To sum up, the atmosphere, tension and sense of fear in this scene is mainly put across to the audience by using many points of view shots.