Analysis: Saving Private Ryan, Normandy beach

Analysis of Saving Private Ryan

Landing on Normandy beach scene

The establishing shot of this scene opens up with a close up on Tom Hank’s character Captain Miller. He is in the centre of the camera drawing the audience’s attention straight on to him. The camera then starts to track back out of Captain Miller to reveal a whole troop of soldiers surrounding Miller, but still keeps Miller in the centre of the shot whilst tracking back to show other soldiers vomiting and others staring blankly into space.

The camera looks to be shaking slightly side-to-side to mimic the boats movement in the violent sea. Captain Miller is always dead centre of the frame during this shot to establish that he is the main character and also adds that he is also the most important character out of the troop, but this scene also shows his sense of the up coming doom they’re about to face as there is little freedom of movement within the boat. While the camera is backtracking out from Miller it shows the rest of the troop and signifies that Miller is yet only another soldier who has an equal chance of death ad the men stood around him.

The camera movement shows the audience, that not only is Miller the most important character within this troop, but he’s also the same as his fellow troop around him feeling that they can’t control what happens to them and being afraid of that they thought of being venerable to death at any point during the fight, also showing that some of the soldiers are throwing up due to the fear of the fight really shows the fear pouring out of them (literally). The tracking shot ends with a wide shot of the boat, where Miller is shown as futile and insignificant and that he too faces the same threat haunting his men. Building up the tension within the audience to see what happens during the boarding.

The camera then comes to a close up on the side of Millers face as he shouts out commands to a fellow soldier as the camera swaps between the two as they shout that they are coming close to the landing of the beach. The camera then starts to go into close ups on the other soldiers going from one to another showing that they’re trying to prepare for the breach on the beach. One soldier is shown doing the Christian cross on his chest in a CU, then the next soldier pulls out the Christian cross on a necklace that he’s wearing and kisses it and whispers to himself showing that he could be praying to God.

The camera is still following the shakiness of the boat to immerse ourselves into the scene.