Saving Private Ryan Analysis

Film Studies Homework

500 word analysis-Saving Private Ryan

The opening scene is set at the Normandy Landings. It opens with a medium shot of Tom Hanks’s character Captain Miller. This is to reveal to the audience that he is the movies protagonist. The camera then begins to track backwards into a longshot of the entire boat full of soldiers; this is to demonstrate that Captain Miller is nothing special; he is an ordinary soldier who is just as vulnerable and afraid as the other soldiers. (how does this alter the audiences response to him and increase his vulnerability within the scene?) Spielberg’s use of a shaky, P.O.V camera is to make us feel as though we are there with the other soldiers, as it mimics the movement of the boat.

The continuous use of P.O.V shots immerses us with the battle. As we see the door go down on the boat we see the German machine guns begin to fire upon us. The shot is a low angled shot; this is used to remove the Germans humanity so all we can see is a group of things that need to be destroyed. (good anlaysis of camera - consider: How do the American's appear in the frame? They look like insects being exterminated - it removes all humanity from the Germans reinforcing their 'antagonist' position)Right after this we see a Germans point of view to show that it is a slaughter; it is a high angled view to show the U.S soldiers as puny weaklings, to the Germans. One could also say that the P.O.V shot of the German soldier is just an innocent soldier, as we see the guns firing but we never see the soldier fire the gun; we just see him running past observing the battle as though he doesn’t want to be a part of it. This is very clever as it is a subtle hint that not all the Germans were bad.

Shortly after this we begin to see soldiers jumping over the sides of the boat to escape the bullets. Another P.O.V is used, we jump over the side of the boat and land in the water; and begin to witness the underwater slaughter. The shot almost takes our breath away as we are already immersed in the movie. We see people droning, getting shot and getting trampled; then we climb to the surface and get a P.O.V wide shot to track Captain Miller saving another soldier. The wide shot is introduced to show the entire battlefield. We pan left and track Captain Miller, whilst he drags the soldier to a Czech hedgehog to save his life. Then get a high angled mid shot, this is to show Captain Miller and the soldier he just saved as week, it is also used to show the death of the soldier; this is to make the audience empathise with Captain Miller, as if he just saved his life for nothing.

We then cut to a pan, P.O.V shot. The shot is on the floor, giving us a sense that we have been shot, and are laying on the ground watching the battle. We see soldiers clamber onto the beach and suddenly cut back to the German soldiers P.O.V. This is to show the soldier just watching U.S soldiers getting picked off one by one. We also can barely hear the gun shots and explosions this is to show the audience that the Germans aren’t even being harmed; all the damage is in the distance, far away that it can’t hurt them. (how does this makes us feel / alter our response to the US soldiers, especially Cpt. Miller?)

Straight away we cut back to a different soldier’s point of view. It is a shaky, hand cam, tracking shot of a soldier running past soldiers, corpses of soldiers and injured soldiers. This shot is a mid-shot, to show the horrible, tragic reality of war.

Once again we cut to the German soldier’s perspective ,at a very wide shot, as we witness another German soldier cut down U.S soldiers as they exit the boat. This is to demonstrate to the audience how easy it was for the Germans, and how tragic it was for the U.S soldiers.

Suddenly we cut back to Captain Miller, at a medium shot, as he stumbles, exhausted on to the beach. This is to show the audience that the protagonist has been beaten, and clambers to the beach defeated; this is used to show that once again he is just as easily defeated as the other soldiers, and although he is the protagonist, everyone is equal in war.

Right away we cut to a mid-shot of two soldiers as a mine explodes, leaving one of the soldiers legless and the other rolling on the ground, writhing in pain. The camera then pans around to find Captain Miller finally make it to shore, the camera then zooms in on Millers face. This is to show his shocked face, as we go into slow motion. The slow motion is used by Spielberg to resemble shell shock; everything quiet, we can only hear a ringing as we cut to a P.O.V of Captain Miller.

Through Millers sight we see the consequences of War. We see soldiers set alight, via exploding flamethrower. We see a young soldier cowering from the battle. And through all this we see a soldier, wondering about looking for his own arm. This demonstrates the effects of war as we see a soldier, so shocked, that he’s completely oblivious the war behind him. Shortly after this we cut back to a medium close up of Captain Miller, the camera then pans to the right to show us other soldiers on fire from the gas canister explosion, it’s also used to further show the tragedy of war.

We cut to Captain Miller’s hand, as we see it shaking, this is to reinforce the idea that even the protagonist, is another soldier who is afraid.