SSC Film Studies

Saving Private Ryan analysis

 

 The scene begins with a close up on Tom Hanks characters face.  This shows that he must be important to the film but the camera pulls backwards and he disappears in a sea of faces. This shows that not just one person is important in war but everyone is important in the battle. The next scene starts with a close up of the American soldiers faces. It adds a face to every soldier and makes the audience feel attached to the ones that are shown. Also the scene makes you feel what they are feeling and hearing and this immerses you into the scene. An example that supports this is when you see American soldiers praying this shows that they are scared and the audience feels empathy. The scene where they are barking orders at you embeds you into the scene and makes you feel hopeless and makes you feel like a soldier.

 Another scene begins with a point of view (POV) shot showing the American soldiers getting mown down by the German soldiers. Spielberg uses a POV shot to make the audience feel like one of the American soldiers and witness the horrors of war. The camera views the German soldiers as the antagonists of the story. Also the camera doesn’t show the faces of the Germans this takes away their humanity. From their perspective the American soldiers look like an infestation of ants and the Germans are exterminating them. The German soldiers are covered in a veil of darkness, this takes away their identifying features. This makes them more scary and robotic because it shows snippets of hands and the guns.

 In the scene in the water the camera shows the hopelessness of the American soldiers. The camera is positioned in a way that restricts the audience from helping. The camera lingers on the final moments of the American soldier’s lives and shows the fear and screaming on their faces. The hand-held camera is used in the scene this makes the audience feel like the American soldiers are getting helped out of the water. This is also enforced by the sounds that are used, an example is the sound of bullets flying by your ears.

 The American soldiers are shown as helping each other this shows heroism but this is hopeless because of the death all around like the grim reaper is waiting for them. A tilted pan shot shows the determination of the American soldiers but shows that their efforts are fruitless because there is still death all around them. In the next few scenes the audience witnesses the extent of losses of the American soldiers. This is supported by the amount of bodies littering the floor and shows how fragile life is. Another point is how people are trying to help themselves and not their fallen comrades, this shows how war is a horrible place to be.

In the next scene Tom Hanks’ character scrambles towards the beach the camera that is used is a hand-held camera this adds the shaking felt by Tom Hanks’ character. In the next scene there is a close up of Tom Hanks’ face, he is as white as ghost and shows that he is terrified. The lack of sound adds a more hopeless feel to it and this is also called shellshock the horrific images that are shown make it more harrowing to the audience and sticks with them.

The break in the fourth wall when Tom Hanks’ character forlornly stares directly into the camera and at the audience makes us feel like Tom Hanks is directly staring at us and trying to make the audience help him. The images that are shown really leave a scar on the audience and embeds us in the scene