SSC Film Studies

The scene begins with a medium close up of the main character in the film, Cpt. Miller, who is played by the actor Tom Hanks, The camera tracks backwards shortly after, showing us the other soldiers on board the boat with the protagonist. Whilst the camera tracks back we see the men very anxious and some are vomiting. The way we can tell that Tom Hanks is the main character is through the use of framing used at the beginning where only he is saw in the shot. This informs us that Tom Hanks character is also the most important person amongst the soldiers. Since Miller is with the other men in a very tight space it shows how life threatening the situation he is in really is. The camera is constantly shaking showing us what it is like to be on the boat. When the shot tracks backwards, it shows us Cpt. Miller as being insignificant and in the same life threatening position as the other men. This builds tension in the audience as his life is in danger.

            After this, Miller gives a set of instructions to the soldiers on the boat shouting over the loud crashing of the waves on the side of the boat. When he gives the orders, there is a number of close ups on the men’s faces who are all bracing for impact and getting prepared to disembark, a couple of men are even praying whilst on the boat. The loud crashing of the waves drowning out Millers orders shows us how unimportant these men really are and how they are already in trouble. None of the other men are talking and when the camera does the various close ups they all look terrified, and the one’s who are praying are looking for divine intervention in an act of hopelessness. The praying may also symbolise the plague in the Bible where the rivers will run red with blood, telling us the men will be slaughtered. The intensity of the scene rises the longer they’re on the boat, and makes us as an audience feel tense and anxious for when they actually get off the boat and storm the beach.

            Soon after the opening of the gates onto the beach the men are being killed by a rain of machine gun bullets. We then notice the lighting of the film is very blue and low key contrasting a lot with the red colour of the blood of the men being killed. The camera then gives us a POV shot of the allied soldiers and then the German soldiers sitting behind a machine gun looking down upon the soldiers and shooting them. The clattering of bullets starts and we start hearing this sound in substitution of the crashing waves. The lighting being low key portrays that this is a very dark day with lots of murder and the use of contrast of blue and red is used to focus on the blood, which magnifies the violence occurring. The allied soldier POV shot is slightly unfocused and shaky giving us the feeling as if we were there with them and shows how shocked the soldiers are not being able to see properly because of the shell shock. When we see the Germans looking down upon the allied troops it’s the high angle shot, showing they’re more powerful. It also dehumanises the Nazi Germans, as we cannot see their faces, unlike the allies; to the Germans the allied troops are like ants just waiting to be killed. We feel sympathetic for the allies at this point, as there is mass murder of people, we also feel engaged with the film with the shaky cameras simulating what it was like.