The film I decide to analyze is “Saving Private Ryan” directed by Steven Spielberg that takes place right in the middle of World War II. The movie follows Army Ranger Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks), and his squad of 7 men following orders by looking for Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who has been ordered to return home after all three of his brothers had been killed in action. As they travel through warfare and bloodshed, they eventually find Ryan but must stay in Ramelle (where they found Ryan) after Ryan decides to stay and fight with the only “brothers” he has left. After a battle with the Germans at Ramelle, Ryan, and the remainder of the American soldiers set off to go home (IMDb, “Saving Private Ryan”). This movie vividly shows the hardships soldiers went through and how gruesome the war was.

Spielberg directed this movie to culturally represent how awful the war really was. There weren’t a lot of movies at the time of the 20th century that actually showed the awful events of World War II. Instead, many directors and film makers made the war heroic, glamorous, and sometimes even humorous. According to an interview done by CNN’s Paul Vercammen, Spielberg stated “I wasn’t going to add my film to a long list of pictures that make World War II ‘the glamorous war,’ ‘the romantic war.'” Spielberg noted that his goal while making this film was to show young people what they’re getting into when they’re sent off to war. For example, the first 27 minutes of the film showed to the audience is thousands of American soldiers storming Omaha Beach and being blown up to pieces, and that was just the beginning. The movie actually almost earned the “NC-17” rating instead of the current “R” rating it has.

The mise-en-scene was something also was very good in the film. The setting of the film is almost always taken place outside and rarely was filmed indoors. The lighting of the film normally always is project from the sky since most of the scene’s settings take place outside. There are so many props that were used to make this movie as realistic as possible. The most common props used in the movie were weapon replicas, sandbags, rubble, ditches, military trucks, etc. The makeup on the actors was also really well done. they would either have really dried blood on their faces or  massive amounts of dirt of their face to represent how long they’ve been out at war. For example, in a scene where the medic of their squad gets shot multiple times, we can see the large number of props used and the lighting of the scene change for the scenario. The audience can see the actors use first aid kits, canteens, needles, rags, anything they have to try and save his life. Unfortunately, the medic eventually dies and the sky starts to darken to represent their loss. Everything is set up to look exactly how it would look like in war and there is so many props used in every scene. Matt Damon said that Spielberg “packs the frame with so much and the frame is moving and you say ‘Wait a minute. Did some guy’s arm just get blown off?'”

The cinematography and sound of the film was wonderfully done. Many of the camera shots were handheld with the exception of a few different camera angles (long shot, close up, medium shot, etc). Spielberg stated he used the mind-set that combat camera crews used in World War II and the Korean War which was get the best footage you can and then get out before getting shot. We can see this within the movie in many different scenes as the camera shakes viciously to resemble that war effect. The sounds of the movie are what you’d expect in a war movie but are well made and timed efficiently. Sounds like machine gun fire, explosions, continuous yelling are common in every war movie but the way they were used in Saving Private Ryan was amazing. All of them sounded realistic, clean, and well produced. For instance, one scene towards the end of the movie where a tank round hits a building right next to Captain Miller and falls to the ground shows the audience some great sounds and camera shots. After he gets back some balance from the explosion, he starts to look around at what’s happening to the rest of his fellow brothers. This part of the scene gives the audience a medium close up of his reaction of what is happening at that very moment. However, Captain Miller is still very disoriented and the camera angle transitions to a POV angle (that shakes quite a bit to resemble his disorientation) to show the audience what he is seeing. Even Tom Hanks said during filming “From my perspective it was as real as real could be, it was loud, scary, smoke-filled, and it was chaotic” (CNN, Spielberg Aims to Tell Truth about Was in ‘Saving Private Ryan’).

Besides Spielberg doing a great job directing this movie, the actors did a great job showing emotion and personality. In many of the scenes, the audience can see fear, angry, sadness, stress, etc in actor’s faces. For example, One scene shows two of the squad members relaxing a bit before the Germans arrive at Ramelle and you can see the stress in their faces and how hard they’re trying to stay positive and happy. Even one of them says “I didn’t use to smoke before this war” as the other one hands them a lighter to light their cigarette. Spielberg even sent his whole entire cast to 10 days of boot camp to get them prepared for the reality of war before filming.

There are many other great camera shots, angles, props, sounds, etc within the movie to let the audience experience the war effect as well. The way this movie was set up and directed perfectly showed what could have happened in the war. This movie is one of the many great war films that shows how awful World War II was and what many soldiers had to experience during the war.

 

 

Works Cited

 

Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 5th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.

 

Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Prod. Steven Spielberg. By Robert Rodat. Perf. Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, and Tom Sizemore. DreamWorks Pictures, 1998. DVD. Web.

 

“Saving Private Ryan.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.

 

Vercammen, Paul. “CNN – Spielberg Aims to Tell Truth about War in ‘Saving …” Spielberg Aims to Tell Truth about War in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ CNN, 23 July 1998. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

 

 

Film Analysis

The film I decide to analyze is “Saving Private Ryan” directed by Steven Spielberg that takes place right in the middle of World War II. The movie follows Army Ranger Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks), and his squad of 7 men following orders by looking for Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who has been ordered to return home after all three of his brothers had been killed in action. As they travel through warfare and bloodshed, they eventually find Ryan but must stay in Ramelle (where they found Ryan) after he decides to stay and fight with the only “brothers” he has left. After a battle with the Germans at Ramelle, Ryan, and the remainder of the American soldiers set off to go home (IMDb, “Saving Private Ryan”). This movie vividly shows the hardships soldiers went through and how gruesome the war was.

One scene that examples this is toward the end of the movie when a tank fires a round into a building right next to Captain Miller. Miller falls to the ground and becomes disoriented and confused as he looks around and see his fellow “brothers” getting shot or others sitting in fear. This scene is really powerful because it shows a little snippet of why war is horrifying: fear and death. The battle takes place in the fictional town of Ramelle, where the squad first met up with Private Ryan. All the lighting of this scene is suppose to be projected from the sky since the scene takes place outside in the town. The props of the scene are mostly rubble, ditches, and fallen debris to show the damage that the battle has caused. All the actors portrayed in this scene are all wearing army outfits; greenish or grey depending on what role they played. Also during the scene, Captain Miller has blood all over his face from the explosion.  The sound in the scene is faded to let the audience experience how Captain Miller feels since he got the wind knocked out of him from the explosion. The camera angle also lets us experience how Captain Miller is feeling. One angle is his point of view so the audience can experience what he is seeing and the other angle is a medium close up shot so we can also see his reaction to all the stuff that’s happening within the scene. The shot is also blurred in the scene and shakes around quite a bit to represent his disorientation and confusion from the explosion.

Another scene that shows the hardships and misery that soldiers had to go through is when one of the squad members gets shot multiple times and dies slowly right in front of the rest of the squad members. This scene is really emotional and really shows how soldiers had to go through the torment of losing one of their own. The setting of the scene takes place in the middle of a hill in a ditch previously used by the Germans before they were killed. The medic of the squad Wade, is laying in the ditch shot up while the rest of the members try to patch his wounds. Again, all the lighting of the scene projects from the sky since the scene takes place outside. There is a ton of props and fake blood used in the scene to show how bad Wade’s injury is. In the scene, the audience can see first aid kits, canteens, needles, rags, etc used by the actors to try and save Wade. All the actors are still in their greenish, dusty army uniforms and have dirty faces to resemble how long they’ve been out at war. The sound in the scene mainly is overtaking of the other soldiers and Wade gurgling on his own blood. The camera angle let’s the audience see and experience what the other soldiers are feeling and sensing. The angles that were mostly used in the scene were close-ups, medium close-ups, medium shots. The camera also shakes a little bit to represent one of soldiers shaking in fear seeing Wade in that state of condition.

Spielberg directed this movie to specifically change the way people may see war after watching Saving Private Ryan. According to an interview done by CNN’s Paul Vercammen, Spielberg stated “I wasn’t going to add my film to a long list of pictures that make World War II ‘the glamorous war,’ ‘the romantic war'”. There weren’t many World War II films that actually showed the awful events of World War II during the 20th century. Instead, they glamorized it, made it heroic, or even sometimes humorous. Spielberg has definitely changed mine and many others’ perception of war with just this one movie. He put in all the scenes of soldiers getting shot up or blowing up into pieces to show his audience that World War II was brutal and serious. At the very beginning of the movie, the audience’s emotion could already be changed as we can see hundreds of thousands of soldiers being shot up at Omaha Beach. The actors also make facial expressions mostly consisting of fear for the audience to relate to.

There are many other great camera shots, angles, props, sounds, etc within the movie to let the audience experience the war effect as well. The way this movie was set up and directed perfectly showed what could have happened in the war. This movie is one of the many great war films that shows how awful World War II was and what many soldiers had to experience during the war.

 

 

Works Cited

Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 5th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.

Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Prod. Steven Spielberg. By Robert Rodat. Perf. Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, and Tom Sizemore. DreamWorks Pictures, 1998. DVD. Web.

“Saving Private Ryan.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.

Vercammen, Paul. “CNN – Spielberg Aims to Tell Truth about War in ‘Saving …” Spielberg Aims to Tell Truth about War in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ CNN, 23 July 1998. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Film Analysis

The film I decide to analyze is “Saving Private Ryan” directed by Steven Spielberg that takes place right in the middle of World War II. The movie follows Army Ranger Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks), and his squad of 7 men following orders by looking for Private First Class James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who has been ordered to return home after all three of his brothers had been killed in action. As they travel through warfare and bloodshed, they eventually find Ryan but must stay in Ramelle (where they found Ryan) after he decides to stay and fight with the only “brothers” he has left. After a battle with the Germans at Ramelle, Ryan, and the remainder of the American soldiers set off to go home (IMDb, “Saving Private Ryan”). This movie vividly shows the hardships soldiers went through and how gruesome the war was.

One scene that examples this is toward the end of the movie when a tank fires a round into a building right next to Captain Miller. Miller falls to the ground and becomes disoriented and confused as he looks around and see his fellow “brothers” getting shot and the others sitting in fear. This scene is really powerful because it shows a little snippet of why war is horrifying: fear, something, and death. The battle takes place in the fictional town of Ramelle, where the squad first met up with Private Ryan. All the lighting of this scene is suppose to be projected from the sky since the scene takes place outside in the town. The props of the scene are mostly rubble, ditches, and fallen debris to show the damage that the battle has caused. All the actors portrayed in this scene are all wearing army outfits; greenish or grey depending on what role they played. Also during the scene, Captain Miller has blood all over his face from the explosion.  The sound in the scene is faded to let the audience experience how Captain Miller feels since he got the wind knocked out of him from the explosion. The camera angle also lets us experience how Captain Miller is feeling. One angle is his point of view so the audience can experience what he is seeing and the other angle is a medium close up shot so we can also see his reaction to all the stuff that’s happening within the scene. The shot is also blurred in the scene and shakes around quite a bit to represent his disorientation and confusion from the explosion.

Another scene that culturally shows the hardships and misery that soldiers had to go through is when one of the squad members gets shot multiple times and dies slowly right in front of the rest of the squad members. This scene is really emotional and really shows how soldiers had to go through the torment of losing one of their own. The setting of the scene takes place in the middle of a hill in a ditch previously used by the Germans before they were killed. The medic of the squad Wade, is laying in the ditch shot up while the rest of the members try to patch his wounds. Again, all the lighting of the scene projects from the sky since the scene takes place outside. There is a ton of props and fake blood used in the scene to show how bad Wade’s injury is. In the scene, the audience can see first aid kits, canteens, needles, rags, etc used by the actors to try and save Wade. All the actors are still in their greenish, dusty army uniforms and have dirty faces to resemble how long they’ve been out at war. The sound in the scene mainly is overtaking of the other soldiers and Wade gurgling on his own blood. The camera angles lets the audience see and experience what the other soldiers are feeling and sensing. The angles that were mostly used in the scene were close ups, medium close ups, medium shots. The camera also shakes a little bit to represent one of soldiers shaking in fear seeing Wade in that state of condition.

There are many other great camera shots, angles, props, sounds, etc within the movie to let the audience experience the war effect as well. The way this movie was set up and directed perfectly showed what could of happened in the war. This movie is one of the many great war films that shows how awful World War II was and what many soldiers had to experience during the war.

 

 

Works Cited

Barsam, Richard Meran., and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. 5th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. Print.

Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Prod. Steven Spielberg. By Robert Rodat. Perf. Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, and Tom Sizemore. DreamWorks Pictures, 1998. DVD. Web.

“Saving Private Ryan.” IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.