On the 6th of June 1945, hundreds of American troops stormed Omaha beach in northern France in an effort to Re-Invade France, which was currently occupied by Nazi forces. As the troops ascended the beach they were brutally slaughtered by nazi forces in a concrete machine gun placement. In 1998 Stephen Spielberg, director and producer portrayed this gruesome and bloody battle in the award winning epic, Saving Private Ryan.
It won many prestigious awards including awards from Time Magazine, The Producers Guild Of America and British Motion Pictures for his cinematography, sound, film, and special effects editing. In the first scene it pans in on the American flag blowing in the wind. It is also accompanied by bugle music. It portrays the flag as very patriotic and proud.
You also see a family with the eldest member walking ahead of the group. He eventually walks into a field with perfectly cut grass. An establishing shot of the field shows rows and rows of adjacent graves. Most are Christian but some are Jewish.
The endless rows of graves establish that there is a lot of death in the film. Also, the bugle music changes to soft violin. The elderly man walks up to one particular grave and collapses in an upset state. This shows that the particular grave has significance to the film.
The camera zooms in to an extreme close up (ECU) of the mans eyes and you can hear the non-diagetic sound of waves crashing in the distance. The non-diagetic sound of waves crashing while focused on the mans eyes give the effect that the waves are his memories or thoughts. It switches scene to a beach in northern France with large cross defenders on the beach. It goes to show an amphibious vehicle full of soldiers.
The cold dark atmosphere makes the viewer uneasy and distressed. The camera ECU’s onto one particular soldiers hand. He is trying to drink from his flask but is having trouble due to him trembling. It also shows men vomiting and making religious gestures. This gives the impression that they are consumed by fear. The driver of the boat signals that they will be landing soon.
Actor, Tom Hanks who plays one of the lead roles in the film, starts shouting orders at the soldiers. This gives the impression that he has a high authority among the troops. Overall there is a sense of extreme fear among the men. As the craft door opens, a hail of bullets being emitted from a concrete machine gun emplacement slaughters the soldiers.
As the soldiers the heap of bodies left behind on the boat shows exit from the landing craft the actual extent of the killing. The surviving soldiers fall out of the side of the boat. A blue filter is used to help the viewer see more clearly what is happening underwater and to give the soldiers a silhouette effect. Special effects editing shows streams of bullets shooting through the water and killing soldiers.
This shows that there is nowhere safe from the machinegun turret. Also soldiers are drowning from panic where they get tangled in their straps. As the men ascend the beach you can see that the surf is a potent red colour from blood. This is another indicator of killing extent. Bombs are being fired from the hills onto the beach.
One in particular ignites something flammable and starts a fire. Prosthetic limbs are used as a special effect to show the damage of the explosives. They are used quite often and begin to lose their shocking impact towards the end of the scene. One of the bombs lands near Tom Hanks and temporarily deafens him.
This gives a temporary moment of silence. This gives the effect of almost giving the viewer a break from the noise of the film. Also, it gives you a few moments to establish what is happening in the scene. In the silence it shows a lot of Tom’s commerades being slaughtered in an effort to get to the top of the beach. My conclusion is that this film was produced in a way that shows war as a terrible thing. Other pre-Vietnam films E.
G The Longest Day perceives war as a good thing. This film perceives war as a terrible thing and shows the massive loss of life in war.